UK traffic congestion - would you agree with action to prevent it?

Question

Such as a financial penalty in your area (like the London congestion charge)? Or road tolls for the motorways? National road pricing? Doing nothing is no longer an option, congestion is costing millions of pounds every day. And it makes you consume more fuel.

Answer 1

There are a number of aspects to an answer to this question: the need for personal transport, the availability and access to public transport, and socio-political factors.

At present personal transport is needed because the UK public transport system is rubbish.  In the European cities I have visited, and in parts of the surrounding countryside, public transport works.  For example, in Zurich the trams start with a half-hour service AT FIVE IN THE MORNING, working up to every eight minutes, slowing down again to about two in the morning.  In the UK the service is less frequent and with shorter operating hours.  In Switzerland I was waiting for a bus collection from a hotel.  When it was late the staff became agitated.  I told them it was okay as I'd left plenty of time.  They then told me, in no uncertain terms, that it was NOT okay for the bus to be lat, and made alternate arrangements.  In the UK bus reliability on some routes is shocking, they are late or don't turn up.  If you can't rely on it for work then you NEED to use a car, it's not a matter of choice.

Availability and access to public transport in the UK is limited by two factors - route scheduling ad price.  Unless you are a city dweller you can forget public transport in the UK.  Then there is the price factor.  For a family of five in my city a trip into the city would cost us £16 return for a five mile journey - and that includes two children paying only a pound each.  Even with parking charges a car has to be used to be affordable.

The socio-political argument against charging is that it is divisive.  The poor will have to use public transport, leaving the roads clear for the rich.  In other countries everyone uses public transport, much less of a class divide.  Where there is division then investment in quality public services will be lower.

Rant over....... for now.

Answer 2

i totally agree! even though public trains arnt as expensive as virgin, trains in japan seem much more faster, conveniant and not to forget cheaper. its amazing how it works. congestion sure is a major issue today and i would like to contribute in preventing it from becoming an even bigger issue than it is.

Answer 3

It's far from ideal, but it's better than doing nothing. Everyone complains about congestion, but then they complain that the measures taken to ease the situation don't suit them.

What would be a much better, effective and enticing way of solving the problem would be for the government to take all of this money they're earning from tax and congestion charges and invest it in better public transport.

UK busses are noisy, dirty, unreliable and over-priced. Trains are an absolute joke- in my experience I'd say out of 10 train journeys made, 7 of them will be delayed or cancelled. They're hideously over-priced and the service you get is generally pretty poor. I live in Japan at the moment and the trains are incredible. Even the bullet train is cheaper than most trains used for long trips in the UK- it's on time (precise to the very minute stated) 99% of the time, always spotlessly clean and the staff are polite and efficient. It gets you there a lot faster, too! In the UK I've waited 50 minutes for a train, the time on the arrivals boar changing over and over, only for it to be cancelled entirely and no-one even offer an apology. Frankly that wouldn't happen in Japan. Why can't us Brits have a system like theirs too?

Me, I dream of one day strolling 100 yards up my street and stepping onto a near silent, clean tram / monorail / train, sitting down and relaxing while I get taken to within 100 yards of my place of work. Imagine that- where we have roads now we just have these silent trams, stopping every two or three minutes, running all the time. Maybe I'm just a bit nuts, but a country-wide system of these (interconnected with faster, direct transport like high-speed trains) would be fantastic.

Edit: It's true that the buses are late as a result of traffic, but I didn't actually say that. Either way, they're noisy, over-priced and (at least where I lived in the UK) not particularly clean or nice places to be. I've seen a fair bit of trouble happen on buses- fights, people smoking, kids giving passengers a hard time- and the driver can do very little about it. Of course, this means me have to address our societal issues (and start giving our kids a slap on the a.rse when they're naughty, no?) and that's not the issue here, but as it is I'd prefer not to use the buses as they currently are.

Answer 4

I totally agree with phil K. We should imitate Japanese railway  operation system.

Answer 5

I don't know which trains Phil is taking or perhaps whether his experience is based long in the past, but as a very frequent rail traveller I can confidently expect 9 out of 10 of my journeys on various different companies and routes to be on time. Buses are changing too at least in most of the bigger cities, where they are usually new and routes are more frequent than they were a few years ago. The answer to congestion is a bigger and extended rail system and more buses and priority for buses on busy urban roads, and somehow convincing Phil and others that train travel is generally fast and relaxing and gives you more time to rest or work on route.

Congestion charging in all large cities with the proceeds ploughed back into public transport funding is an excellent idea too.

Answer 6

Unfortunately, governments keep coming up with ideas like congestion charging and road pricing, and completely fail to deal with the central issues which affect congestion and global warning. The two most basic issues are:

1) There are too many people in the world. Nothing is being done to stop population growth and, until growth is halted, all these things will only get worse - no matter what else you try.

2) In the west at least, people live too far from their work. So they have to travel.

Without solving these two problems, you have no chance of reducing congestion or solving global warming. End of story.

Answer 7

Sadly the ideas you mention only took money from the drivers and diverted congestion unto other routes. Now everywhere except central Lomdon is congested. Before it was possible to drive around London near the centre.Now its just one big congestion area. The best action is always is a public transport scheme that works. Sadly buses are packed, trains are packed subways are packed. So people go by car as they are stressed out by public transport. Unfortunately the simply solution does not give money to the government.