The London Assembly is investigating how to prevent clogged roads from suffocating the capital As the London Assembly transport committee investigates what the mayor and Transport for London (the local government body responsible for the transport system in Greater London) can do to reduce rising levels of road traffic congestion in London, bear in mind that the price of gridlock is not only paid in frustration and pollution. A Transport for London (TfL) analysis of vehicle delays on Greater London’s roads during 2015 estimated the cost of congestion to London’s GVA (Gross Value Added, the increase in the value of the economy due to the production of goods and services) to have been an astonishing £5.5 billion a year. London’s GVA for 2015 was £364 billion. The Centre for Economics and Business Research think tank put the cost to London’s GVA of the six Underground strikes in 2015 at £10 million each. This was the most conservative calculation – others think it’s higher – but even the Federation of Small Businesses estimate of £300 million is dwarfed by the cost of congestion. In other words, congestion is doing major damage to the city’s economy. And the frustration and pollution are adding to that cost because they make London less agreeable to function in. Speaking to the transport committee last week, Grant Davis, chairman of the London Cab Drivers’ Club, spoke of more and more of his customers getting out of his taxi before reaching their destinations because his cab was stuck in traffic. Demand for the bus service has started to decline after years of increase because of slower speeds and worse reliability. Construction works, the proliferation of private hire vehicles and delivery vans, the halving of the congestion charge zone and a long-term loss of road space to bus lanes have all contributed to the growth of the problem over the past two years. This follows a long period of general stability during which London has seen a big shift away from all forms of private transport, principally cars, towards public transport. TfL’s most recent annual Travel in London statistics show that 34 per cent of ‘journey stages’ in 2000 – the components of an excursion from one place to another – were undertaken on public transport compared with 43 per cent by private vehicles. By 2014, the public transport figure had risen to 45 per cent and the private transport figure had fallen to 32 per cent. The pattern for ‘trips’ – entire excursions within London – has followed a similar trend. Just 28 per cent were taken by public transport (including taxis) in 2000 and 47 per cent by private vehicle. But by 2014 both measures were running at 37 per cent. All other journey stages and trips were done by bicycle (accounting for 1 per cent in 2000 and 2 per cent in 2014) or on foot. Car ownership too has been falling, in marked contrast with the rest of England and Wales. So too has the volume of motor vehicle traffic in London as a whole according to both Department for Transport estimates of distances travelled in them and TfL’s own traffic flow data. And yet, for all this progress, the plague of road congestion is now getting worse. The committee’s investigation continues.