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news
London cyclist in traffic (picture copyright Simon MacMichael).PNGStudy finds London's most congested roads AREN'T on cycle routes
London is the second most congested city in Europe, and the seventh most prone to traffic jams worldwide according to a major study – but contrary to what opponents of cycling infrastructure might have you believe, none of the five roads most prone to congestion in the city is on a major cycle route.
Conducted by the traffic data firm INRIX, the study analysed data from more than 300 million connected vehicles in 1,360 towns and cities – 111 of them in the United Kingdom – in 38 countries around the globe.
Los Angeles emerged as the worst city in the world for congestion, with London seventh, and Thailand as the worst country, with the UK ranked tenth.
Motorists in London spent an average of 74 peak travelling hours a year in congestion, at a cost to the driver in terms of lost hours and fuel of £2,430 and costing the city a total of £9.5 billion.
Last month, without citing evidence, the Labour peer Lord Winston repeated his claim that introducing segregated cycling infrastructure led to increased levels of pollution because it led to more congestion for the capital’s drivers.
> Labour peer Lord Winston repeats claim that cycle lanes cause pollution
However, the INRIX data show that the most congested streets in London do not have major cycle routes on them.
Those are, in order:
the A406 North Circular Road from Chiswick Roundabout to Hangar Lane
the A23 from Kennington Park via Brixton and Streatham to Norbury Station
the A200/14 from Russell Square to New Fetter Lane
Earls Court Road from Kensington High Street to the Fulham Road and
the North Circular Road from Finchley Road to Colney Hatch Lane.
Commenting on the report, Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns and advocacy at the charity Cycling UK, told road.cc: “The INRIX report always makes for interesting reading, because INRIX rely on data rather that anecdote.
“That data shows that of the five most congested roads in London, none is on a major cycle route, which does perhaps challenge the myth repeatedly put forward by some peers and public figures that it is cycle lanes that cause congestion.
“They might wish to reflect that the UK is the third most congested country in Europe, with only Russia and Turkey faring worse, neither of which are famed for their cycle lanes.
“Unsurprisingly, it seems that those countries more renowned for their cycle infrastructure are less congested, but who needs facts and evidence when a counter-narrative fits.”
He added: “Given the cost and scale of the congestion problems this report lays bare, it would be helpful if there was now an evidence led discussion about the causes of congestion, and the potential solutions, such as getting people out of private cars in city centres and onto public transport, walking and cycling.”
After London, the most congested cities in the UK were found to be Manchester, Birmingham, Luton and Edinburgh, according to the INRIX data.
Dr Graham Cookson, chief economist at INRIX, said: “Combined with the rising price of motoring, the cost of congestion is astonishing – it takes billions out of the economy and impacts businesses and individuals alike.
“With the Office of National Statistics showing more cars on the road than ever before, we need to consider innovative new approaches to solving the issue.
“Increased flexible working or road charges have potential, however, transport authorities should be looking to exciting developments in data analytics and AI which promise to reinvent our approach to traffic management.”
You can find the full INRIX 2017 Traffic Scorecard here, with results able to be filtered by country.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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My understanding is that you have to sue for some crazy amount or you won't be taken seriously.
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That is class news. Super bikes and vision. Bet there will be no stand at the Taiwan bike show next year! Big luck to all the team
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Pretty clearly stated several times in the text that the issue was not related just to his son. And besides, everybody watching the races could see...
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18 comments
Nige Fromage said congestion will disappear following Brexthick. So not long to go everyone until OUR roads will be clear again.
According to the BBC news the government solution to this was more or improved roads!
When will the penny drop, less cars, more Cyclists, more motorcycles ( as not everyone is going to want to cycle), this would reduce congestion and free up road space.
But the tin box owners won't give up their personal space or the govenment departments refusal to take their heads out of the sand, despite the obvious solution to congestion problem.
74 peak travelling hours.
Now I appreciate that that will probably be an unrepresentative average.
But what sort of mentalist do you have to be to just give up, as dead time, 3 days of your daytime life per year to sit in traffic... Or hear that stat and not do something drastic to change your pissing away of days on your arse in a car.
some people like it. It’s a space to themselves.
It’s one of the things that made me rethink, when I used to drive between London and Southend and would sometimes spend 5 hours trying to get home, or have to abandon the drive to work. I used to sit in the car thinking ‘this is what being dead must be like’. I put up with it for a year, gave back the company car, sold my own and decided never to own a car again. I’ve never regretted it.
This data driven approach will never catch on
Not without at least a couple of graphs anyway
Nothing will change until we have politicians who think in terms of integrated transport policies that consider the combined use of all forms of transport rather than just cars or just trains etc.
Without even looking I could have told you that one of worst congested section of roads wasl Hanger lane to Chiswick.
Having driven it daily for a period when dragged to sort out a contract we had even at 7am it was a fecking nightmare at times. Coming back I'd simply do the extra 20miles around the M25 to get back on the A1.
Luton doesn't surprise me, people drive through it for East to West commuting and there's a ot of traffic goung to the airport. There was talk of a connecting road or even outer ring beyond the M25 but before the A14 to connect East of England to the M1 cutting past Stevenage and bypassing Luton.
When they eventually build the 20,000 homes West of Stevenage there wil be even more fucking mayhem around that area because like always it will be designed solely with the purpose of cars being the mainmode of transport and yet another chace to change how we do things will be passed up.
New towns like Cambourne were meant to be cycle friendly but have zero connection by bike to Cambridge only a few miles away so what happens, it's all cars and what happens, more fucking congestion
Wankers in charge are literally strangling the nation yet listen to crackpots spouting shite about cycle infra
It's not just new towns. I know someone who is currently working as director of an NHS trust, she has just been head-hunted for some gaga money by one of the big pharma companies (I'd better not say on open forum). They are so desperate to get her they've offered her two positions to choose from.
Their campus is outside Cambridge near the M11. After researching the area, she has reluctantly had to decline the offers because as a non-driver she can't actually get to their campus without a car.
It's nuts that we are building not just new housing estates but entire industries around car access only.
I use to live near Hangar Lane.
The only time I would get deliveries would be around 9pm at night. Though I once got a phone call and a courier asked if they could do a delivery early in the morning. They turned up at 5am.
Everyone who lives locally works out how to avoid using it completely or chooses their commuting times wisely.
Unfortunately that road and the surrounding 3-4 lane dual carriageways where built for motor vehicles and while they were going to widen Hangar Lane in the 90s - they compulsory purchased housing along the road to do so - the government and council finally saw sense.
There is no point widening roads in London as it just encourages more motorised traffic far better to encourage and force people to use alternative means. Lots of London boroughs make it a stipulation that residents of some new housing developments cannot have parking permits. This leaves either one parking space or no parking spaces per dwelling.
Technically, the argument that Lord Winston was putting forward was that cycling has increased congestion on routes with superhighways, by reducing capacity for cars. Unfortunately this data doesn't refute that anecdotal opinion because it doesn't show contrasting before/after figures, so the "I can reach a conclusion simply by looking out of the window" brigade won't be challenged by this report.
Actually it's increased capacity, like Winston you've ignored the increase in total traffic capacity, or are you suggesting like some others that bikes aren't traffic.
I agree it won't change the minds of those entrenched in their views but hopefully it will be a bit of data to sling back at the likes of Winston and black cab drivers and people in power actually look at the facts rather than a load of unfounded carp.
you have misunderstood what JeevesBath wrote.
This article claims that the Inrix report refutes Lord Winston’s assertion. It does not, and it is therefore not a ‘bit of data to sling back’ - any competent arguer would knock it for six with respect to Winston’s claims.
This does not mean that Lord Winston is correct, or that JeevesBath agrees with him.
No I haven't, Winston states capacity of cars when he means capacity of the road for vehicles (specifically motor vehicles), because otherwise that by definition means the capacity of HGVs, cabs, vans, buses etc is uneffected/not reduced by cycle lanes wouldn't it?
you have still misunderstood JeevesBath's argument, and in doing so you have twice mis-stated what Hansard records Winston as saying, and told us what you think he ought to have said, which is spectacularly pointless, yet strangely amusing.
The road.cc comments section in a nutshell
Spectacularly pointless vs Strangely amusing. Might actually be a correlation there for you, Graphy.
Haven't we "had enough of experts"?!
Well you can prove anything with facts