CGTN Europe spoke with Rico Luman, Senior Economist specializing in Transport, Logistics, and Automotive at ING Bank
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00:00Well, London's roads were the most congested in Europe in 2024. That's according to a new report.
00:07Traffic data analysis group INRIX says drivers in the British capital spent 101 hours sitting in traffic last year.
00:15That's up 2% from the previous year. It's also the fourth year in a row that London's roads have led Europe's congestion.
00:22The second most congested roads in Europe belong to Paris, close behind London, with 97 hours of delays per driver last year.
00:30And in third place, it's the Irish capital, Dublin, where it's 81 hours of delay per driver per year.
00:37Well, Rico Lumann is Senior Economist at ING Bank with a focus on transport, logistics and the automotive industry.
00:45Good to see you. Thank you very much indeed for joining us on Global Business.
00:48Now, I confess I'm a motorist and do drive here to work in London.
00:52And it comes as absolutely no surprise to me that I spent more than 100 hours sitting in my car last year.
00:57Why is traffic so bad in London?
01:00Yeah, there's actually a few reasons for this.
01:03Obviously, London is a very big city, so the Greater London region covers a larger region than the Paris, Greater Paris region, for instance.
01:12So, people need to commute longer distances.
01:15So, that's one of the reasons behind this.
01:18Another one is that there's much more buses and also taxis on the roads.
01:23And people have higher ownerships of cars.
01:26So, the density of cars is higher in London compared to other cities.
01:31And another one, of course, is that business intensity is very high in London, especially in the square mile of London city.
01:40So, compared to other cities, traffic is much more intensive in London.
01:46That makes a lot of sense.
01:48So, traffic gridlock does have an economic toll, doesn't it?
01:51Around a billion dollars a year or more than that.
01:53What does that mean for the average Londoner and the broader economy?
01:57And what kind of impact does it have on businesses and local public services?
02:01Yeah, well, it could mean a waste of time, of course, for people commuting.
02:07So, that's a matter of waste of time compared to probably a higher wage that people earn in London.
02:14And, well, many people obviously live outside of London, in Greater London, because of house prices, of course.
02:23So, that's the impact for the personal side of this.
02:27And for businesses, of course, it can be detrimental in terms of location factors.
02:34It's an important location factor to have this connectivity and to be easy reachable for people.
02:44So, it can be detrimental when this goes up even further.
02:49On the other hand, we have to bear in mind that before the pandemic, so pre-pandemic, it was even worse.
02:55So, it's on the rise, that's true, but it's less worse still than before the pandemic.
03:02Yeah, I think it's not quite as bad as it was before the pandemic, still pretty bad here.
03:07Is there any evidence that traffic delays actually do nudge people's transportation habits?
03:12Do they head to the buses and the trains and bikes?
03:16Could happen, indeed.
03:18People may be triggered to look into alternative modes, jumping on the tube, for instance.
03:26Looking into, for instance, walking more or cycling to work.
03:31That could be interesting options to look into, or even to combine modes for transport.
03:37That's kind of a new way of thinking, is to be multi-model, to include multi-model options of commuting.
03:47So, that could be the consequence and also the impact of this.
03:53And what about sustainable urban transport solutions like congestion pricing that we've got in London, New York is introducing today?
04:02Do they help to alleviate traffic problems and pollution?
04:05And what could New York learn from London's experience of charging?
04:10Well, normally it would work.
04:12From an economic perspective, that's always very interesting, because you may nudge people to avoid the city centres.
04:20So, that could urge people and drivers in general to avoid certain regions.
04:27It could also lead to a spreading of the congestion to other parts of the city.
04:32So, that may be the downside of it.
04:35But in general, we could expect some avoidance on the back of this, because of this pricing and higher costs of travelling.
04:44Rico, really great to get your thoughts on this today. Thanks so much.
04:47Rico Luman, Senior Economist at ING Bank.