This content is out of date and scheduled to be removed.

Congestion is worse than ever – this is how can we fix it

Image of Alisdair Suttie
Author: | Updated: 19 Mar 2015 16:07

Silver linings and clouds are rarely ever separated.

So when recent figures showed UK car sales were up to their highest since the recession hit, there was always going to be a downside following in the wake of this news.

The cloud filling this silver lining is that congestion in the UK is now also at its worst in 10 years.

A recovering new car market has put congestion at a decade long high

It’s simple physics that more cars on the road equals more congestion. After all, Britain is an island, and one with a geography that doesn’t lend itself to endless road building as space is finite. There is also the difficulty in planning new roads, even if the government has committed to spending £15 billion on expanding the network over the coming five years.

Will that be enough money and new roads to keep up with increasing demand as more than 2 million new cars pour on to the roads every year? Even allowing for older cars dropping off the other end of this supply chain, the reality is the UK’s roads are becoming more clogged as cars last for longer, due to ever-improving build standards.

Clear signs

The Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) Director of Policy, Karen Dee, said of its own Quarterly Transport Activity Survey: “This is a clear indication that congestion on our roads has increased again, and drivers are getting stuck in traffic on a regular basis.

“As the economy grows, there will be increasing demands which will mean more pressure to deliver and more vehicles on the roads, so it is only going to get worse.”

In its findings, the FTA’s Survey reveals UK roads in 2015 are at their most congested since 2002 and reliability of road transport is languishing at 55%.

In part, this 55% figure is down to the amount of traffic on the roads during the recent Christmas period, but it is still a shock to find that almost half of all journeys in the UK by road encounter some form of congestion or delay.

Explanations and exceptions

Part of this can be explained by journey type, with many drivers typical weekly driving quota taken up with the commute to work, school run or driving into large conurbations where traffic jams are a given.

However, there are many billions of miles driven in the UK every year that do not include these more obvious delaying factors.

The result is a huge loss of revenue to the UK’s businesses, longer working hours for many drivers and frustrating hold-ups for virtually every motorist who wants to go further than the end of their road. If you live in some of the more congested parts of the UK, even that last consideration comes with the distinct possibility of getting stuck in a jam.

So, there are too many of us in cars trying to complete too many journeys. That’s the line taken by many, but the reality is most drivers have already pruned back their driving and wheedled out the unnecessary trips because the recession has meant money is tighter and fuel is a huge expense for most drivers.

Of course, fuel is cheaper at the moment than it has been in a long time, but these new frugal driving habits appear to have become ingrained and there has not been the upsurge in driving that some predicted would happen as fuel prices dropped. Instead, drivers seem to be keeping the money in their pockets.

Every motorist who wants to go further than the end of their road is likely to end up in a jam

Blame a lack of funding

Is the road network to blame for the rise in congestion, then, as the FTA reckons? To a large extent, yes, this is the case.

A chronic shortage of funding for road building over the past 20 years combined with misguided road management schemes that have swallowed up cash that could have been spent on proper infrastructure must shoulder much of the responsibility.

The £15 billion promised for road building over the coming five years is welcome, and required, but it is also a sticking plaster over a gaping wound. When the roads in Scotland alone require a multi-billion pound investment merely to bring them up to the standard they should all be at, it gives an idea of the massive scale of the problem.

No government is going to spend the amount needed to sort out every road in the UK so all stretches of tarmac are smoothly perfect. For starters, this would be a Sisyphean task as our weather means roads start to crumble almost as soon as they have been repaired. Add in the disruption such a grande projet would impose on drivers for years and you can see we’re kind of stuck with the approach we have.

However, this doesn’t mean things cannot be improved and life made better for drivers in the UK when it comes to congestion. Addressing some of the worst affected pinch points on the road network would be a good start. We all know where our local traffic jam hotspots are, so the first thing to do is create a map of the most congested roads in the UK.

With that map, it is then possible to tackle each hotspot. Rather than simply put in more traffic lights or change their phasing or bung in a roundabout, what we need is a dedicated team of engineers and road designers who can come up with bespoke solutions to particular problems.

We need to get creative

This might sound fanciful, but it’s not so different from what we have already. The difference is simply letting skilled engineers get on with their work unfettered by rigid thinking. Not only will this result in freer flowing roads, it will also create a skills base of engineering talent in the UK to carry us forward.

Laying more tarmac may grow the amount of road space on our crowded island, but experience shows the more roads you make, the more traffic it creates.

By introducing more creative ways of dealing with congestion, we can tackle the problem without having to inconvenience drivers.

Some will say it is down to drivers to change their behaviour, but that is far easier said than done. How many of us can alter our working hours or when the kids must be picked up from school or that appointment with your biggest client?

The reality is roads must adapt to us rather than the other way around, which will be a truly gilded answer to the problem of congestion. The reality is roads must adapt to us rather than the other way around, which will be a truly gilded answer to the problem of congestion.

Previous Post Next Post
Not sure what car you want?
  • Easy-to-use tool
  • Save time and money
  • Meet your match
Find your dream car