Four out of every five traffic lights should be ripped up to boost the economy and road safety, according to a report.

A huge number of traffic lights, speed bumps and cycle lanes have brought roads to a grinding halt, a report by the Institute of Economic Affairs has claimed. It says that delays of two minutes to the average journey cost the economy £16 billion a year.

According to Richard Wellings, one of the authors of the report for the free-market think tank, councils have been taking the same approach as communist East Germany by “trying to force people out of their cars and on to subsidised public transport”.

Despite the number of vehicles on the roads remaining the same over the past ten years, the institute found that the number of traffic lights had increased from 23,000 in 1994 to 33,000 in 2014.

There was also a 20-fold rise in speed bumps to 60,000 over the same period, while signs for cycle routes rocketed from 1,572 in 1993 to 41,188 in 2013, and 100 more miles of bus lanes had squeezed out road space for cars.

According to the report, the surge in traffic regulation measures are an attempt to appease the green lobby but have instead “produced serious environmental costs”.

“From a green point of view you’re better off getting rid of all these traffic controls,” Dr Wellings said. “They actually increase pollution by delaying traffic and making car engines run less efficiently.”

His comments come as the Department for Transport’s own figures show that the average speed for a car at peak times has slowed from 25.3mph in 2012 to 23.6mph last year.

The report highlighted Germany and the Netherlands, as well as areas of the UK, where there was a fall in injury and accidents when “shared space” schemes were introduced. The increase in voluntary co-operation between car users and pedestrians led to a fall in congestion and reduction in noise and air pollution as “vehicles proceed much more smoothly”, the report said.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “Local councils are responsible for managing their networks in such a way as to balance the needs of all users. We provide guidance on designing and implementing measures but it is up to the authorities to decide how best to implement them.”