Dealing With Traffic Jams in London
Michael M. Reynolds
Grantham University

Abstract
Traffic congestion is a growing problem in many metropolitan areas. Congestion increases travel time, air pollution, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and fuel because cannot run efficiently. London’s traffic at the turn of the millennium may have been far worse than that of the average metropolis. When driving in London’s downtown area, drivers spend around half their time waiting in traffic, incurring 2.3 minutes of delay every kilometer they traveled.

Traffic congestion is a growing problem in many metropolitan areas. People waste a lot of time in traffic jams every day. Big cities are never good, and London’s downtown area’s traffic is to say unbelievable. Congestion increases travel time, air pollution, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and fuel because cannot run efficiently. London’s traffic at the turn of the millennium may have been far worse than that of the average metropolis. When driving in London’s downtown area, drivers spend around half their time waiting in traffic, incurring 2.3 minutes of delay every kilometer they traveled. In the case we are studying the government decided to use the information technology to help the city control the traffic jam situation. The government decided to use 699 cameras at 203 sites in the 8 square miles in the city. To do this would be a challenging project because the project has a very limited time and there is no other successful case to follow. A political risk is really high and a new transit authority working under a new major faced the challenge of integrating new technologies. London government decided to outscore the element for what they needed and they divided the project to five packages: (1) camera component; (2) the image store component that collected images, converted them into license numbers, and condensed the images; (3) the telecommunications links between the cameras and the image store component; (4) the customer services infrastructure, including the ability to pay by phone, Web, and mail; and (5) an extensive network of retail outlet kiosk and gas stations where people could pay the toll. The Capita successfully bided for the image store, customer payments, and the links to retailer’s packages and won the bid. In the end the project was delivered on time and on budget, and it reduced traffic congestion more than originally projected. It success was attributed to several project management aspects: (1) an option for motorist to pay toll through the SMS text message format; (2) Capita’s deliverables were spread out over a manageable time scale; and (3)

References
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