The Greater London Assembly Transport Committee is currently undertaking a “scrutiny” of traffic congestion in London. They have apparently become concerned about recent increases in congestion. For example they report the following:

– A reduction in traffic speed. On London’s A-roads, average speed fell from 16.3mph in July 2013 to 14.8mph in July 2015.

– Excess waiting times for buses have increased from an average of one minute in 2013/14 to 1.2 minutes in 2015/16

– Journey time reliability on the TfL Road Network (major roads) has fallen from 89 per cent in 2013/14 to 87 per cent in 2015/16.

Some of this increase has been blamed on the increase in the number of minicabs (private hire vehicles) from the rise of Uber and other similar booking systems.

But the removal of road space and such projects as the Cycle Superhighways are surely the main cause.

In brief we argue that the cause is lack of consideration to the impact on the road network of projects that damage it, the failure to develop a proper road network in London, and a simple failure to spend enough money on it.

Roger Lawson