Is road congestion a major problem where you live and how could it be alleviated?

Answer 1

Firstly get a law passed that if you do not have access to off road parking, you are not permitted to have a car.

Secondly, make adequate arrangements for cyclists - one cyclist on a narrow single lane road can cause tailbacks for miles (proof on hand)

Thirdly, ban the school run, and encourage on-line shopping with associated delivery.

Fourthly, encourage the use of motorcycles / scooters et al.

I could go on, but perhaps I would be better off becoming a local councillor.

Answer 2

Traffic congestion in the Greater Glasgow area, especially in the major Lanarkshire towns is getting worse mainly due to the Local Authority closing off so many streets and forcing all the traffic through one junction which is now overloaded. Also when things go wrong or someone digs up the street there are no alternative routes to bypass the problem and you now can have several hours total chaos and grid lock when a set of temporary traffic lights gets put up or a lorry breaks down in the middle of the road or the motorway (M74) gets road works putting everybody through the town roads.

Part solution would be to open up all the closed and traffic calmed roads where councillors live and build some new "rat runs".

Another problem is town planning or the lack of it when huge developments are given the go ahead amounting to thousands of houses, massive shopping parks, new college campuses etc and the road system around the area is expected to cope with the tripling of traffic as people commute in and out of the new area by car as there is no thought given to trams/trains/buses or to the people who are already fighting the heavy congestion on the surrounding roads.

Answer 3

Hi. Interesting question- I have read with interest the other answers so far given and it seems to my that everyone off them is motivated by a whats best for them attitude, which unfortunately wont work in the bigger scale of things i.e. reference made to Chelsea tractors, now I don't own a 4x4 but in live near Leicester and a lot of people around here are dependant on these type of vehicle for work and recreation why should they all be tarred with the same brush!! With regard to congestion the solution I would suggest is long term and expensive. Lets stop messing about we need a major road building program -why. Well if we can move traffic quicker them we end up with less pollution for our towns and cities and less stress for the motorist also lets invest in proper park and ride with trams interconnecting these and other various stops around large towns and cities.However lets also remember that a lot of traffic enters towns because they need to so lets make sure that they can flow freely and build more underpasses and inner city relief roads and do away with traffic lights and roundabouts that actually hold up traffic. How do we pay for this easy we spend the vast sums of tax taken from the motorist for RFL fuel tax and the tax we pay when purchasing vehicles and spend on the roads etc. It could make the enviroment better for all in the long run. Don't punish people for wanting to travel . This happened in Oxford after the greens won control of the city and a plan was hatched to clean up the city and the air quality. a new one way system was devised and all car park charges raised.....the result was worse air quality as the vehicles could not get around the city as quickly as they used to and the car parks were still full of cars driven by people that could afford the charges and found it easier to park as the less well off were forced to use the park and rides. I rest my case

Answer 4

It's a nightmare here (south Manchester), with two of the busiest roads crossing just near where I live. The traffic is often at a standstill and fills the air with fumes - just what I don't want when I walk the kids to school - I worry for their health.

I would like to see a LOT more investment in public transport - we were promised the tram system here but apparently the government, in its infinite wisdom, has put a stop to it - for reasons only known to itself. Commuters are a major cause of traffic congestion but many have no other option than to take the car - if a cheap, safe, reliable alternative was available I believe we would be able to reduce the amount of traffic on the roads, to the betterment of all.

Answer 5

In Peacehaven, near Brighton the pressure of new housing on the roads have brought them to almost standstill at rush-hours. A 15 minute journey now takes 45 minutes with no clear solution or strategy for road improvement.

What is clear, however, is that major investment in alternative transport would alleviate the problem. What we need is a transport system that is fast, efficient, cost-effective and operates within traditional constraints.

It could be alleviated by the construction of a monorail running from Newhaven (plenty of brownfield land to build on), to Brighton via Peacehaven. It would facilitate proposals for a new incinerator at Newhaven and future housing development and schools.

It would have the advantage of being a tourist attraction for a seaside town + views of the South Downs and in my opinion its environmental impact would probably be seen as acceptable given its advantages. It would link Brighton with the port at Newhaven, which has already seen substantial development (and recent housing developments).

The total cost for the system is about £50 million, the benefits are difficult to calculate but it is likely that we would see the rejuvination of Newhaven and scope development at Peacehaven.

Population:

Newhaven: 11171 (2001 Census) 10210 (1991 Census)
Peacehaven: 13217 (2001 Census) 12992 (1991 Census)
Brighton: 247,800 (2002)

Total Population: Approx 280,000
Total cost: £180 per head of population

Assuming 50% of the population are working and in employment thats £360, or £7.50 per month over 4 years.

** Thats less than recent council tax increases.

Answer 6

A few years ago C4 did a documentary about six people who worked in London and the problems they faced commuting. What came over very clearly was that four out of the six could have done their job from home. The problem seems to be too many people trying to get into city centers. In the UK we dont seem to know what to do with our city centres, we have a mish - mash of housing, shops , entertainment and commercial / industrial uses. The current government are "encouraging" us to use our cars less but not providing a viable public alternative.
Perhaps we need to look at planning policies in cities and to give firms tax breaks to relocate away from the centres. Some towns seem to have managed this kind of separation where there are areas that only have one type of activity going on. We do need a change in mind set to achieve some of these, employers will have to trust their staff to work unsupervised at home and employees will need to give up the social side of work, but it is possible.
The man asking the question is from the AA (Automobile Association) and most of the AA employees work away from a central office, often from home with little direct supervision, and as far as the AA is concerned the world has not ended or the sky fallen in.
As usual the powers that be are not taking a pro-active approach or looking at innovative solutions, instead the tired old "lets tax our way out of the problem" rears its ugly head again.

Answer 7

I live in a small village with just one main route out of it to the city centre 3 miles away. The traffic now is horrendous.So what do they do to alleviate this problem build three separate housing estates bringing hundreds of new homes on an already under strain road system,when this is finished it will be grid lock big time.Maybe the council should consider and actually listen the existing resident's first and how we are supposed to get to work to pay our taxes instead of putting council tax revenue first all the time.

Answer 8

Stagger starting times.

Schools should start at 8am, offices at 9am, people who do real work generally start earlier anyway. And do the same for the end of the day.

Get local companies to adopt a linked scheme whereby they alternate their start/finish times, to allow the roads to keep moving. By letting half the workforce leave 15 minutes earlier or later, the roads shouldn't get so clogged.

Traffic marshals could be used on motorways, to slow traffic intermediately (but keep them rolling). Thus stopping the start/stop routine that ends up with so many accidents.

School buses should be a compulsory, with enough vehicles to transport all children to and from schools.

Town planners should be forced to drive around the town they are planning, on a scooter, for 2 years, just like the London black cabbies. So that they get a chance to see what a mess they are making. And we would get the chance to run 'em over too!

Answer 9

Edinburgh city centre had, and may still have, hundreds of free parking areas for motorcycles. I would say that half a dozen motorcycles took up the same area as a parked car.A great idea would be to continue by promoting the use of motorcycles as efficient vehicles which take up less road space than cars, so cut congestion. Smart cars are a good idea too, and the Italians like them as they are small and easy to drive in the confined spaces of Rome and other cities in Italy. OK, not perfect ways to stop vehicle congestion, but a step in the right direction.

Answer 10

Only really at rush hour but some places are congested all day (I'm in NZ) I believe that a lot of the problem could be alleviated by people using public transport (it needs upgrading as it is terribly irregular and unreliable) and by car pooling. If you look around in a traffic jam there is one person in every car. Part of it needs to be fixed in how people think about getting from a to b. Most people seem to think that it is their god-given right to own and drive a car.