Factsheets - No.6: European Best Practice Focus on World Cities
- London has a greater supply of buses than other World cities apart from Athens (2.7 buses per 1000 population compared with Barcelona's 1.0, Rome 1.7 and Athens' 3.6).
- Bus fleets are increasing at a rate of 1% per year, in contrast to the decline seen in most other cities.
- Invests second highest amount in public transport per capita, although this is still 20% less than Barcelona (London 275 euros per capita, Barcelona 326, Athens 221).
- BUT, low differential in costs of car travel and public transport in London is a disincentive to modal shift.
- London's length of reserved routes for public transport such as bus priority lanes compares poorly against Barcelona, and to a lesser extent Rome (10 route kms compared with 33 kms in Barcelona and 13 kms in Rome).
- Has the worst levels of congestion amongst cities with similar levels of road use (Paris, Madrid, and Berlin).
- Congestion impacts on the efficiency of public transport with London's average bus speeds at 18kph, compared to Rome's 20kph, Berlin and Madrid's 19kph and 18kph in Athens.
- Despite low car ownership, it has a relatively high level of car travel with nearly three times as many trips made by car than public transport, although London does perform well on walking.
- Cost of using public transport in London is higher than in any other World city in the WS Atkins sample (a typical monthly travel card in Barcelona costs £25 compared with £60 in London for a Zone 1 travel card, a single ticket is 50 pence in Barcelona compared with £1.50 on London Underground).
- Low number of road deaths, with 3.2 fatalities per 100,000 population compared with 6.7 in Paris, 8.5 in Barcelona and 12.5 in Rome, although the risk of injury accident is high in London at 635 per 100,000 to Paris's 420.
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