What To Do When Your 'Research' Doesn't Give You the Answer You Want?

The UK's current Prime Minister (PM) challenged the validity of England's Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs). He claimed he was minded to ban councils accessing the Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, used to penalise offending drivers. This was part of his current 'Plan for Drivers', where he hoped to attract votes by appealing to 'the poor, victimised motorist'. The government's Department of Transport (DoT) suggested that LTNs were part of the Fifteen Minute City agenda, hated by conspiracy theorists. Both the Fifteen Minute City and LTNs, of course, simply long-established modal filters, attempting to make cities more liveable. They reduce accidents, encourage walking/ cycling and improve air quality. Research on LTNs installed in 2020 in Birmingham; London; Wigan and York was conducted by the DoT. More than 1800 residents were questioned in an attempt to 'prove' LTNs were an unpopular restriction to 'freedoms' (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/08/low-traffic-neighbourhoods-generally-popular-report-ordered-by-sunak-finds). Fifty-eight percent of residents, when questioned, didn't even realise they lived in an LTN. Of the ones that did, however, twice as many approved their LTN compared to disapproving counterparts. The study also produced no evidence (as has been suggested) that LTNs simply diverted traffic onto nearby roads. Emergency vehicles were generally able to obtain access, when this was required (also suggested to be an issue). As one might predict, the DoT has been in no hurry to publish its findings. This isn't how evidence-led goverance is supposed to function. It's not even an approximation to science!