Boris Johnson fails electoral promise of “smoothing traffic flow” as traffic goes up for the first time in 13 years, Green Assembly Member Darren Johnson calls it an “inevitable consequence of high fares and giving priority to cars”.
Darren Johnson campaigning against the proposed tunnel ring road earlier this year. Photograph courtesy of MayorWatch.
New Transport for London figures show that London’s traffic has gone up for the first time in 13 years. A report to the Transport for London Board states that:
“Increasing traffic flows have continued to contribute to a decrease in (Transport for London Road Network) TLRN journey times reliability.”
London’s population has risen by an average of a 100,000 people every year since 2001 and now stands at around 8.4m. Traffic has fallen by over two billion journeys during that time, but last year it went up for the first time in thirteen years. The Mayor was elected on the promise of ‘smoothing traffic flow’.
Darren commented, “Bigger traffic jams and longer delays is the exact opposite of what the Mayor promised Londoners. But it is the inevitable consequence of high fares and giving priority to cars. The Mayor has tried changing the traffic signals to speed up the traffic, but in the long term this has the opposite effect, simply encouraging more cars to join the traffic queues. What we need are positive initiatives that get people out of their cars and encourage public transport, bikes and walking.”