Investigating Traffic in Glasgow

Causes of Traffic Congestion

• The Victorian grid iron street pattern was not designed for modern traffic and narrow streets cause congestion, exacerbated by on street parking. The grid iron street patterns means lots of junctions and more traffic lights

Causes of Traffic Congestion

Glasgow is cut in two by the River Clyde and with only a limited number of crossings traffic tends to bottleneck around these, for example at the Clyde tunnel or the Kingston Bridge on the M8 motorway

Causes of Traffic Congestion

• 25% of people who in Glasgow do not live in the city. Commuters arriving in the city centre cause rush hour congestion.

Causes of Traffic Congestion

• In 1991 there were 106000 cars owed in Glasgow, by 2005 this had risen to 160,000. Many car drives prefer the convenience to public transport

Causes of Traffic Congestion

• Shortage of off-street parking which means people park on the roads and so increase congestion.

Causes of Traffic Congestion

• People not using public transport - either because it is less convenient, too expensive or not available.

Causes of Traffic Congestion

• Many people travel into the CBD at the same time (rush hour) and this can cause massive traffic jams.

Solutions: New Roads

M8 motorway

M74 motorway

Clydeside Expressway

Management of Tranpsort

Management of transport involves looking at all the different options for improving the flow of traffic, reducing pollution, maintaining and improving the infrastructure, and creating a sustainable, economically productive, healthy and environmentally friendly transport network.

You need to be able to identify a variety of management strategies and assess their likely impact against the criteria above.

Impacts: New Roads

Concerns over increased congestion around the bottleneck of the Kingston Bridge have been raised about the M74 extenstion.

Increased pollution and noise created by the extension are also issues for local residents. The reliance on car transport is at odds with Scottish Government targets to reduce climate change.

Solutions: New crossing points

1963 Clyde Tunnel

1970 Kingston Bridge

1971 Erskine Bridge

2006 Finneston Bridge

Solutions: Improvements to Public Transport

Improvements to Central Station including electronic ticket barriers

Park and Ride

New line between Larkhall and Milngave opened in 2006

Solutions: Subway

• Glasgow’s Subway During the late 1970s Glasgow’s subway (underground railway) was modernised, electrified and the stations enlarged. It provides a fast efficient service. Trainscall every four minutes at the 15 stations at peak times. Over 14 million people use the subway each year and plans have recently been announced to look into the possibility of extending the system to Glasgow Harbour and the East End.

Solutions; Nextbike

Nextbike scheme

Solutions: One way sytem

The grid iron street pattern lends itself to a one-way system where traffic moves around the city without having to meet oncoming traffic or turn right across it

However it does create more junctions and traffic lights causing increased waiting times

Solutions: bus lanes

Bus lanes improve flow for public transport encouraging commuters to leave their cars at home.

Impacts: Glassford Street Bus LaneGlasgow City Council made

£700,000 from fines on Glassford Street between April 23 2013 andDecember 31st 2013

Solutions: New Car parks

Car parks like the one at Buchanan Galleries provide off street parking for commuters and shoppers. This improves flow on the narrow city centre streets and reduces the liklihood of accidents as traffic pulls in and out.

Impacts: Car parks

Car parks encourage commuters to take their car to work and so are not solving congestion on main roads. Increased car numbers in the city centre create more pollution and Hope Street is already the most polluted street in Scotland.

More car usage does not fit with a healthy or sustainable view of transport in the city centre.

Solutions: Walking & Cycling

• Pedestrianized streets make walking in the city centre much safer (e.g. Buchanan Street, Sauchiehall Street) . The riverside of the Clyde has been resurfaced with benches and trees added to make it more attractive and it is lit at night time to make users feel more safe. Glasgow, like all local authorities, have a Core Paths Plan to allow pedestrians to walk across the city linking together a variety of routes whilst remaining separate from traffic.

• Glasgow has over 300km of designated cycle lanes. These are comprised of segregated cycle lanes, shared cycle lanes (with pedestrians) and signed on street cycle lanes.