London Europe traffic
London overtook Brussels as most congested European city last year. Luke MacGregor/Reuters

A UK-based think tank is calling for authorities to introduce a "civility code" to ensure Londoners are nicer to one another.

The Centre for London is encouraging street users to adopt "greater civility" when they interact so that roads across the capital can be safer and more pleasant.

The initiative is contained in a report published on Tuesday 10 October, after the think tank convened a Commission on the Future of London's Roads and Streets.

Among other suggestions, the report is calling for the introduction of a London Movement Code "to better guide the interaction between different road users; and implementing traffic restriction measures where these align with broader objectives".

The group said the code would not be a statutory document, but it could eventually carry weight if promoted in public spaces including schools and workplaces.

"Increasingly we live and walk and move in a bubble. We all need to realise that we're part of a system and have to apply some sort of process to the way we move," said Patricia Brown, who sat on the commission, according to the Evening Standard.

"Ultimately we don't have enough space in the city for all of these different things to work in a perfect way.

"Some people are alert and very polite as they move around. But we get very frustrated with the increasing number of people that are in the bubble."

The report is also calling on measures to can tackle pollution, systems that can improve journey time reliability and "charging regimes" that limit residential parking permits.

In 2015 London became Europe's most congested city, overtaking Brussels.

Earlier this year, the European Commission gave the UK a "final warning" for its failure to tackle levels of air pollution after London exceeded its annual pollution limit within the first five days of the year.

A Transport for London (TfL) spokesperson said the body will consider all the recommendations "before publishing the final Mayor's Transport Strategy early next year".