Tesco’s Traffic Nightmare on London Road

A number of Stop Tesco volunteers have been spending their Saturdays counting cars even though the middle of the winter - we salute you! We can also reveal their findings, which should make grim reading for Tesco.

The research found that building a Tesco store in London Road, St Albans could cause a 70% increase in traffic movements in the local area. It predicts over 2,000 traffic movements per hour between 11am and 3pm on Saturdays. Tailbacks in London Road that already block the end of Alma Road would be made significantly worse, causing gridlock in the area.

Our volunteers spent several Saturdays counting existing traffic levels on London Road as well as the traffic in and out of the Sainsbury’s store in Everard Close, which is a similar size to Tesco’s proposed store. When added together, the massive increase in traffic movements is seen on the graph below.Tesco’s planned store will rely hugely on car-based visitors as the majority of buses from the East of St Albans pass the existing Morrisons store and then go down Victoria Street away from the proposed site. In addition, if the Tesco car park is full, there is no available overflow parking, which will lead to further pressure on nearby residential areas.

Tesco’s published plans for its new store show a total lack of awareness of the scale of traffic problems its store would bring to this part of St Albans. The store will gridlock the entire local area, but all Tesco has suggested is a short slip lane and one controlled crossing, plus some rephasing of existing traffic lights.

We cannot see how any further improvements would alleviate the problem, given the narrow streets and Victorian street plan of the local area – there is nowhere else for traffic to go!

Thanks also to the St Albans Review for this article on the research! Please add your comments.