Skip to main content

Mayor’s lane rental scheme cuts roadwork disruption

A new study into London’s lane rental scheme shows that since its introduction the amount of serious and severe disruption caused by planned roadworks has been cut by 46 per cent on the capital’s busiest roads, reducing delays for all road users. The scheme, which came into effect in June 2012 on the busiest parts of London’s road network, is designed to encourage utility companies to avoid digging up the busiest roads at peak traffic times. Following the introduction of the scheme, around 90 per cent of
April 11, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
A new study into London’s lane rental scheme shows that since its introduction the amount of serious and severe disruption caused by planned roadworks has been cut by 46 per cent on the capital’s busiest roads, reducing delays for all road users.

The scheme, which came into effect in June 2012 on the busiest parts of London’s road network, is designed to encourage utility companies to avoid digging up the busiest roads at peak traffic times. Following the introduction of the scheme, around 90 per cent of utility works and 99 per cent of works carried out by 1466 Transport for London (TfL) in the lane rental areas have avoided disrupting these busy roads at peak times.

All surplus money raised through the lane rental scheme is reinvested into measures to further reduce the disruption, including: automatic roadwork monitoring cameras, allowing TfL to better determine whether work is taking place on worksites; automatic number plate recognition cameras and automatic traffic counters to capture the effects of a scheme to ensure that it continues to reduce disruption; further investigation into innovative ways of reducing disruption.

Isabel Dedring, Deputy Mayor for Transport, said: “We are delighted by the success of this scheme - which was both a First for London and the UK when it was introduced by the Mayor in 2012. It has already saved Londoners thousands of hours spent stuck in traffic and is set to save them many thousands more.”

Alan Bristow, Director of Road Space Management at TfL, said: “The introduction of the UK’s First lane rental scheme in London has already delivered significant benefits across the capital. By using this scheme to help fund more innovation and world-leading technologies, we can continue to reduce disruption and keep all road users on London’s road network moving.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Siemens Mobility is clearing the air
    October 2, 2020
    Tens of thousands of premature deaths in the UK alone are linked to air quality - but it doesn’t have to be that way. Siemens Mobility’s Wilke Reints explains why
  • European Bus Forum to show developments in European bus operations
    April 8, 2016
    Returning to Manchester in June 2016, the European Bus Forum is coming back to show the new faces, changes and developments to bus operations across Europe and the UK. Produced by the urban transport publication, Eurotransport and hosted by Transport for Greater Manchester, the one day conference and gala dinner will once again prove to be an unrivalled event for collaboration and high-standard networking. Improving vehicle safety is a key strategy used in addressing international and national road ca
  • Foundation funds research for informed campaigning
    April 29, 2015
    ITS International talks to Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the transport research and lobbying organisation, the RAC Foundation. It is through the eyes of an economist that Professor Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London and director of the RAC Foundation, views current and future transport problems. Having spent 30 years at the London School of Economics and another 10 at Imperial, the move to the RAC Foundation was a radical departure from
  • Hard shoulder running aids uniform traffic flow and safer driving
    January 23, 2012
    David Crawford detects a market for European experience. Well-established now in at least three European countries, Hard Shoulder Running (HSR) on motorways is exciting growing interest in the US. A November 2010 Report to Congress by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), on the Efficient Use of Highway Capacity, notes the role of HSR in the European-style Active Traffic Management (ATM) strategies now being recommended for implementation in the US where, until recently, they were virtually unknown.