UK tops list of most traffic-congested EU cities

[davieG]

British roads are the most congested in Europe, a study of traffic in more than 100 EU cities suggests.

Data company Inrix monitored traffic on every road in 123 cities, including London, Cardiff, Paris and Hamburg.

It found more than 20,300 so-called "traffic hotspots" in UK cities - well over double the number in Germany and twice that of France.

The government recently pledged to spend an extra £1.3bn on targeting congestion on roads.

In Inrix's analysis, a road becomes a "traffic hotspot" once congestion forces drivers to drop their speed by 65% for at least two minutes.

Inrix collected traffic information from car sat-navs, mobile phones and road sensors throughout September 2016.

It covered individual cities with populations of 250,000 or more, rather than whole countries, but found pinch points in:

UK: 21 cities with 20,375 traffic hotspots

Germany: 27 cities with 8,517 traffic hotspots

Italy: 12 cities with 5,069 traffic hotspots

France: nine cities with 1,844 traffic hotspots

Spain: 16 cities with 2,335 traffic hotspots

Researchers suggested that the worst stretch of road overall is Junction 29 of Hamburg's A7 motorway in Germany.

In the UK, drivers on the M25 or the A720 Edinburgh bypass are those most likely to reach gridlock.

"It's the unfortunate reality of a densely populated and global city," said Graham Cookson, Inrix's chief economist, author of the research.

"A quarter of a million of us drive on the M25 every day."

Ten UK cities with congestion, and their worst "hotspots"

London: M25 northbound between junctions 15 and 16

Edinburgh: A720 westbound Edinburgh Bypass at Dreghorn Barracks

Glasgow: Eastbound junction of the A8 Glasgow and Edinburgh Road with the M8

Birmingham: Northbound junction of the A38 (M) with the M6

Manchester: M60 northbound at junction 1 for the A6 Stockport

Bristol: M5 southbound at junction 20 for Clevedon

Leeds: Westbound M62 junction 26 with M606 junction 1

Cardiff: A48 westbound at Riverside Park

Bradford: From the A650 in the city centre to the A6038 Otley Road

Belfast: A12 eastbound at the junction with the M2 and M3

Source: Inrix

But there is hope for drivers dreading the commute from hell, Mr Cookson adds.

An extra £1.3bn will be spent on improving Britain's roads, the Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in the Autumn Statement on 23 November.

The roads investment will include £220m to tackle "pinch-points" on Highways England roads.

"Money is coming in for the first time in a while, hopefully this will be used to alleviate the worst areas," Mr Cookson said.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the government was investing "record amounts" into improving roads.

"This investment is over and above the £23bn we are spending to get motorists to their destinations quickly, more easily and safely," he said.

He said the government schemes that have been announced were "focused on relieving congestion and providing important upgrades to ensure our roads are fit for the future".

[Barky]

Could have told you this. It's as clear as day. Our road network is almost third world and other forms of transport aren't much better. It's high time the government pulled their finger out, stop making excuses and actually deliver some infrastructure. 

[Innovindil]

Keep adding and adding to the population and this is what you get. Most roads were designed around a specific population, now every pub that closes or piece of land that goes up for sale gets turned into a block of flats. 

 

It's okay yelling "spend money on the infrastructure!" until you realise that only fixes main roadways and everywhere else will still be buggered. 

[Izzy]

51 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Keep adding and adding to the population and this is what you get. Most roads were designed around a specific population, now every pub that closes or piece of land that goes up for sale gets turned into a block of flats. 

 

It's okay yelling "spend money on the infrastructure!" until you realise that only fixes main roadways and everywhere else will still be buggered. 

Indeed. We're a small and yet hugely overcrowded island. There's just too many cars on the road. It's fooking chaos out there and with advances in modern technology, more companies should be encouraging people to work from home imo. There must be millions of people driving around every day to meetings that could just as easily be done from home via Skype/Google hangout etc. Would save people time, money and stress (and obviously less traffic on the roads) but too many businesses are still operating like it's the 1980's.  

[davieG]

Online shopping hasn't helped.

[Izzy]

13 minutes ago, davieG said:

Online shopping hasn't helped.

That's a really good point. I'm expecting three separate deliveries from different couriers today. And then Tesco's will deliver my food shopping this evening. So it's all my fault. Sorry 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

More roads are needed. Enough of this "more roads = more traffic" bollocks. More roads = less fvcking traffic becasue there's more options to get places. In my world every major road would have the exact same road built on top of it on stilts, instantly doubling capacity. 

Sorted. 

[Wymsey]

Leicester must be, outside London, one of the top congested cities, appears most areas of town and city outskirts are busy and poor road layout. Hate going around the area where the big Holiday Inn is, the worst part of it all. Doesn't help with Soulsby wanting more cycle-kind spaces in already busy areas.

[Izzy]

5 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

More roads are needed. Enough of this "more roads = more traffic" bollocks. More roads = less fvcking traffic becasue there's more options to get places. In my world every major road would have the exact same road built on top of it on stilts, instantly doubling capacity. 

Sorted. 

Fvckin obvious really. Sol the wall Bamba for Transport Minister I say 

[Barky]

42 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

IndeThridsre'se're a small and yet h y overcrowded island. Therim's juthst too many cars on the road. It's fooking chaos out there and with advances in modern technology, more companies should be encouraging people to work from home imo. There must be millions of people driving around every day to meetings that could just as easily be done from home via Skype/Google hangout etc. Would save people time, money and stress (and obviously less traffic on the roads) but too many businesses are still operating like it's the 1980's.  

Were not hugely overcrowded, It just seems that way because the roads are so shit. Agree that people could do more online but Im sick of these excuses. If Its not the environment Its something else. Theyre just excuses for the government not to spend our money on things we actually need. Tgeres towns that are becoming basically cut off now because of traffic, the people In them can barely get to work. Saving mobey on roads Is a massive false economy

 

Sirry for spelling and grammer this old phone IS ridiculous at typing

 

[Sharpe's Fox]

Me and @Barky had a debate on this in the Autumn Statement thread so i'll not go into loads of detail but continuous road building does not ease congestion in the long term. New roads creates new users which creates new demand, this was established in the SACTRA Report decades ago. The solution is getting freight off the road and improving cycling infrastructure and public transport in cities, and the barrier to doing that is our own regressive culture around transport.

[Fox92]

Some road layouts are weird. Loads of one way systems that should just be normal roads.

[Barky]

29 minutes ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Me and @Barky had a debate on this in the Autumn Statement thread so i'll not go into loads of detail but continuous road building does not ease congestion in the long term. New roads creates new users which creates new demand, this was established in the SACTRA Report decades ago. The solution is getting freight off the road and improving cycling infrastructure and public transport in cities, and the barrier to doing that is our own regressive culture around transport.

This Is what they teach In the universities, meanwhile In the real world...

[Sharpe's Fox]

9 minutes ago, Barky said:

This Is what they teach In the universities, meanwhile In the real world...

...you take your gut feeling as the right solution while ignoring decades of evidence as well as basic good practice in transport planning?

[Steve_Walsh5]

Make public transport cheaper to try and reduce the amount of cars on the road. 

 

If I needed to go London on Friday for instance train prices would be about £90. Why would I pay that when it would cost me £20 in fuel and another £10 or less to park in a car park. 

 

Busses as well they are around £5 a day return, they aren't reliable enough and then you might end up sitting next to some chav who thinks it's cool to smoke on there.

[Fox92]

3 minutes ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

Make public transport cheaper to try and reduce the amount of cars on the road. 

 

If I needed to go London on Friday for instance train prices would be about £90. Why would I pay that when it would cost me £20 in fuel and another £10 or less to park in a car park. 

 

Busses as well they are around £5 a day return, they aren't reliable enough and then you might end up sitting next to some chav who thinks it's cool to smoke on there.

Public transport in this Country is appalling for the price they charge.

[leicsmac]

25 minutes ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

...you take your gut feeling as the right solution while ignoring decades of evidence as well as basic good practice in transport planning?

Gotta love some classic anti intellectualism, eh?

 

On topic, if South Korea, a country of similar size and population to our own, can produce a public transport system that puts most of the world to shame then why can't we?

 

Of course, our leader of government hasn't been revealed to be engaging in cultist activities...yet, at any rate.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

2 hours ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

Fvckin obvious really. Sol the wall Bamba for Transport Minister I say 

It's all about simple solutions for simple problems I say! 

[davieG]

Perhaps some of these for our motorways and dual carriage ways, could be developed to transport containers down main road routes.

 

China Unveils Elevated Bus That Passes Over Cars on the Highway

Posted on May 24, 2016

 

[Barky]

44 minutes ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

...you take your gut feeling as the right solution while ignoring decades of evidence as well as basic good practice in transport planning?

Decades of evidence and basic good practice that has lead to us having the worst traffic problems in europe. Forgive me for ignoring the academics on this one.

[foxy boxing]

not in the least bit surprising. the roads and highways need regular and targeted investment for a considerable number of years with the number of homes being built in Britain now and most of the major cities are now reaching or beyond capacity

[midland_red]

There is a bit of post-factism in this thread which needs to be cleaned up with some good old-fashioned facts..

The fact that building roads can never solve congestion as they merely stimulate more traffic was demonstrated as far back as 1994 in the report of the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment. You can download a free copy here - http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/economics/rdg/nataarchivedocs/trunkroadstraffic.pdf

Just one example is the widening of the M25 between junctions 9 and 10 to four lanes. It upped road capacity by 33 per cent, but just one year later, traffic was up by 36 per cent. All the gains of that expensively-built additional road space had been lost meaning the money was essentially wasted

In sum therefore, the state of the roads is caused directly by
1) poor and sustained investment in public transport by successive governments, in contrast to what happens in say Germany or Holland
2) the growth of out of town shopping and business parks which pretty much force car based commuting. The planning system has completely failed to prevent this.
3) refusal of Government to act to curb congestion by partnering point 1) with area wide congestion charging. In London this led to a huge shift from cars to public transport

[Webbo]

4 minutes ago, midland_red said:

There is a bit of post-factism in this thread which needs to be cleaned up with some good old-fashioned facts..

The fact that building roads can never solve congestion as they merely stimulate more traffic was demonstrated as far back as 1994 in the report of the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment. You can download a free copy here - http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/economics/rdg/nataarchivedocs/trunkroadstraffic.pdf

Just one example is the widening of the M25 between junctions 9 and 10 to four lanes. It upped road capacity by 33 per cent, but just one year later, traffic was up by 36 per cent. All the gains of that expensively-built additional road space had been lost meaning the money was essentially wasted

In sum therefore, the state of the roads is caused directly by
1) poor and sustained investment in public transport by successive governments, in contrast to what happens in say Germany or Holland
2) the growth of out of town shopping and business parks which pretty much force car based commuting. The planning system has completely failed to prevent this.
3) refusal of Government to act to curb congestion by partnering point 1) with area wide congestion charging. In London this led to a huge shift from cars to public transport
 

Is that true or is it that the roads are built in anticipation of more traffic and that's what happens? Or once roads are capable of taking more traffic people change their route to take advantage of the improved roads?

[Barky]

3 minutes ago, midland_red said:

There is a bit of post-factism in this thread which needs to be cleaned up with some good old-fashioned facts..

The fact that building roads can never solve congestion as they merely stimulate more traffic was demonstrated as far back as 1994 in the report of the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment. You can download a free copy here - http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/economics/rdg/nataarchivedocs/trunkroadstraffic.pdf

Just one example is the widening of the M25 between junctions 9 and 10 to four lanes. It upped road capacity by 33 per cent, but just one year later, traffic was up by 36 per cent. All the gains of that expensively-built additional road space had been lost meaning the money was essentially wasted

In sum therefore, the state of the roads is caused directly by
1) poor and sustained investment in public transport by successive governments, in contrast to what happens in say Germany or Holland
2) the growth of out of town shopping and business parks which pretty much force car based commuting. The planning system has completely failed to prevent this.
 

Of course if you build a better road more people are going to use it. The extra cars haven't appeared from nowhere though, they're people who were previously using other roads but decide to use the new one because it's better. That takes pressure off the roads they were previously using, improving traffic in the area, so it's not money wasted at all imo.

 

That report is over 20 years old and seems to have been used as an excuse not to build roads for just as long, and now the chickens have come home to roost and we have the worst roads in Europe. Considering the USA and Australia have a lot more space and roads, and developed Asian countries take a more proactive approach to infrastructure, I think it's safe to say we don't just have the worst roads in Europe but also the worst roads in the entire developed world. Whichever way you look at it, that's a shambles. 

 

My my preference is obviously to build new roads, but I wouldn't even mind so much if they put serious money into improving other forms of transport, but the fact is that they've done neither; they've used various excuses not to build roads but done nothing instead, and that's left us in a complete mess. 

[midland_red]

34 minutes ago, Barky said:

Of course if you build a better road more people are going to use it. The extra cars haven't appeared from nowhere though, they're people who were previously using other roads but decide to use the new one because it's better. That takes pressure off the roads they were previously using, improving traffic in the area, so it's not money wasted at all imo.

Nice idea Barky, but the facts do not substantiate it. As far ago as 1937, road engineers sampled traffic on the new London arterial roads. The new Great West Road, almost as soon as it opened, carried 4.5 times as much traffic as the old route. But Charles Bressey, the MoT's chief road engineers, noted that 'no diminution however occurred in the flow of traffic along the old route. and from day to this the number of vehicles on both has steadily increased.' So it was known - as far back as 1938 - that building roads generate traffic and so you cannot solve congestion that way.

Bressey's report - The Highway Development Survey, 1937 - was published by HMSO - Leicester Reference library may have a copy, the Unviersity of Leicester library certainly will if you want to follow this up.

If you're concerned about old data, you might want to check out the 2002 ORBIT study into the M25 here which produced more evidence that road building generates traffic http://abstracts.aetransport.org/paper/index/id/1591/confid/9