Why London's motorists are on the road to nowhere

Urban driving has never been so arduous with extended traffic-light signals, endless roadworks and looming congestion charges

Interminable roadworks; traffic lights almost permanently on red; more bus lanes; sky-high parking fees. The daily assault course facing motorists in Britain's big cities appears to be getting tougher by the week.

In London, the £5 congestion charge due to begin in February is guaranteed to exacerbate drivers' migraines. With car ownership rising every year, the nation will focus on Ken Livingstone's grand experiment.

But there is a wider question that motorists, and the many businesses that depend on them, want answering: never mind the jams today, will there be jams tomorrow?

There is a wealth of anecdotal evidence that the daily slog of driving in city centres is getting worse. Ask any cab driver, white-van man or parent-with-three-kids-and-shopping, and the answer will be uniformly apocalyptic.

And statistics gathered by bodies including the Department of Transport, the AA and the RACappear to back up the urban folklore. Across the country, congestion has increased in the past five years by up to 247 per cent and the working time lost due to congestion is reckoned to have increased by 50 per cent since 1998.

One of the main reasons for the traffic nightmare is the humble traffic cone. This innocent-looking object has had so many successful breeding seasons that it has become a permanent piece of street furniture. In short, the country's urban highways are plagued by roadworks.

A recent study by the independent traffic analyst Trafficmaster set out some stark figures. Glasgow's Great Western Road was dug up 223 times in a year while Camden High Street in London was dug up 144 times. But the record is held by Oxford Street, London, which was dug up a mind-boggling 288 times.

There's no doubt about it, Britain's roads are in a hole and we can't stop digging.

The AA estimates that there are four million holes in the country's roads at any one time, with half a million in the capital alone.

According to a report for ministers by Halcrow, a firm of consulting engineers, the holes cost some £2bn a year and three quarters of them are caused by utility companies.

Much of the problem stems from the 1991 New Roads and Street Works Act, legislation that was introduced to cope with a swath of companies that had been privatised.

Until the Eighties, there was just a handful of firms with a statutory right to dig holes. Since privatisation, more than 100 companies have been able do so, with cable television and telephone companies multiplying all the time.

Companies are obliged to notify local authorities but fewer than 5 per cent of councils are advised more than a month in advance. As a result, it is very difficult to co-ordinate or plan works. The recent Heineken advert offering a dream-like scenario of different firms using the same hole in the road is just that, a dream.

One response was to give some councils the power to charge firms that did not finish their work on time.

A huge problem is that firms do not have to pay anything to dig up a road. In Japan, France and the US, companies are charged and have strict time limits. In Hong Kong, roads can only be dug up at night.

The Transport Research Laboratory says roadworks are responsible for 500 deaths and serious injuries a year.

In London, there has been a plethora of road schemes in the past year, with Vauxhall Cross and Trafalgar Square the main areas of congestion. Trafalgar Square's roadworks to pedestrianise half of the plaza should be finished by Christmas, but what will contribute to what is already a bugbear of the capital's motorists: shorter traffic-light changes.

For decades, London had longer changes than the national average. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, and Transport for London (TfL), have decided that the national average should be met in the capital in an attempt to improve pedestrian safety.

It is understood that the decision was in part taken when a parent tried to sue London Transport after their child was knocked over. But a main reason has been the improved technology controlling traffic lights, which means it is far easier to change times centrally to accommodate roadworks or any other factor.

Of 4,600 sets of traffic lights in London, about 2000 will be changed, giving pedestrians up to six seconds more "green time". By the middle of this year 1,000 lights had been changed. In 27 locations, TfL said motor vehicle "green times" were reduced by at least 20 seconds.

TfL is keen to knock down a theory doing the rounds at London dinner parties that the times will be returned to normal once the new congestion charges come in. According to that theory, motorists will see an instant improvement in journey times. TfL denies this categorically.

One fact seems undeniable, that the rush hour in London, and perhaps some other big cities, now lasts all day. In the capital, the traditional morning and evening peaks have been all but swept away by round-the-clock jams resulting from a record number of roadworks and an explosion of schemes that work against the car.

Studies show that in 1999, peak hours were from 7am to 9.30am, before a five-and-a-half-hour break enabling vital deliveries to take place. The evening rush started at 4pm and lasted until 7pm. Now, jams build up in the capital from 6am and delivery, cab and car drivers are forced to lengthen their working day to avoid congestion. The chaos regularly lasts until 8pm.

Trafficmaster says that 50 per cent of motorists' journey times are spent travelling at a speed of less than 10mph and 40 per cent of commuters are affected by delays every day.

Unfortunately for Mr Livingstone's congestion charging plans, other figures show that traffic jams got worse between 1991 and 1999 even though the number of vehicles entering London in that period dropped by 5 per cent.

The problem is not only overall traffic levels but the decreasing amount of road space. Bus lanes are to become a fact of life for Londoners and although TfL claims they have little impact on congestion, motorists agree that removing a whole lane is bound to increase problems. Although car users hate them, opinion polls show that Londoners as a whole welcome the move.

The statistics on average journey times in central London are staggering. A recent survey by the RAC found that the city was moving at an average speed of 2.9mph – no faster than a stroll. On some routes speeds are as low a 1.6mph.

Earlier this year, Mr Livingstone's office announced that the average speed in central London had fallen to 9.9mph, slower than the trotting speed of a horse and carriage.

The Mayor claims that his charge could cut congestion by up to 15 per cent, leaving the city in a similar state to the summer holidays, when the school run disappears. Yesterday, a report commissioned by the Government recommended the charges be extended to include the M25 to fund a project to widen it to four lanes.

The most radical solution, proposed by David Begg, the director of the government-funded Commission for Integrated Transport, is for road pricing on all roads. But the technology won't be available for 10 years. In the meantime, more cars will use the roads, with about 300,000 more streaming on to the highways by 2016.

Other cities

Birmingham

Congestion is high. This is because of several main roads feeding straight into the city centre. City planners once encouraged people to drive rather than use public transport. In 1999, the average speed during morning peak hours was 21.6mph, compared with 22.2mph in 1993.

Edinburgh

There is a lot of traffic in the Scottish capital due to the rapid growth of businesses and relatively low unemployment. Large numbers of tourists contribute to the problem. Worst spots are the south end of the Forth road bridge and the Edinburgh city by-pass. Congestion charges proposed.

Bristol

Heavy congestion in and around the city centre. Average speed during morning peak hours fell from 19.3mph in 1993 to 17.3mph in 1999. Bristol is crying out for a motorway to direct traffic into the centre. Congestion charges proposed.

Olle Zachrison