Traffic reached new levels in London last night as taxi drivers described it as the ‘worst ever’.
Traffic ground to a crawl across the capital, but was particularly bad around Knightsbridge and Park Lane areas. The traffic was not helped by the long-term closure of Piccadilly Underpass and the refusal to reopen South Carriage Drive to alleviate congestion.
Taxi driver Michael posted a screenshot of the traffic carnage showing a sea of dark red traffic hotspots recorded on Google Maps. He added: “Total gridlock has nearly been achieved.”
Graham Long, a London taxi driver, said via social media: “Today was the worst day I’ve had as a London cabbie. I’ve never seen traffic like it. Never!
“I used to be proud of being a Londoner born and bred. Now it’s lawless, gridlocked, over priced, over rated hell hole!“
Taxi drivers were reportedly taking 54 minutes to travel from Harrods to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel just 0.2 miles away.
As the writer of this article and someone who is also a working London taxi driver, I too was also caught up in the traffic chaos. One journey in the area took 1 hour 16 minutes to travel just over 3 miles from Olympia to Curzon Street. The same trip made this morning takes 17 minutes according to live Google Maps routing.
The issue is likely to continue throughout the lead up to Christmas as events like Winter Wonderland ramp up and visitors descend on London’s West End and Knightsbridge stores.
