Ken unblocks the road
London, February 18 -- - Trafficmaster's sensors show that journey times into London have been reduced by over 50% on average
Everyone was watching London on Monday to see if congestion charging truly works. However, no one was watching closer than the 240 Trafficmaster sensors covering London's main artery roads. Monitoring traffic on the main routes into and out of London, the sensors reported that some journey times on the first day of the congestion charging, Monday 17th January, had been reduced by 45% compared to the equivalent day last year.
The route from the A1 at Mill Hill through to Islington Park seemed to have improved the most. Last year on the first day of the half term holiday this journey took on average 51 minutes. On Monday it only took 28 minutes to travel down this route - a massive 45% reduction in journey time.
It seems that many people stayed away from London or left their cars at home on the first day of congestion charging. One of the busiest roads during peak hour is normally the City Road and Euston Road, with traffic typically moving at around 5 to 10 mph in the morning commuter peak. However, traffic was flowing at 20 mph during 8.00am and 9.00am on Monday morning.
One of the routes that did seem to suffer from the introduction of the congestion charge was the A12 and surrounding roads into the Blackwall Tunnel. Traffic was building up earlier than normal in this area, and around 7.00am traffic was only moving at around 3 mph. Normally, Trafficmaster would see traffic moving at around 10-15 mph during this time.
David Martell, chief executive at Trafficmaster comments:
"These results are quite astounding. Congestion charging certainly seems to have affected the average journey time on the main roads into and out of London. However we have to look at this realistically. It was the first day of a school holiday and I am sure many people steered clear of London because they were not sure of the congestion charging area or how it would impact their normal journey. In the meantime we will continue to monitor these roads to see if these reductions continue."
An overview of journey times on the main routes in and out of London, can be found below:
Average journey time comparisons for school days in Feb 2002 and half term days in 2002 and school days in Feb 2003 and half term day in Feb 2003
Feb 02 Feb 02 Half Feb 03 Feb 17/03
School day term School day
A1 Mill Hill to 57 51.3 56.5 28
Islingtion
A41 Mill Hill, 41 27.2 44.7 19.3
Five Ways to
Regents Park
A40/M Denham to 65.5 54.4 76.5 39.4
Marylebone
A4 Langley, Slough 61.2 45.6 66.8 46.3
to Talgarth Road
A30 Stanwell to 15.1 12.7 17 13.3
Osterley
A316 Sunbury Cross 44.6 26.3 52.2 26.8
to Ravenscroft
Park
A3 Cobham to 54 42.1 70.3 45.8
Clapham
A23 Hooley to 64.2 55.2 78.1 46.5
Briston
A20 Swanley to 23.8 16.6 26.3 15.7
Eltham
A2/A102 Dartford 49.2 43.5 39.4 32.6
to Blackwall
Tunnel
A12 Harold Wood to 75 72.8 77.6 68.4
Blackwall Tunnel
A10 Waltham Cross 53 43.6 60.8 38.4
to Stoke Newington
Georgina Osborn on telephone +44 (0)1234 759315, email georgina.Osborn@trafficmaster.co.uk or Michele Murphy on telephone +44 (0)1234 759309, email michele.murphy@trafficmaster.co.uk