Study suggests London Underground may be ’too fast’ - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34334794
A mathematical study of transport in London and New York suggests the British capital should be wary of its trains travelling too quickly.
If Tube journeys are too fast, relative to going by road, then the model predicts an increase in the overall level of congestion.
This is because key locations outside the city centre, where people switch transport modes, become bottlenecks.
By contrast, New York’s layout is such that faster trains will always help.
Reporting their findings in the journal Royal Society Interface, the researchers calculate that London’s system would function best with underground trains travelling about 1.2 times faster than the average speed on the roads. This makes the optimum Tube speed approximately 13mph (21km/h); the current average is 21mph (33km/h).
