The costs of traffic jams are becoming higher and higher. The reason is, for instance, increase in average wages. If we are richer, the time we losing becomes more expensive. Secondly, the number of delays caused by traffic jams is becoming higher. The time of delays increased in four out of seven analyzed cities, including two with really great significance – Rafał Antczak, Member of the Board of Deloitte Consulting, says to the information agency Newseria. Another factor having a negative influence on statistics is increase in employment. It results in more people on the public roads in peak time.
Comparing the year 2014 to the previous one, the time of delays caused by traffic jams was extended in Cracow and Poznań – by more than one hour per month. The situation in the capital is not better, and the difference in this city amounts to 44 minutes.
According to the analysis conducted by consulting company Deloitte and Targeo.pl website, the costs of traffic jams borne by drivers travelling on the roads of seven biggest Polish cities – Warsaw, Łódź, Wrocław, Cracow, Katowice, Poznań and Gdańsk amounted to jointly 3.8 billion zlotys. A statistical driver spent 3350 zlotys – 70 per cent of an average monthly wage in the whole year 2015. To compare, in the previous year it was 64 per cent.
Nominally, the biggest amount of money spent on traffic jams is borne by Varsovians. However, the costs borne by the inhabitants of the capital are on the average national level, that is 70 per cent of monthly wage per year due to relatively high incomes. The situation is a little bit worse in Poznań, where drivers bear costs amounting to 74 per cent of their wages, as well as in Cracow (78 per cent) and Wrocław (81 per cent).
There are also cities where the situation is getting better. Gdańsk is a record-breaking city – the enhancement is clearly noticeable in both time lost in traffic jams and costs – Rafał Antczak says. The inhabitants of Gdańsk lost 68 per cent of the average monthly wage for standing in traffic jams 5 years ago and currently – only 43 per cent. The city used all possible reserves by making transport more sufficient, building roads in proper places in order to remove internal bottlenecks – Antczak adds.
The capital of Pomerania has also recorded the biggest decrease in monthly time of standing in traffic jams in the five-year period: from 7 hours 18 minutes in 2010 to 5 hours in 2015.
We have more and more directly crossed border between four most corked cities and the other ones – Rafał Mikołajczak, Chairman of the Board of Indigo – operator of Targeo.pl, says. Time lost by drivers on a regular basis totals more than 8 hours in each of these corked cities, whereas in the last three cities – 5-6 hours per month. The similar situation occurs in the case of costs. In Warsaw the costs per driver amount to almost 4 thousand zlotys per year, whereas in Gdańsk, Łódź and Katowice – 2 thousand zlotys per driver – Mikołajczak adds.
The calculations of the analyzed cities from the last year are similar to the comparison of those from 2010 (first edition of the report). It indicates low effectiveness of transport policy in the most corked cities in Poland.
In our recommendation we put emphasis on use of simple reserves. It brings effects because in each place where investments led to removal of internal bottlenecks there is a noticeable enhancement of transport liquidity – Rafał Mikołajczyk advises. We also present that, for instance, the regulation concerning no entry for vehicular traffic on the crossroads when it is impossible to go out of the road, is not under force in Poland. It frequently leads to escalation of problems in peak time and in such extreme situations as the first snowfall or other larger-than-average holdbacks in traffic – Mikołajczyk adds.