congestion

[paintermouse]

How many people would agree that London should follow the example set by Paris and make a rule that all lorry deliveries should take place between 9pm and 7.30am. I find that most traffic problems in the morning during the rush hours are caused by commercial vehicles parking ...not private cars. Also bicycles without lights should be fined. As it is they take up road space for which they are not taxed.

[Grunty]

It works well in Paris.  Surprisingly, you don't hear the deliveries.  In this country, lorry drivers are so tightly controlled for their schedules, that there is no time to find more suitable stopping places. 

Bicycles without lights are dangerous, as are those that ignore red lights and other road signs, ride fast on pavements.  Few police officers bother with them, for several reasons.  In a certain county town, there was once a police inspector who thought that when his officers were not dealing with major matters, they should be dealing with minor ones.  The system beat him in the end.

[twiglet4frog]

been saying about the lorry thing all the time in previous posts. i think vehicles of so many wheels(i.e 6) except buses and emergancy services should be banned from travelling on all roads from 7am to 7pm. so what if it inconveniences some places, they will have to have nightshifts. and as about 1 in 7 lorries on roads are for a supermarkets and most of these operate 24 hours they are already suited to take night deliveries.

We havent got to the point we need bigger and new roads, we just need to make them more efficient and take all the traffic and spread them across the full 24 hours! This is one good way

[Grunty]

I agree with twiglet.  New roads are not the answer because the traffic expands to fill them.  Only a few years ago, nobody would think of driving 20 miles for a takeaway.  Now it is quite common.  To make better use of the roads we could do as twiglet says, and also improve public transport to the point where a car is not necessary.  We don't have to go far to see well-run and properly funded railways and buses, double-decker trains, etc. etc.

[depressedmgl]

I don't live in London, but in most towns and suburbs it's the school run which causes a lot of hold ups.  We should develop the school bus system they have in the US

[sddsddean]

As an HGV owner driver, just going to point out a few things. A car road tax is about (according to emissions etc) �150; mine is �1200 (and it only came down to that from �3200 2 years ago). There are about 400,000 trucks on UK roads, but about 45 million cars. So what causes more congestion? 1 truck doing a delivery or 100 odd 'chelsea tractors' delivering the kids to school 'cos the Mums are too indifferent to walk!

[sddsddean]

Forgot to say, obviously you would be quite happy to pay the extra for your groceries etc, as all this work (drivers and shop staff) will be paid at night/overtime rate and the extra cost will be passed on to the customer.

[twiglet4frog]

considering tesco had a turneover of �1 billion last profit year i am sure that the extra costs would be swallowed up easily, even if they added 1p to a loaf of bread, but i do understand your side of it. However, Lorries do have 24 hours a day to deliver their goods, and the Chelsea tractors are only on the roads for 2 times a day for approx half an hour, so my plan is to stick to the lorries of the roads between 7am - 7pm, enforce stricter no parking zones around the schools with maybe a drop off school bus point, similar to a park and ride scheme, where somwhere like a community centre or supermarket for out of village/town kids can be dropped off that has adequate parking supervision and a single bus then takes the kids to the school and returns them? Those that live closer to the schools will obviously find parking a hassle and will walk them in.

And finaly, the amount spent on public transport needs to be tripled at least, with buses that are incredibly cheap, bigger and better designed trains etc etc