Why It Matters Road Traffic Propensity
Summary
We have measured the frequency and intensity of traffic flows on roads within your neighbourhood.
Interpretation
| Dataset | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Walulel Minor Road Traffic Score | This is a score that tells you how far above or below the London-wide mean the level of traffic on minor roads in your neighbourhood is. A score of 50 represents the mean, while a number closer to 100 represents a more traffic blighted neighbourhood, and scores closer to 0 represent a relatively less traffic blighted neighbourhood. |
| Postal Sector 5 year % traffic change for Minor Roads | This tells you, in percentage terms, how much more or less traffic flow the minor roads in your neighbourhood have had to accommodate over the last 5 years. |
| London-wide mean postal sector 5 year % traffic change for Minor Roads | This tells you, in percentage terms, how much more or less traffic flow the minor roads have had to accommodate over the last 5 years accross London. |
| Walulel Major Road Traffic Score | This is an indicative score that lets you know, how far above or below the London-wide mean the level of traffic on major roads in your neighbourhood is. A score of 50 represents the mean, while a number closer to 100 represents a more traffic blighted neighbourhood, and scores closer to 0 represent a relatively less traffic blighted neighbourhood. |
| Postal Sector 5 year % traffic change for Major Roads | This tells you, in percentage terms, how much more or less traffic flow the major roads in your neighbourhood have had to accommodate over the last 5 years. |
| London-wide mean postal sector 5 year % traffic change for Major Roads | This tells you, in percentage terms, how much more or less traffic flow the major roads have had to accommodate over the last 5 years accross London. |
| Harmonised Walulel Relative Road Traffic Score | This is an indicative score that lets you know, how far above or below the London-wide mean the overall level of traffic in your neighbourhood is. A score of 50 represents the mean, while a number closer to 100 represents a more traffic blighted neighbourhood, and scores closer to 0 represent a relatively less traffic blighted neighbourhood. |
Definition
Road traffic is defined as the lasting immobility or slow movement of a number of motor vehicles (cars, motorcycles and buses) which are using public roads for the purpose of travel.
Why the metric matters from a commercial inhabitant’s perspective
Commercial residents armed with knowledge of local traffic levels will be able to better understand the relative impact of such traffic on the operation of their business. Commercial inhabitants throughout London rely on the timely arrival of supplies and goods essential to the business’s operations. Most obviously, traffic blighted roads threaten the efficient movement of goods and services to and from business premises which can cause delays and interruptions to the successful everyday function of the business.
Furthermore, consequential noise and air pollution resulting from traffic has been shown to negatively affect the experience of customers visiting traffic blighted premises. Additionally, a good body of evidence exists to show that the mental health of employees of businesses situated in close proximity to traffic blighted premises is negatively impacted.
Why the metric matters from a residential inhabitant’s perspective
Residing in a low traffic area ensures low levels of noise and air pollution while enhancing the feeling of tranquillity and calmness that any place of residence should be associated with. In addition, choosing a lightly traffic blighted area to live minimises the health risks associated with the consequential air and noise pollution.
Moreover, numerous recent studies have calculated that Londoners, annually, lose about 80 - 100 hours of time through being stuck in traffic.
(Photograph: Mario Ortiz, Wikimedia Commons)
General commentary
Road traffic monitoring and management is a process that has been marked by extensive trial and error, with numerous governing bodies attempting to implement congestion relieving strategies to varying degrees of success.
Cities such as London have always been particularly impacted by congestion, especially near the city centre. Although congestion charges managed to temporarily lower traffic levels, traffic levels are on a rise once again causing inner London travel time to increase by around 50% over the optimum.
The idea of “building our way out” of urban traffic congestion problems has been decisively rejected in recent years by both the transportation community and the public at large. Since the early 1970’s, London has turned away from urban road construction as a transportation improvement strategy. This policy shift was attributable to a variety of causes including diminished finances, increased environmental concerns, and growing support for demand-oriented strategies for improving traffic flow. An additional factor was the emerging suspicion that urban road improvements, by encouraging sprawl and discouraging transit use, generated new traffic and thereby undermined their benefit in reducing congestion.
Nevertheless, traffic management remains a debated area. Roadway interests argue that traffic growth is driven by economic and demographic factors, and view decisions about road supply in terms of how to best accommodate a fixed amount of demand. Opponents emphasise the variety of mechanisms by which adding roads can generate new traffic as adding road capacity can induce a mode shift from more public and communal forms of transit which actually worsens congestion.
Trivia
A research study conducted by the Institute of theoretical physics in France found a strong correlation between traffic and city expansion. The expansion patterns, over 9,000 cities across the US, were resulted from businesses seeking to relocate further from the city centre once travelling to the city centre became too difficult.
Interestingly, the cities that maintained their original layout had a really strong public transport system enabled residents to move in and out of the city centre with ease.
Even in cases where new traffic lanes were added as a traffic easing solution, there was minimal impact to long-term traffic management, especially when congestion charges and the adoption of alternative means of transport, such as bicycles, were included.
History
Road Traffic Propensity For over 2,000 years, roads have enabled millions of city dwellers, traders and wanderers to move freely from city to city without having to immerse themselves in the unfamiliar and uncharted territory that is the wilderness. The road network that was formed during the Roman era was followed with large scale road infrastructure works starting in the late 18th century.
It was not until after the Second World War that transport strategy started to take shape. It was then realised that the growth of the road network and the widespread popularity of cars would lead to a rise in traffic, noise and congestion. In response to that, the government at the time sought to implement a predict and provide policy, in which it set out to project traffic areas and battle congestion through targeted extensions of the road network.
The 1973 fuel crisis put things into perspective for both the governing bodies and the public with regards to the road extension programs. An overall re-evaluation of the transport priorities took place while discussions ensured that social equality, land use and the environment were recognised as equal factors when planning for transport improvements. During the 1980s, the low fuel costs put Britons back on the road while buses became deregulated and the transport sector privatised. This boom in the transport sector pushed an increase in traffic levels by a scale of over 140%. The government response proved to be ineffective as the addition of new routes and the extension of the existing ones didn’t manage to reduce the congestion levels.
The “Agenda 21”, “Our Common Future” report and the EU Transport White Paper, underlined the need for traffic reduction strategies as a method to preserve the environment. To that end, in early 2003, the London’s Congestion Charge scheme took effect, temporarily curbing traffic levels in London. However, as congestion levels are once again on the rise, transport planning officials call for more traffic data to be collected and used to guide targeted road design alterations, and managing the direction, frequency and intensity of vehicle movement.