The Daily Echo takes an in-depth look at Southampton's traffic problems and what can be done to help motorists

Earlier this week the Daily Echo revealed a report that showed traffic queues added 80 hours to frustrated motorists’ journeys over the course of last year.

Information company TomTom found average journeys last year took 24 per cent longer than they would have in free-flowing traffic – up from 20 per cent in 2013 and 19 per cent the previous year.

The firm’s research also showed that, on average, delays in the morning rush hour added 55 per cent on journeys, while the figure was 51 per cent for evenings.

Of course Southampton – ranked 16th in the country for congestion – is not the only city battling with the issue, but there were a number of incidents that contributed to its unwanted nickname as “congestion capital of the south”.

Last year proved a testing time on the roads for people who found themselves trapped in lengthy queues as a number of major roadworks schemes got under way.

A number of major roadworks projects, including work on Central Bridge and the major Platform for Prosperity project to turn Platform Road and Town Quay into a dual carriageway, did not help congestion levels.

But there were also added problems, like in November, when a lifted manhole cover caused hours of gridlock as the authorities struggled to agree who was responsible for it.

In January last year the Daily Echo reported how some trapped motorists were forced to abandon vehicles and even urinate in the street as hundreds became caught up in gridlock when roadworks clashed with the arrival of five cruise ships.

So after congestion increased last year, what can be done to make sure it – and motorists’ blood pressure – does not keep on rising?

Edmund King, president of Hampshire-based Automobile Association (AA), says having a long-term plan for how to deal with traffic in the city is an important first step.

He said: “Sometimes traffic management is piecemeal, because lanes are put in and traffic lights are done and nobody looks at the bigger picture. It may be that they have to look at the sequencing of traffic lights, and maybe look at using the Scoot system.”

Scoot (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique) is new technology allowing traffic lights to respond automatically to different traffic patterns through detectors installed into roads.

Mr King says park-and-ride schemes – an idea recently raised by city councillors looking into ways to combat the city’s poor air quality – are also options that could help to reduce congestion.

“Improving public transport is one option, but it’s about matching it to demand and about making it more attractive than driving and being sat in traffic. It’s a complex area because there are so many elements.

It’s a combination of things, there’s no one element that would solve the problem.”

Sian Berry, roads and sustainable transport campaigner from the Campaign for Better Transport, says traffic on some of the city’s main routes has actually decreased over the last ten years.

The organisation’s data says that there was 11 per cent less traffic along Mountbatten Way and Redbridge Road in 2013 than in 2005, and 26 per cent less along Portsmouth Road and the Itchen Bridge.

However, traffic did increase on other routes, such as Thomas Lewis Way and Bevois Valley Road, which went up by three per cent, and the M271, which saw a 14 per cent rise.

But she says there are a number of ways the city could improve its congestion record, including continuing the push to get more residents cycling.

The city council has promoted cycling in a number of ways in recent years, from creating new cycle routes such as the one over the Itchen Bridge to hosting the annual SkyRide event.

She says better train and bus services, or even trams, have improved congestion in cities like Manchester.

She also says reducing speed limits can have a positive impact on congestion as it would encourage more people to walk or cycle. But, she says: “There needs to be a big solution, there’s a lot of different things that will help, as opposed to just one solution.”

The council’s Labour transport boss, Cllr Jacqui Rayment, pictured below, has faced calls to resign from her Conservative opponents over the string of incidents.

She said: “We have had an unprecedented amount of investment going into the city, including the bridge works, Platform for Prosperity and investment that comes to the city that is outside of our control, such as the work on the new Mayflower Halls in the city centre.

“All of that has had an impact on our roads, and of course there is work outside of the city being done by the Highways Agency.

“I think we learned some painful lessons, but Northam Bridge appears to be going well, Platform for Prosperity has finished, which had a big impact, and I am hopeful that the congestion figure will reduce, though of course we will always strive to bring investment into the city.”