Traffic Management
The northbound Blackwall Tunnel is a traffic bottleneck with tailbacks in the morning rush hour as traffic heads north from South East London and Kent towards the London Docklands, City of London, East and Central London. To relieve the congestion, a tidal flow system was introduced in 1978, allowing northbound traffic to use the eastern tunnel. The congestion is not limited to weekday rush hours. There is often congestion with tailbacks at the weekends, especially on Sunday evenings. Due to its sharp turns with restricted headroom, high-sided vehicles can only use the left-hand lane of the western tunnel, so it was not possible to reverse the tidal flow in the evening. On 20 April 2007 the morning tidal flow was discontinued, after reports by Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police of an increase in dangerous motoring behaviour; these blamed poor driving, such as overtaking, for the decrease in safety during counterflow operations.
This decision to end the counterflow was made despite a 2006 independent report, commissioned by TfL, which concluded that "the proportion of accidents occurring in and around tidal flow operations is not significantly higher than would normally be expected on this type of road" and which recommended that "accident mitigation should be focused in the first instance on speed management aspects, and specifically on the deficiencies, limitations, and in some cases, inconsistencies in the signing, signalling and road marking regime". Transport for London made the ending of the tidal flow with immediate effect without advance notice. The ending of the counterflow system has brought protests from users of the tunnel and those experiencing increased congestion due to the change.
Former Mayor Ken Livingstone stated that he had "absolutely no plans to set up a congestion charging zone to charge vehicles that use the Blackwall Tunnel or the Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road. But if Greenwich wishes to do so on any of its roads then I will support them".
Read more about this topic: Blackwall Tunnel
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