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Manchester traffic flow 'one of Europe's slowest'

18/10/2007

Manchester is one of Europe's slowest-moving cities when it comes to traffic, a new report has found.

According to Keepmoving.co.uk, six British cities appear in the European league of top ten congested cities.

Manchester, where traffic moves at an average of 17 mph, was found to be the second-worst city in Britain for traffic flow after London and the fourth-worst in Europe.

"It shows that in British cities, people would rather sit in traffic jams than brave public transport," said Mary Vingoe, a spokeswoman for Keepmoving.co.uk to the Times.

"Measures to encourage people to use public transport work better than congestion charging and at the moment public transport isn't a good enough alternative."

But the figures are likely to be used as evidence that Manchester needs to overhaul its public transport system and introduce a road toll to reduce congestion.

This is despite the fact that recent figures showed nine out of ten Manchester boroughs had seen morning rush hour traffic fall in the last few months.