When you were last stuck in gridlock on the way to work were you tempted to ditch your car and walk? The jams are so bad at peak times in some parts of London, with an estimated 30% of travel time spent in stationary traffic, that a growing number of City workers are swapping their wheels for running shoes to cut through the queues and keep fit at the same time.

But can two legs really be quicker than four wheels, even in the rush hour? The Sunday Times decided to put the theory to the test.

In a bright red Mini Cooper is Vicki Butler-Henderson, racing driver and presenter of Five’s Fifth Gear. Alongside her on the starting grid is Sir Matthew Pinsent, four-time Olympic gold-winning rower and a runner in today’s London marathon.

Their task: to get from Blackheath, the official start of the marathon in southeast London, to the Sunday Times offices in Wapping about five miles away on foot (almost seven by car) in as quick a time as possible.

The roads will be packed with commuters driving into the City. Both have suggested routes, but they are free to make as many detours and diversions as they want to avoid traffic, or, in Pinsent’s case, “any hills whatsoever”.

It’s a windy April morning, the traffic on the way to Blackheath has made Pinsent half an hour late to the starting line and Butler-Henderson is already predicting her defeat — everyone appears to agree that she doesn’t stand a chance.

“I can see I’m going to get around the corner and then just sit in a jam for 40 minutes,” she says. “Have you seen the size of him? (Matthew is an imposing 6ft 4in tall) He must stride about half a mile with every step.”

The Mini may have a top speed of 115mph and a 0-62mph time of 9.1sec but if it is going to spend nearly a third of its time stationary in jams or at traffic lights that isn’t going to help.

The average morning peak-time traffic speed in central London is 10.6mph. Around Britain, other cities manage about 21mph on average at peak times but still 30% of travel time during these periods is spent at speeds below 5mph and 50% at speeds below 20mph.

When Paula Radcliffe set a women’s world record time of 2hr 15min 25sec at the 2003 London marathon she was running at an average speed of almost 12mph and many good amateur runners like Pinsent can maintain an 8mph pace.

On foot, Pinsent can also take a much more direct route than Butler-Henderson’s Mini. From the starting line in the middle of Blackheath he need only dart across the grass and head for the Greenwich foot tunnel under the Thames.

Opened in 1902 and designed by Sir Alexander Binnie, it replaced the Greenwich ferry that had been running there since the 17th century and allows Pinsent to run in an almost straight line across the river and onto a riverside path.

Butler-Henderson has to thread her way through the congested roads leading up to the Blackwall tunnel, a huge looping journey almost two miles longer than Pinsent’s route. Another of Binnie’s designs, the western Blackwall tunnel, was opened in 1897 and was then the longest underwater tunnel in the world at 4,410ft. A second tunnel was added in 1967 to accommodate increasing volumes of traffic heading into central London.

Explore Features

• Porsche

• BMW

• Mercedes

• Ferrari

• Bentley

• Audi

• Maserati

• Aston Martin

• Jaguar

• VW