What measures would you put in place to reduce congestion?
It only takes a day or two or driving to and from work to discover that Britain's roads can often come to a standstill, but now the government has put a number of measures in place in an attempt to limit the time people waste in traffic jams.
A study titled Out of the Jam: Reducing congestion on our roads has outlined a number of simple measures to reduce congestion, including a tougher driving test, greater use of real-time information systems and better communication between road management authorities.
Launching the report, chair of the Transport Committee, Louise Ellman, said that congestion costs the UK billion of pounds each year and that improving the road network to ensure it runs more smoothly in "vital to the prosperity of the nation".
Other measures outlined by the report include creating a free Highway Code application for smartphones in order to disseminate the code to drivers who may have forgotten it, or never learnt it in the first place.
Sending a leaflet to drivers applying for a new tax disc or driving licence detailing changes to the Highway Code was also highlighted as a possible option.
"Much more can also be done to improve co-ordination between highway authorities and organisations undertaking street works to ensure local authorities use the best available technology to co-ordinate their road or traffic management activities with other highways authorities," Ms Ellman added.
Another ongoing issue which has been highlighted by the committee is the need to reopen roads quickly after an incident. It is important to maintain the quality of service offered by the police and other emergency service, while realising the damage a closed road can cause to the economy.
Do you agree with the measures that have been proposed or could more be done to limit traffic jams?
One thing that could be done is to ticket people who drive slow in the fast or passing lane. I’ve seen people driving slow in the fast lane (at the speed limit or below) when there isn’t anyone in front of them for at least a quarter mile and as a result everyone behind the car gets stuck but they assume that it’s a traffic jam when it’s just one slow driver holding everyone up. I’ve seen this a lot. Either people are unaware of the laws or they are just oblivious.
So many traffic lights seem to hinder traffic flow, rather than help. I’ve seen times where a set of lights that are broken allow for more free-flowing traffic than when they were working. See http://onemillionthings2hate.blogspot.com/2011/05/traffic-lights.html
On multi lane roads, people who refuse to pull in also create a lot of congestion, although legislating further is unlikely to resolve that.