“Motorists Are Last In The Queue!” London Most Congested City In Europe For Third Year

London has been ranked the most congested city in Europe for the third year running.

Figures show that drivers in the capital spent around 99 hours stuck in traffic in 2023.

Talk’s Mike Graham is joined by former Top Gear presenter Steve Berry to discuss the story,

Steve Berry: “Too many people are trying to move down a road that wasn’t designed to take that number of people!”

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#london #traffic #motor #cars

well you need to work eight days a week just to drive if you’re driving in London slowest city in Europe I mean I saw I think it was last year we did a story uh when I think we found out it was not only slowest city in Europe slowest city in the world apparently you spend 99 hours sitting in traffic I I feel that pain i’ I’ve definitely done that well yeah and I mean let’s let’s think about why and let’s go back three or four minutes to your excellent traffic report which featured glastenbury yeah and I bet it only features once a year on your traffic reports for severe congestion yeah why is the severe congestion there because it’s the glenury festival because too many people want to move down a road to a place than that road can accommodate yeah and I think that’s the problem Mike I did a little bit of research before I came on I’ve been driving for just over 40 years now and in that time the population of the UK has increased by the population of greater London the population of Birmingham and the population of Greater Manchester put together really wow so I’m gon get a bit mancunian and a bit inspector moris and say I think those two things are connected yeah I think so the problem that we have in our towns and cities and here’s the thing what was interested about this report it it identified congestion in tiny little market tones which must absolutely do their heading you get out the city you going to live in Burton on Trent you going to live in Herford or somewhere like that and you’re still on the list of the places where the W congestion yeah too many people trying to move down a road that wasn’t designed to take that number of people I did a documentary for Sky about Spaghetti Junction a number of years ago yeah and even then 15 years ago Spaghetti Junction at Birmingham was taking nearly five times the amount of traffic daily that it was originally designed to take too many people driving too many cars on a road system that will not be extended or improved because the all say it’s too expensive to do that right well it’s worse than that though isn’t it because I imagine that the Spaghetti Junction problem was solved to some extent by the uh by the addition of the of the toll road that goes around you know the m6 toll which hardly anybody goes on because you have to pay money um so if more people actually went on that Spaghetti Junction would be better but also the other problem is certainly in London said about Manchester is that the roads have become smaller the actual Road space for cars is now nothing like what it was you know I’m similar to you you know when I drove around London 30 years ago you know you could drive down Jamaica Road um which is a bit local to me uh because it was a it was a dual carriageway it’s now got one lane um for cars and so naturally it’s half the space for probably twice the cars so it’s always jammed and ramed and cars have got bigger cars are much bigger we some of us who were all in the car game yeah but there’s only there’s less Lanes as well there’s less space yeah and one of the reasons why is because Sadi Khan and Andy Burnham and all these lovely inclusive let’s all it’s for Everybody Let’s Travel sustainably whilst increasing the population massively every single year that’s completely unsustainable but let’s ignore that they love to put in a cycle Lane yeah and Jan new Cycles here in Manchester I’ll tell you a few quirky uh College professors the lb’s doing the delivery taking fat people who can’t be bothered to go and get their own fast food taking it direct to the door and criminals that’s who Cycles in Manchester I if anybody wants to deny that I’ll send you pictures of bicycle racks in Manchester that have never ever been used ever not by one bik yeah and yet we’ve got cycle Lanes Here There and bloody everywhere Mike I know it’s absolutely ludicrous completely not I cycle but I don’t need a 4 and 1 half foot wide Lane to ride a bicycle in and also many of the many of the cycle Lanes in London do get used there’s a lot of people using cycle Lanes in the morning and in the evening but during the rest of the day there’s nobody in them this is the problem the motorist is the one who’s Las in the queue yeah when it comes to any conversation about sustainable transport and yet the motorist is the one who’s propping up the whole thing financially yeah the private motorists in their car trying to get to work is by far the most taxed of any Ro and in London I think I can’t remember if they’ve got a congestion charge in mancher they keep trying to get one but I think they haven’t yet trying yeah but the London congestion charge 15 quid now the ules charge is another 12 if you have to pay that so people are still paying that even though they are still driving because they have to drive because for whatever reason they can’t use public transport uh or public transport doesn’t work for them you know and so these are not people who are willingly clogging up London just because they’re going for a jolly because they got nothing better to do they’re driving because they blood well have to no my my Pal’s got a building business based in London and that all those charges they’re just going on people’s bills as I’m sure people are fully aware yeah that cost because he has to is just being directly we’re all paying that cost it’s just being put on everybody’s bill absolutely completely mad