Miles of new cycle lanes built since the start of the pandemic have contributed to London becoming the world’s most congested city, a study has said.
Supporters claim the extra cycleways boost bike use and cut pollution – but they have provoked fierce opposition from drivers who say they create bottlenecks, with stationary traffic belching out fumes.
Now traffic information supplier Inrix has given weight to the critics’ claims by saying segregated spaces for cycling were one of the reasons drivers in the capital will lose an average of 148 hours stuck in jams across the whole of 2021.
Miles of new cycle lanes built since the start of the pandemic have contributed to London becoming the world’s most congested city, a study has said
Ministers controversially pledged £250million across the country for measures to encourage people to travel on bicycles and minimise public transport use at the height of the Covid crisis. Pictured: A cycle lane in Chelsea, London
This is only 1% less than pre-coronavirus levels. It’s a smaller drop than other cities around the world and London sees a rise in rankings since 2020, when it was 16th.
Ministers controversially pledged £250million across the country for measures to encourage people to travel on bicycles and minimise public transport use at the height of the Covid crisis.
Several councils have reversed London’s schemes due to opposition by motorists. However, some cycle lanes are left.
Inrix operations director Peter Lees said the main reason for London’s surge in the traffic jam ranking was its relatively strong economic recovery from the pandemic compared with other global cities.
But he said the cycle lanes had also had a ‘negative impact on congestion’. ‘Use of roads is all about supply and demand,’ he said yesterday.
‘If the demand goes up but the road space is being shared with other forms of transport, there’s less tarmac effectively for the cars to be on, which then has an impact on the speeds on the road and therefore congestion.’
Paris came in second place in the worldwide ranking of congestion with 140 hours lost in 2021, followed by Brussels (134 hour lost), Moscow (108 hours lost) and New York (122 hours lost).
Inrix estimated that the economic hit from drivers being stuck in traffic this year will cost an average of £595 per person, and the UK £8billion.