New policy will lead to 10 million litres of wasted fuel

My previous post was regarding the closure of Olav Kyrres gate in Bergen city centre, which took effect 2 days ago.

Not only has this policy caused traffic chaos in Bergen, I have calculated the side affect of this so-called "environmentally friendly" policy; increased fuel consumption and congestion = increased pollution.

Closure of this street means that motorists
now have to drive extra miles around the
city to reach their destination. Photo: flickr

Let me explain. The closure of this street is supposed to make it easier for people to walk, and make the bus drivers happier because they don't have to worry about manoeuvering around cars during rushhour. The truth is, the busses are still posing a constant threat to pedestrian safety, so if they want to close down the street, they should close it down to all traffic, including busses and taxis.

 

Moreover, this new policy is leading to all the car drivers who have previously used this street to go all the way around the city. As I have mentioned in my previous post, this means added distance, and more traffic lights. From my experience, out of the 12 traffic lights on that route that we are forced to take from now on, at least 5 of them are always red. Stop & go driving always uses more fuel, so the proposed new route will lead to, on average, around 200ml of wasted fuel per car. This may not sound much but if you consider the following;

 

1. Bergen is a growing city. If the current population growth rate is 2% per annum, then it would take 35 years for the population to double.

2. This means that, even if the proportion of people driving to the city halved in the next 35 years, the number of cars will still be the same as today.

3. I do not know how many cars exactly passed the Olav Kyrres Gate per day, but if we assume 5000 cars per day on weekdays,and 2500 cars per day on weekends, it would be 30,000 cars /week.

4. That would be 1.56 million cars/year, and 54.6 million cars in 35 years.

5. If each car ended up wasting 200ml of fuel, that would come to approximately 10.9 million litres of wasted fuel. All that wasted fuel enters the city air in the form of CO2 and NOx, right into our lungs.

 

Do you see the problem now?

 

Update 29.09.2012

As expected, the traffic in the "diverted" roads got much worse! It was actually worse than I had expected, now it is a nightmare to drive through cerain parts of the city. That got some drivers cutting through residential streets and through the university area.

 

I do not understand what the policymakers were thinking in the policy design stage. The problem with Norwegian politics is that it does not involve the people in the planning stage. The people generally know about these things a day or so before the actual implementation. When it comes to evaluating the results and outcomes of the policy, they just look at the Olav Kyrres Gate and say how wonderful it is that there are no more cars there and how the policy had been successful. They do not take any consideration of the consequences and what additional problems the policy has created.

 

Do you have any stories to share regarding the poor policy planning in your town/city? Let me know!