Drivers pay as city suffers some of worst jams in UK
BIRMINGHAM has two of the most congested stretches of road in the UK. City motorists wasted an average of 36 hours stuck in rush hour traffic last year making it one of the worst places in the UK for traffic congestion, according to the Global Traffic Scorecard.
The figures, which will come as no surprise to drivers battling city congestion daily, have been released by traffic information supplier Inrix.
Birmingham was ranked the third worst for congestion out of 111 towns and cities in UK, with drivers spending more than nine per cent of their commute in jams.
The cost to the city last year was BIRMINGHAM’S Aston Expressway could be decorated with walls of creeping ivy under pollution-busting plans unveiled by the Tories.
The city council’s Conservative group is calling for the use of green walls on major commuter routes throughout Birmingham after research showed the creepers cut levels of dangerous nitrous oxide and other harmful pollutants.
It is part of a wide-ranging set of manifesto pledges to improve city air quality and cut traffic congestion.
A green wall has already been trialled along Bristol Street where £632 million while individual drivers spent £1,281 on fuel and time wasted in gridlock. The cost also includes higher prices for household goods due to increased freighting fees being passed on to consumers.
In 2016 Birmingham was the fourth most congested city, with fedup drivers spending 34 hours in peak-time traffic.
The jams cost the economy £407 million.
Outside London, the A34 Stratford Road in Birmingham had the worst congested sections of road in the UK. Drivers wasted an average of 44 hours a year on the section from Robin Hood Lane to the A41 in Sparkhill, and 42 hours from A4540 to the A41 in neighbouring Sparkbrook.
Dudley’s A461 from New Road to the A4123 was also highlighted as a researchers fell.
Tory leader Robert Alden, who has a post graduate diploma in air pollution management, said: “We will transform Birmingham with green infrastructure like living green walls being installed on canyon locations like parts of the Aston Expressway to help clean the air around our roads.
“Research shows that they can remove up to 40 per cent of nitrous oxide and 60 per cent of particulate matter from the surrounding air. Our plans include living green walls, urban forests, micro parks and use of new technology like ‘city trees’ which are 13 ft moss covered frames that have the cleaning power of 275 tress.
“Each one can clean 250 grams of found Birmingham pollution levels congestion blackspot with 32 hours stuck in traffic. As expected, London remains the UK’s most congested city and ranks second in Europe after Moscow and seventh in the world. Drivers in the capital spent an average of 71 hours in gridlock during peak hours.
Congestion cost drivers in the UK more than £37 billion in 2017 alone.
The UK government is rolling out a £1.1 billion investment program to tackle the issue across the country and an additional £220 million to be spent on Highways England roads to improve road safety and alleviate congestion.
Inrix chief economist Dr Graham Cookson said: “The cost of congestion is astonishing. It takes billions out of the economy and impacts businesses and individuals.”
Dr Cookson called for innovative particulate matter a day. The size and flexibility of new technology like ‘city trees’ allows their easy placement in key pollution hot spots across the city, including ensuring all our major shopping centres have some additional infrastructure to clean the air and attract shoppers to a cleaner, greener recreation environment.”
The Tories’ policy was revealed two weeks after the council’s ruling Labour cabinet postponed an announcement of its own proposals to charge high-polluting private cars to enter the city centre amid fears it would be politically unpopular.
Plans for a clean air zone charge for high polluting lorries, vans and buses are already in the pipeline. approaches to deal with the growing number of cars on the road. He said: “Increased flexible working or road charges have potential. However, transport authorities should be looking to exciting developments in data analytics and artificial intelligence which promise to reinvent our approach to traffic management.”
A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: “The Government is taking the big decisions for Britain’s future, underlined by our record £23 billion for road schemes - the biggest investment in a generation. This will help cut congestion, shorten journey times, and boost economic growth. We are also giving councils record amounts of capital funding – more than £7.1 billion up to 2021, which will help to upgrade and maintain local roads up and down the country.”
In contrast the Tories have ruled out any pollution tax or congestion charge for private vehicles.
Cllr Alden said London’s air has continued to deteriorate despite the congestion charge introduced 15 years ago.
“Scientific research from various universities show that congestion charges do not make any difference to the quality of air. Instead they are simply the crutch for tired Labour administrations, lacking the vision to do anything else,” he added.
The Tories also propose ‘urban consolidation depots’ where business deliveries into the city centre can be combined to reduce journeys and want to talk to canal authorities to bring back deliveries by water.