FAQs

We want to make neighbourhoods safer, more accessible places for residents, businesses and visitors, whether they walk, use public transport, cycle or drive.  

east Bristol, like the rest of the city more generally, is growing with the upcoming West of England Spatial Development Strategy and Bristol Local Plan setting out the number of new homes to be provided over the next 20 years.  

We need to support and accommodate this future growth as sustainably as possible, while also mitigating the impact motorised traffic has on residential neighbourhoods and busy high streets.   

Encouraging and enabling more people to use sustainable forms of transport, particularly walking and cycling, helps ease pressure on our public transport and road systems, which are often operating at capacity.  

It reduces road danger and improves personal mobility and public health. Walking and cycling are also the two cheapest forms of transport and are therefore accessible and inclusive to the broadest range of people in society.  

In the One-City Plan, Bristol committed to becoming carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2030. Evidence from other authorities across England has shown that Liveable Neighbourhoods are an effective tool for replacing short car trips with walking and cycling journeys. Improving active and sustainable travel is a key component in how Bristol can achieve its aim of becoming carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2030. 

A Liveable Neighbourhood is made up of residential streets bounded by main roads, which are more suitable for carrying traffic, such as HGVs, buses and all other traffic that is traveling through an area. 

Measures are put in place to stop people using residential streets to cut through the area, moving them back onto main roads, which are designed to handle greater volumes of vehicle traffic.  

Have a look at the Design Toolkit to see what measures can be used and where. 

Evidence shows that Liveable Neighbourhoods lead to a reduction in private car ownership, which is linked to a reduction of traffic-related pollutants. 

Walking and cycling more are shown to decrease rates of asthma, depression, diabetes and increase life expectancy. 

The whole area will be accessible by emergency services although some routes may change depending on the location of modal filters.  

Emergency services can use the trial’s bus gates, which use camera enforcement.  

The team will continue to engage with emergency services on the detailed design of the scheme and will take all feedback seriously.  

The concept of Liveable Neighbourhoods is of sustainable, pollution-free cities, where all residents - no matter their ability, gender or age - feel safe to walk and cycle, and where amenities and public transport are within a short walking distance. 

In these cities people wouldn't need to drive a car to commute, shop or drop children at school. 

They could be a means to contribute to climate strategies. 

The east Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood has been selected as the first pilot area for several reasons.  

Funding was made available from the West of England Combined Authority to develop schemes within the sub-regional Local Walking and Cycling Investment Plans. This identifies a cycling route, the Wesley Way parallel to Church Road as a priority for investment.   

The east Bristol project area covers a diverse area of Bristol, which will provide the opportunity to pilot different methods of engagement, which could inform how similar projects are introduced in the future.   

The project area is within a short walking and cycling distance of the city centre, which makes walking, cycling and scootering a realistic option for commuting journeys.  

The area is near to major developments, such as Temple Island and the new University of Bristol campus. These developments are likely to attract more car journeys, which cannot be accommodated by the transport network.  

The project area is close to the boundary for the Clean Air Zone, which launched in November 2022. Concerns have been raised that additional vehicles may cut through the area to avoid the charges, which will increase the transport issues that have already been reported to us. 

The project area is close to walking and cycling routes, such as the Bristol to Bath Railway Path and the River Avon Trail, which are often very busy at peak times. Improving alternative routes can help alleviate this pressure. 

The trial will include measures such as modal filters, bus gates and pocket parks – these are physical measures preventing through-traffic from passing through certain residential streets but allowing cycles, scooters and other active modes of transport to pass through.  

On the sites of these modal filters, there will be trees, planters, benches, road art and other public realm improvements.  

Some changes to existing one and two-way traffic systems in the area will also be made.  

For the locations and descriptions of each of the measures, please see the trial map.

All addresses within the area will be accessible by car, although your route may change because of the modal filters, pocket parks and bus gates. Check the trial scheme map more for more information. 

Check a video showing how the trial scheme will work.

If you are walking, cycling, taking the bus or train, your journeys will not change and should become more pleasant. 

We will not be using cameras to enforce the modal filters on the roads during the trial scheme. Instead, we will be using planters and bollards in the road. The only location where we would use cameras is at the proposed bus gates. 

If residents were exempt from all the point closures it could undermine how effective the scheme is as people would still be likely to drive for short trips. As the proposed scheme is a considerable amount of change for the area, we are trialling the measures first to understand how the scheme works. 

We have engaged with the community across two rounds of engagement: co-discover (to find out the strengths and challenges of the area) and co-develop (where local people were asked to propose measures on a map of the area). We then held a statutory consultation before the trial scheme measures were approved in March 2024. 

You can read more about engagement here. 

We are monitoring traffic, walking and cycling levels, bus journey times and air quality across the area. We will also re-engage with the community six months after the trial scheme has been installed. 

Find out more in our monitoring strategy. 

Authorised vehicles that will be able to travel through the bus gates in the trial area include: 

Evidence shows that reallocating road space from cars to active travel modes tends to reduce car use in the long-term. 

While there may be some immediate and temporary displacement of traffic to other areas, there is likely to be an overall reduction in traffic and increase in active travel in the long-term. An increase in active travel is seen as an essential step to improving air pollution across urban areas such as Bristol. 

We have already installed additional air pollution monitoring sites in the area, so we have extensive baseline air pollution data for 2022. These monitoring sites will stay in place throughout the trial to monitor impacts on air pollution. In addition, we will be installing monitoring equipment to track changes in walking, cycling and traffic levels in preparation for the trial scheme. This will help us understand the impact of the scheme and whether there are any significant changes. 

No, you can still access the whole area by car although your route may change. 

New access routes will not divert people through the Clean Air Zone. 

You can check where the Clean Air Zone covers on the Clean Air Zones map.

No, we are not introducing any restrictions on driving or including any parking fees. 

The trial scheme would see the introduction of several modal filters. This will mean that your driving routes may change, but it will not stop you accessing any of the area by car. 

Return to the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood homepage.