Traffic

Transport is approaching a state of crisis in West London. As the roads get ever busier, congestion increases and it takes longer to get anywhere. So in one very real sense, we are becoming worse off and our standard of living is declining.

This increase in traffic continues to main and kill. It poisons the air we breathe. Road traffic ruins our towns and our countryside. And the emissions are the fastest-rising contributor to global warming. So all this traffic is bad for our health, our safety and our environment, as well as failing in its presumed objective - to get us quickly and efficiently to where we need to go.

Quote from Vivienne Dovi, aged 10, Croydon "I have to to get across the road every day and it is very dangerous. The traffic never stops coming. The cars come from lots of directions and sometimes you don't know which way they are going to turn. I have nearly got run over because of it."

So what do can we do about the traffic crisis?

Traffic

There is no doubt as to the basic problem. There are simply too many cars on the road. Unless and until this is recognised and until determined action is taken to address the problem, the impending transport crisis cannot be resolved.

It is the case that other forms of road traffic - lorries, buses and even bicycles - can cause local problems and can contribute to congestion. But the sheer number of cars and the year-on-year increase means that they are the main problem. There is more than enough capacity on our roads for all present buses, lorries, vans and bicycles and for any likely increase.

For goods and for delivery of services, there is no practical alternative to the use of lorries and vans. But for personal transport, there are practical and realistic alternatives to cars. While there are circumstances where cars are the only realistic options, the majority of travel by car could be replaced by:

• walking,
• cycling, or
• public transport

Road building and widening to cater for more traffic has been tried time and time again and isn't the answer. The government's own studies have shown that road-building generates more traffic. So new and widened roads simply fill up with traffic. Sections of the M25 widened in the 1990s filled up again within a few years.

It is now accepted (at least in private) by many people that building and widening roads simply generates more traffic. By the same token, one might expect that taking away road space will reduce traffic. This does in fact happen, as studies clearly shown:

"Reallocating roadspace from general traffic, to improve conditions for pedestrians or cyclists or buses or on-street light rail or other high-occupancy vehicles, is often predicted to cause major traffic problems on neighbouring streets. This paper reports on two phases of research, resulting in the examination of over 70 case studies of roadspace reallocation from eleven countries, and the collation of opinions from over 200 transport professionals worldwide. The findings suggest that predictions of traffic problems are often unnecessarily alarmist, and that, given appropriate local circumstances, significant reductions in overall traffic levels can occur .." (Research study by S. Cairns, S. Atkins and P.Goodwin; commissioned by London Transport and the Department of the Environment; published in Municipal Engineer 151, March 2002, Issue 1 Pages 13-22.

A classic example occurred in West London. When Hammersmith Bridge was closed to cars, dire forecasts were made about how traffic would just divert to other streets and crossings and cause huge problems. In fact, none of these dire predictions came about. All that happened that buses were quicker and more reliable! See Hammersmith Bridge page (archived page).

Unfortunately, the logic of traffic evaporation and the evidence for it are ignored or denied by the 'car lobby'. Whenever some constraint in road space is suggested, they predict disaster as traffic is diverted onto other streets. For example, 'Save Ealings' Streets campaign against the West London tram is predicated on the assumption that if cars cannot drive on the Uxbridge Road they will all divert down residential streets. (They also deny that some car trips will be transferred to tram, despite ample evidence from Croydon and elsewhere.)

More on traffic and transport

Transport 2000, the national environmental transport campaign works hard on these issues and its views align with FOE's. See T2000 article for more on traffic and transport issues.

Links

Updated Nov 05