Traffic chaos in Trafalgar Square

Lorries and buses queue for hundreds of yards in all directions. Tourists grimace as they pose for their souvenir photographs to the sound of pneumatic drilling. Pedestrians baffled by contractors' signs clamber over barriers in an effort to cross the road.

Welcome to Trafalgar Square, one of London's biggest road junctions and most-visited tourist attractions.

The plethora of temporary traffic lights, dug-up pavements and new traffic islands - and the congestion they contribute to - is a taste of what will soon be happening all over London, a road transport expert warned yesterday.

Kevin Delaney, head of traffic and road safety management at the RAC Foundation, said: "The square shows in microcosm what effect the hundreds of roadworks scheduled for the next six months will have throughout the capital."

Transport for London, headed by Mayor Ken Livingstone, is attempting to make the area more welcoming for pedestrians. From December, the north and west sides of the square will be closed to traffic, with the current one-way system scrapped in an effort to keep traffic flowing on the east and south sides.

Taking the Evening Standard on a fact-finding tour of Trafalgar Square at midday - usually the quietest time for road traffic - Mr Delaney pointed to long queues of vehicles snaking north towards Leicester Square, south down Whitehall, and all the way along the Haymarket to Piccadilly Circus.

Mr Delaney said: "We can see for the first time what the traffic flow in Trafalgar Square is going to look like."

Pointing to the scores of cars, lorries and buses camped on the south side of the square, which is narrowed for resurfacing-work, Mr Delaney added: "One of the big problems is the roadworks. But they largely replicate what is going to happen when the scheme is complete.

"The road on the south side will have to carry traffic in two directions, forcing everybody into much narrower lanes.

"This scheme for pedestrians is fine but what are you going to do about the traffic? Trafalgar Square is a major interchange. It may be a big tourist resort, but it's a big roundabout too. Unless something is done about the traffic flow we are going to see these kind of jams every day."

Mr Delaney, a former head of traffic at Scotland Yard, said that midday traffic in Trafalgar Square should be "light and free-flowing". He pointed to queues at all entrances and exits to the square to emphasise the difference, adding: "Traffic density today is much worse than normal. Usually the queues to enter the square from Whitehall, Haymarket and Charing Cross are no more than 20 metres long outside rush-hour. Today, they stretch all the way back."

Yesterday's closure of Duncannon Street, at the north-east corner of the square, following the crash of a runaway lorry on the Strand, contributed to the congestion. But far from being an exceptional oneoff, Mr Delaney said the closure had the same effect the planned closures around the square would have on traffic levels.

He challenged Ken Livingstone's assertion that the controversial congestion-charging scheme, due to begin in February, will ease traffic within the centre of London: "The Mayor has said that congestion charging will reduce traffic in central London by 10 per cent. That would make little difference if Trafalgar Square stays like this.

"When Leicester Square was pedestrianised it was accompanied by sensible traffic measures in the surrounding areas. Unless there is a huge drop in traffic in central London then we will see five or six days a week of heavy congestion." Tourists and pedestrians reacted with dismay to the traffic chaos at the height of the holiday season. Palestinian holidaymaker Nora Abdullah, 42, was forced to climb over temporary barriers with her three young boys in an effort to cross the road.

She said: "If the traffic was like this every day it would be a nightmare. At the moment it is impossible for us to get around. If I lived in this city I would be getting more and more stressed every day."

Barbara Phillips, 50, showing friends from Scandinavia around London, said she was embarrassed by the capital: "London is a dreadful place to invite people to. I think all this work is going to do is take us backwards, not forwards."