London Gridlock - 'Congestion' Charge a failure?
Discussion
Looking on Google maps for a journey i will be doing later and i happened to select the 'show traffic' option.
This was at 12:30 ish today, so not during the morning or evening rush.
I was astounded - i have driven in london quite a lot and am no stranger to traffic but looking at it like this, as an overall view shocked me.
Should we ban all non commercial traffic in london during peak times? what is the answer?
is this image a shock to you? (for those that don't know, the red colours show slow/standstill traffic)
This was at 12:30 ish today, so not during the morning or evening rush.
I was astounded - i have driven in london quite a lot and am no stranger to traffic but looking at it like this, as an overall view shocked me.
Should we ban all non commercial traffic in london during peak times? what is the answer?
is this image a shock to you? (for those that don't know, the red colours show slow/standstill traffic)
Pixelpeep said:
what is the answer?
I don't think there is one. It's a densely populated city built upon an ancient street layout that was never designed with millions of cars in mind. Defeatist as it may sound, I think we just have to accept that London will always be a congested city for motorists.
Conscript said:
I don't think there is one. It's a densely populated city built upon an ancient street layout that was never designed with millions of cars in mind.
Defeatist as it may sound, I think we just have to accept that London will always be a congested city for motorists.
Yep.Defeatist as it may sound, I think we just have to accept that London will always be a congested city for motorists.
Conscript said:
I don't think there is one. It's a densely populated city built upon an ancient street layout that was never designed with millions of cars in mind.
Defeatist as it may sound, I think we just have to accept that London will always be a congested city for motorists.
Defeatist as it may sound, I think we just have to accept that London will always be a congested city for motorists.
Fortunately it has a pretty good public transport system (compared to other congested UK cities).I spend two or three days a week multidropping in London. I leave Bristol at 4:15am, and work in London between 6:15am and 10:30am. Any later than that, and it all goes to pot.
When there's nothing unusual going on, London's fine. On Tuesday this week, a Royal Mail artic broke down on Euston Road westbound outside the hotel at St Pancras. I'd delivered in Islington, and had to get from there to York Way, then Maida Vale. That took an hour longer than usual. The total journey is about 5 miles.
During the tube strikes, it was horrific.
I reckon london's almost at a tipping point. It wouldn't take much more to push it over the edge into real gridlock.
When there's nothing unusual going on, London's fine. On Tuesday this week, a Royal Mail artic broke down on Euston Road westbound outside the hotel at St Pancras. I'd delivered in Islington, and had to get from there to York Way, then Maida Vale. That took an hour longer than usual. The total journey is about 5 miles.
During the tube strikes, it was horrific.
I reckon london's almost at a tipping point. It wouldn't take much more to push it over the edge into real gridlock.
I would also take the live traffic shown on google maps with a pinch of salt as often it looks much worse on paper than in reality, not to say that traffic in London can be a nightmare.
Having said that for the size of the population and the layout and capacity of its roads I don't think that its too bad compared to other cities around the world where the roads are much larger in capacity but seem to have worse gridlock than London e.g. Jakarta.
I find that traffic in London is also worse on the outskirts e.g. the M25 as people are more likely to use their car than people living in central London who would just hop on the tube or bus or even cycle.
Having said that for the size of the population and the layout and capacity of its roads I don't think that its too bad compared to other cities around the world where the roads are much larger in capacity but seem to have worse gridlock than London e.g. Jakarta.
I find that traffic in London is also worse on the outskirts e.g. the M25 as people are more likely to use their car than people living in central London who would just hop on the tube or bus or even cycle.
When I cycle past all the cars stuck in traffic on my daily London commute all I see is car after car after car with one person in it. If only there was a way of fewer cars on the road easing congestion for all (including the remaining cars)......
Edited by 0markymark0 on Tuesday 20th May 14:33
Conscript said:
Pixelpeep said:
what is the answer?
I don't think there is one. It's a densely populated city built upon an ancient street layout that was never designed with millions of cars in mind. Defeatist as it may sound, I think we just have to accept that London will always be a congested city for motorists.
Dave Hedgehog said:
Conscript said:
Pixelpeep said:
what is the answer?
I don't think there is one. It's a densely populated city built upon an ancient street layout that was never designed with millions of cars in mind. Defeatist as it may sound, I think we just have to accept that London will always be a congested city for motorists.
Also, businesses need to be doing more - they know where all their employees live, maybe they could route plan for them? give them some extra money to cover additional expenses ?
Gassing Station | Roads | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff