From the report on roadworks mentioned in the previous post, we get some facts on what actually causes congestion on the roads:
3.1 London has around 20 per cent of the UK’s traffic congestion. This is estimated to cost the Capital’s economy at least £2 billion a year. In 2009/2010, TfL recorded the main causes of congestion as:
- Collisions 28 per cent
- Vehicle breakdowns 9 per cent
- Highway Authority Works 19 per cent
- Utility Works 19 per cent
- Special Events 4 per cent
Other issues (e.g. spillages, general volume of traffic etc) 21 per cent
3.2 Roadworks therefore account for 38 per cent of the duration of the most seriousand severe disruption across London. A conservative estimate of the total cost of disruption from this work is £752 million.
Or in other words it’s not the bendy buses holding up the traffic, it’s car drivers bashing into each other. Another myth up in smoke.
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Well what do you expect – with all the commonwealth licenses around (yes, you can pay a man in Kenya a few hundred shillings and get you license which gives you the freedom to drive on the roads here) and the poor road markings and confusing signs – on top of that you have idiot frustrated drivers who spend a lot of time texting while driving or thrashing the cars between lights (well I mean when you have splashed out 120k on a Porsche then driving it round London at the average 8 mph isn’t really what you had in mind.
It’s quite surprising that breakdowns only contribute to 9% – I’m always seeing cars broken down causing congestion – right outside the newspaper shop!!
Reassuring to see you maintaining your usual high standards here. Bendy bus routes represent only a tiny fraction of London’s roads. These statistics, presumably, cover all of London. I think it’s safe to presume that buses don’t cause congestion on roads where they don’t operate. Good work!
Let’s see your percentages for causes of congestion on the Uxbridge Road — not that we need numbers to demonstrate what everybody knows already.
Did these figures include the M25?
Is there any information on what causes those collisions, or where those collisions occur?
I suspect that most occur close to traffic lights as drivers assume that a green light means it is safe to drive without looking to the side, or stop, when the car behind expected them to continue. In addition, you have the pedestrian who assumes that the driver will stop at a red light or flashing amber… and ends up dead…