The government say something needs to be done about road congestion on our motorways,what is the cause of the?

Question

the problem?
Is it roadworks, drivers who weave from lane to lane, tail gaters who slam on all the time causing a ripple effect behind them,slow moving lorries ,human error or badly desgined motorways and slip roads.
or anything else?
and apart from pricing people off the roads what can be done about it?

A problem i encounter on normal town roads ,are these bus lanes where only a few buses come down the lane about 2-3 times an hour.

Answer 1

the problem is that state of the public transport system in my opinion, if it was cheaper and easier to use public transport more people would use it and there would be less cars as a result. buses are horrible things to be on in my experience & trains are too expensive to be worth using if you don't have to.
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Answer 2

Using supply and demand logic, you would think that it would self correct to the point where it was more tolerable than the alternatives. Otherwise, why would people be prepared to sit in congestion? Why are the Government concerned anyway? It isn't they who sit in traffic jams.

There is a certain irony here, because there is a massive capital investment in roads, so, in every other area of business or economic life, you would be looking to obtain the maximum usage for that investment. The more the congestion charge, and/or road pricing is successful in removing traffic from the roads, the less usage you are getting out of your massive investment. Contrariwise, the less successful it is, the more the government earns.

I agree with your subtext though, it only takes one slow driver to hold everyone else up. That is why the police should come down hard on slow dithery drivers. Sadly, they do the opposite by fining drivers who go over an arbitrary speed limit.

It also has to be remembered that the fixed cost of owning a car is high. so, even not using it much is expensive. The school run puts a lot of pressure onto the roads. You certainly notice when during school holidays.

The main problem is that the population is too high. Immigration?

Answer 3

The problem is not just the drivers that should be removed permanently from the roads.

It would be nice if this country could go back to building new roads - but, no, the wacko "environmentalists" complain that folks will actually use 'em if they're built. Shocking, just shocking, the very idea that a new highway would be used; oh, the horror of it all!

The solution to congestion practiced in more enlightened parts of the world is to charge for roadway use in especially congested areas. The two large cities that I know of doing this are London and Singapore. It's worked very well in both cities.

In Southern California the state let a private enterprise build a toll road right next to a freeway and priced the tolls based on congestion. The more cars already on the toll road when you pull up to the toll gate the more you have to pay to get on. The idea being that the toll-payers expect to drive on a relatively uncongested roadway. It works and left-wingers, who generally just hate the idea, at least can FEEL a little better 'cause the toll road reverts to the state after 30 years of use. Pretty hard to argue against this one. So - WHY isn't it being tried elsewhere?!?

Answer 4

I dont know what he logic was when they closed all the canels, as we need them to move the stuff that the trucks are now moving. It would make a huge difference to the amount of traffic on the motorways & its alot more friendly to the enviorment too. It would also help if people were taught how to use the the lanes on the motorway properly. It stricks me that over half the drivers sit in the middle lane regardless of what the traffics like at that time. Also the slower drivers should use the inside lane instead of sitting in the middle. Think people feel daft in the 'slow' lane so they sit in the middle to make themselves appear better. But it just makes them appear totally stupid,also putting others at risk! I think they should add an extra lane to all motorways, hey that would confuse Mr & Mrs Middle Lane Drivers. They b spoilt 4 choice, but seriously it would help.

Answer 5

There are simply too many vehicles on the United Kingdom's roads, including the motorways.

Roadworks on motorways (as opposed to other roads) are probably as well as managed as possible. Great effort has gone into the ergonomic design of motorways, As a psychology graduate I am staggered at how few accidents result from human error given the millions of drivers who use the motorways every day.

The only practical technological improvement to the motorways I can think of would be to use distance sensing software to control vehicles automatically so that they could be spaced closer than is possible with human control. But I think that any such gains in capacity would quickly get used up.

I doubt whether pricing people off the roads is practical (I was one of the 1.8 million who signed the email petition). People are so keen to use cars that for pricing to have a real effect the charges would require making substantial, and politically unacceptable, reductions in standards of living through this taxation. In addition, essential users would get priced off in favour of those who are richer. A further issue is that UK transport costs are already amongst the highest in the world and further increases in transport costs would make our industry even more uncompetitive internationally than it is now.

In my opinion a more effective, and simpler - not least because it would not require expensive traffic sensing software - method of controlling road use would be simply to ration the number of vehicle licences issued, by post code and use. This is in effect what happened in the Second World War when only essential users could license cars.

There is a desperate need to build new railway lines.

Answer 6

If there is reasonably priced public transportation which covers the suburbs as well as the cities congestion would be eased. If it costs $8 each way for my commute - which it would on public busses - then I won't do it. If I have to drive a significant distance just to reach the public transportation, then I won't do it.

In addition, there has to be frequent service to the suburbs. If missing my bus or train means I need to wait an hour for the next one I will be less inclined to rely on public transportation.

When I lived in Hoboken I didn't even bother OWNING a car because public transportation was much easier. We need that kind of system in the suburbs too.

Answer 7

Roadworks are the main problem, poor respond for accidents second and completely stupid organisation of traffic: just few miles from my home it was a nice road without any possibilities of traffic. What had been done: increasing of pavement by taking off one line (who needed that - no idea) so now it is always at slow motion. Good! Put some IQ for anyone who created that mess!

Answer 8

it is also so called traffic calming measures such as road bumps and bollards.
the solution remove traffic calming measures, improve and subsidies the rail network so that many more goods are transported by rail, increasing the number of lanes on major routes, working 24 hours aday on roadworks (workers could work in shift, so that there is alway progress being made), also is more frims have a flexiable time policy so that some workers start earlier and later than rush hour.

Answer 9

each and every reason LTA is going to grant would be to advance on the line site visitors pass by employing increasing extra ERP gantry. now and back i'm truly pissed off approximately all this. the answer from LTA for highway congestion will consistently be advance ERP gantry or advance ERP quotes. Is there to any extent further smart selection different then this? regardless of the very shown fact that i'm no longer a driving force besides the shown fact that it form of feels to me that LTA ought to come out with a extra smart plan particularly then this. if it truly is the case each and each guy or woman can in simple terms take a seat interior the workplace by employing in simple terms enforcing ERP advance while this project upward push up back. by employing putting extra gantry and advance ERP quotes, is it a answer interior the long-term? to advance by employing encouraging people to take public delivery what are the measures accomplished?Did LTA accomplished a sturdy interest in convalescing site visitors pass? All this may be in peoples ideas. Public delivery in Singapore is definately extra smart you will discover in everywhere else yet i've got self belief that it may advance extra so as that extra people would be motivate to take public delivery. so a approaches I actual have seen progression interior the bus delivery interest. SMRT has additionally been efficient by employing introducing the lunch time rush of waiting time in simple terms 3.5 minutes in basic terms. i've got self belief that's what the individuals in Singapore needs to make certain. New action being taken particularly then shop employing the standard technique by employing in simple terms advance the fee, that's ERP.

Answer 10

Well, since there are so many complaints..the government is going to remedy that with the new Trans-Texas Corridor and the NASCO project. It will connect Mexico, the US and Canada. There will be plenty of lanes just for buses, and cars, railroad, etc. Of course you will have to PAY to drive on it. Then they will implement the North American Union. And then, all the new money...hope ya'll are happy. Your government is going to take care of your problems.