Finias Harper writes, instead of desperate efforts to reduce traffic congestion on roads in the short term, policymakers should use traffic as a tool to make urban transportation more sustainable. New research claims that London’s roads are the busiest in the world. However, instead of wasting money and emitting uncontrollable greenhouse gases by building new roads in unsuccessful attempts to reduce Londoners’ commute time, policymakers should do the exact opposite. Controlling the congestion caused by car traffic through strategic management in support of safe and sustainable transportation is crucial.

The car horn, as every unauthorized driver learns (and then immediately forgets), can only be legally used in Britain “to warn other road users.” The British Highway Code states: “Never sound your horn aggressively,” yet the sound of horns being honked by some drivers expressing their frustration with slow-moving students, cyclists, or other minor annoyances is a common feature in the soundtrack of urban life.

New census data shows that only 20% of Londoners commute by car and 41% of London families do not have a car at all. Despite this relatively low level of car ownership, the city is disproportionately designed to incentivize driving. With an area of nearly 20,000 hectares, 12.4% of the capital’s land is occupied by roads – significantly more than the mere 8.8% currently used for housing in London.

For some areas, the imbalance is even more severe. For example, in Tower Hamlets, although 66% of households do not have a car or van, 17.1% of land is used for roads; while only 7.5% is allocated for housing. This significant increase in space for roads means that even though many Londoners do not drive, those who do make an average of 240 trips per person per year by car or van. London has become addicted to cars.

One of the signs of this addiction is the tunnel; a 1800-ton tunneling machine currently digging under the River Thames. The Jill machine, named after the first female London bus driver, will remove 600,000 tons of soil from under the riverbed to make way for the new dual pedestrian and bicycle tunnel – the Silvertown Tunnel. This tunnel, which is inaccessible to pedestrians and cyclists and has faced opposition from both connecting areas, will cost over one billion pounds and will lead to a significant increase in East End traffic.

Despite claims from its supporters that the new “chronic traffic” tunnel will eliminate, it will likely have the opposite effect. Local people, who may otherwise use sustainable transportation, will be encouraged to drive on the new large asphalt road. This will significantly increase the number of cars and heavy vehicles in the area and create bottlenecks on both sides of the river.

No new road ever eliminates traffic, because the more roads are built, the more people will drive on them. This phenomenon is known as “induced demand” in traffic management, and as Professor Peter Nash observes in the European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, it has been understood theoretically for over a century and empirically demonstrated in several studies over the past eight decades.

Clearer in places like Los Angeles, where even massive 12-lane freeways are regularly blocked – because every time the city adds a lane, traffic simply increases – also affects demand for London. For example, on the eve of the 2012 Olympics, billions of pounds were spent on widening the M25 orbital motorway in hopes of reducing traffic, which was successful.

However, studies in 2021 conducted by former senior scientist of the UK Department of Transport, David Metz, showed that the additional lane did not result in a significant increase in long-term travel speed. Instead, the wider road encouraged more Londoners to drive, leading to a 23% increase in traffic, mostly from locals taking short trips.

Reducing the use of cars is not just for reducing exhaust fumes. Electric cars may produce less local pollution compared to gasoline cars, but they still require large amounts of energy and emit carbon. They rely on rare metals like lithium, which the International Energy Agency predicts will face shortages by 2025. Additionally, car-based urbanization, whether electric or non-electric, is inherently unsustainable and creates less efficient and dangerous cities. Parents who become sad when their child learns to use a Cybertruck instead of a diesel 4×4 find some comfort.

In the end, new roads like the Silvertown Tunnel are completely contradictory to the urgent shift towards sustainable urban development. Urban planners should act exactly opposite of their short-term efforts to alleviate traffic by increasing the amount of land allocated for roads: strategically removing land from the road network to reduce long-term car usage.

Although shrinking road space may initially cause an increase in congestion, the Pont de l’Alma, the chief urban planner of the Paris metropolitan area, reports that research conducted in 60 cities shows that removing lanes from urban highways reduces traffic speed by up to 14%, without affecting traffic severity. While reducing traffic may not be possible with the construction of new roads, it can be a powerful tool for reducing car usage if strategically controlled.

Some sustainable travel activists believe that drivers can be incentivized to give up their addiction to cars by investing in public transportation and cycling. Their hope is that by improving green transportation options, more drivers will break away from their reliance on personal vehicles and traffic can be reduced without the need for extensive policy changes in the road network.

The result of any reduction in the use of cars caused by new sustainable transportation options is the clearer expansion of roads. However, due to induced demand, quieter roads, just like new roads, encourage more people to drive again. In summary, as long as the overall space for cars does not decrease, sustainable transportation initiatives make cars more tempting at the same speed as they offer alternatives in a futile cycle.

The European Commission is prioritizing cyclists and pedestrians in cities for the “first time in history”. To break this cycle, cities not only need to create green transportation systems, but also simultaneously eliminate old car infrastructure. This includes narrowing roads, replacing car lanes with bus and bicycle lanes, removing car parking spaces from streets, implementing low-traffic neighborhoods, and reducing the continuous allocation of land for cars in areas with low traffic.

Such actions can be accompanied by driving taxes such as electronic road pricing used in Singapore, but fee-based solutions disproportionately affect the least wealthy and can easily be revoked by future governments. On the other hand, long-term reduction in the percentage of land allocated for cars permanently reconstructs cities for sustainable transportation.

Strategic reduction in road space means complete reconstruction of the narrative surrounding traffic. Traffic cannot be reduced by tunnels and new bypass routes, but it can play a key role in coordinating with sustainable transportation systems to effectively combat car addiction. Today, part of the people’s slogan is to demolish the Silverton Tunnel and instead build a bicycle path.

Translator’s recommendation.

In determining urban patterns for new housing, zoning of areas, organization, allocation of financial resources for the development of road networks, and in their reconstruction and renovation, as well as in the formulation of regulations and rules, pedestrianization should be given the highest importance and priority as the main mode of intra-city transportation and the most suitable method for short and medium distance trips. One of the most important problems in almost all cities of the country is the dominance of vehicles over pedestrians, both physically and behaviorally. Aggressive behavior and attacks by vehicles towards pedestrians on the streets or the movement of motorcycles on sidewalks and parks are among the negative consequences of negligence towards pedestrians. In a meeting on 8/13/1394, the Council of Ministers, based on Article 144 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, agreed to update the “Urban Road Design Regulations” based on sustainable transportation principles. The executive body of this decision, “Ministry of Roads and Urban Development”, the cooperating body “

Updating concepts, approaches, and methods of designing urban streets based on sustainable transportation principles.

Reviewing the regulations of urban street network design with a human-centered approach.

Considering different roles of urban streets including traffic, social, and environmental maps.

Creating integration in city communication networks and optimal use of various modes of transportation including walking, cycling, public transportation, and personal vehicles.

Providing a unified, practical and local reference for the integration of plans and evaluations; and.

“Teaching new methods of designing urban streets to designers and professional community…”

According to article 4 of section 2 of the Law of Establishment of the Supreme Council of Urban Planning and Architecture of Iran, the revised version of the “Regulations for Designing Urban Roads” has been approved by the aforementioned Council on 3/24/2020 and is now titled “Regulations for Designing Urban Streets” and is considered as part of the urban planning regulations. It is recommended that the Environmental Protection Organization, in collaboration with the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, conduct joint research on this matter and review policies related to the road construction sector based on this article.

I am sorry, I am unable to provide a translation as the Farsi text is not provided. Please provide the Farsi text for translation.

Note:

1- This article is a translation of Finias Harper’s articles titled “Cities should not only build green transportation, but also actively eliminate car infrastructure” which was published on January 11, 2023.

Dezeen website.

It has been published. Finias Harper is the director of open cities and former deputy of the Architecture Foundation. He is the author of the book “Architectural Design” (2015) and “People’s History of Wood Industries” (2016).

2- As mentioned, the title of this article in the original text was not “Sustainable Urban Planning: Revisiting Vehicle Infrastructure”; the editorial team has chosen a smoother title for the sake of clarity.