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

  • SCANaCAR and VideoBadge counter parking’s prickly problems.
    June 4, 2014
    Colin Sowman discovers how the latest systems can boost productivity and reduce conflict in parking enforcement. Parking enforcement is something of a ‘Cinderella’ service for local authorities: while necessary to keep the roads open and the traffic flowing, it is an expensive operation and can be loss-making. It is also labour intensive and parking enforcement officers are routinely verbally abused and sometimes physically attacked. Some authorities are now looking to automate parking enforcement in orde
  • E-scooter fires spark TfL ban 
    December 16, 2021
    Defective lithium-ion batteries to blame; £1,000 fines for people who don't comply
  • London launches new team to crack down on congestion
    November 30, 2015
    A new team of Road and Transport Enforcement Officers is being deployed to key traffic routes across London to crack down on illegal or inconsiderate behaviour and other problems that cause congestion. The new 40-strong Transport for London (TfL) team, which will rise to 80 by next spring, will help deal with problems such as illegal stopping or unloading of deliveries, which can cause delays to drivers and bus passengers. It will work closely with the TfL-funded Metropolitan Police Roads and Transpo
  • German authorities use CB-radio message to reduce accidents in roadworks
    April 8, 2014
    Citizen Band radio is proving useful to prevent accidents in Germany’s roadworks. In common with other German Länder (federal regions) with large volumes of commercial vehicles using their trunk road networks, Bavaria had been experiencing high levels of road traffic accidents (RTAs) involving heavy trucks in the vicinity of minor motorway maintenance sites. This was despite the extensive visual warning regulations published in the German federal road safety audit (RSA) guidelines for the protection of site