Congestion in outer London are at their highest since lockdown

Traffic on the outskirts of London is much higher than it was back in 2019, new data shows.

People are returning to the roads as lockdown measures ease, meaning that congestion figures have risen by around a fifth above the average from last year, according to the Waze for Cities programme.

Other reasons behind the increase in traffic could include people returning to their work offices and children going back to school since lockdown.

Despite outer regions of London being more congested that the centre of the capital, the highest day for congestion this month saw figures of 153% compared to 2019 levels.

These figures could reflect the changes to congestion charges that affect the centre of London, the increase of costs to £15 a day in June could have encouraged drivers to use the outer roads surrounding London instead.

The Waze data was compiled from their app using 1 million active monthly users from the capital, who allowed their journies to be recorded by GPS and used for this data set. Although this data reveals some surprising figures, it does not measure the volume of traffic nor does it consider journies that have been influenced by other variables, such as smaller roads to accommodate safer environments for pedestrians.

These figures have caused concern for environmental campaigners, as higher levels of traffic are linked with higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

The head of policy and campaigns at the Environmental Defense Fund Europe, Oliver Lord, said: “Traffic congestion is precisely what we should prevent as our polluted city emerges from lockdown. We need to help people get around without private cars because congestion delays buses, disrupts essential trips and makes it horrible to walk and cycle.”