in case anyone doesn’t think increased property prices are seen as a benefit by some supporters of LTNs
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I doubt that anyone who supports the idea of LTNs would try and deny that they might affect nearby property prices. If you think they are something that gives people a better living environment then it would follow that that environment will become more desirable to people.
Is the fact that something might affect house prices a reason to argue against it? Or is it fair to then imply that the only reason anyone would support it would be out of self interest? Would the same apply to investment in a local school or park? Should improvements to common goods like school facilities be opposed or subject to automatic suspicion as soon as it turns out that some of the people promoting them own their houses? Or indeed, if it turns out that no-one actively promoting them has anything to gain in terms of property prices but someone somewhere might?
That article is from 2013 - a little while ago. One thing I think I've noticed, is that not that long ago, wealthier home owners were considered one of the main obstacles to getting these kinds of schemes through. Because they tend to own cars and object to things that makes it less convenient for them to use or park those cars. So, previously, people trying to promote these schemes, I think, though it was these people they had to persuade. Maybe a mention of house prices was part of that. More recently things seem to have changed somewhat, with the gentrification angle coming to the fore. As it happens, I reckon the wealthy car owners are still a big part of the problem, and they have rather cynically cottoned on to the fact that if they can portray this as something that's an attack on the freedom of social housing residents, or that is going to cause traffic mayhem and substantially increased pollution on streets where the less wealthy live, then that gains a lot of traction and is very twitter-friendly. You just need a bit of misinformation, some context-free videos of traffic getting jammed up in a street in the early period after changes are made, and some banners about divided communities. They are always terribly concerned about the pollution and the danger to children, and yes we really do need to do something about this, it's just that this LTN where they live isn't right (probably other LTNs elsewhere might be OK, it's just the one that affects them that hasn't been designed right, and there hasn't been transparent consultation), and we should be doing something else instead, something that they can't define in any detail, other than that it's not this.
But anyway, getting back to Van Gogh Walk, I wonder if anyone on this thread is willing to say that it should be torn up and reverted to provide that previously existing through-access? Because it must, according to the logic of the main arguments against the LTNs, be concentrating traffic and pollution onto nearby main roads, traffic and pollution which would be better dispersed throughout the residential streets. And, that blog post suggests it might have benefitted local property owners, and that unfair benefit could be taken back from them if the local changes were reversed. Anyone want to put their name down in support of a reversal of the Van Gogh Walk scheme?