New figures published by Transport for London (TfL) show that traffic in the capital has increased over the last year, while journey reliability times have decreased.
This is potentially bad news for London's bus users (who, it turns out, get the cheapest commute), but TfL's figures show fewer bus journeys for 2014 to date than the same period in 2013. It also notes that services were disrupted by improvements to roads and bridges. Green Party AM Darren Johnson said:
“Bigger traffic jams and longer delays is the exact opposite of what the Mayor promised Londoners. But it is the inevitable consequence of high fares and giving priority to cars. The Mayor has tried changing the traffic signals to speed up the traffic, but in the long term this has the opposite effect, simply encouraging more cars to join the traffic queues. What we need are positive initiatives that get people out of their cars and encourage public transport, bikes and walking.”
At least some of those initiatives appear to be working. The report says cycling in London continues to grow rapidly, with the highest levels of cycling during July and August this year which is 20% up on the same period last year. Meanwhile, traffic flow figures from the London Datastore show a decrease in car journeys, with a total of 25,661 in 2003 and 22,752 in 2013.
Last week, the GLA Conservatives called for traffic lights to be switched off overnight to improve traffic flow, reduce congestion and potentially save £40m by 2020.
Photo by Ben Geach in the Londonist Flickr pool.
