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Gordian knots
Page 20
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Lengthy delays cost operators billions of pounds, but the government's
attempts to cut congestion continue to fail. Jennifer Ball reports.
The government aims to cut congestion by 6% by 2010 in its 10-Year Transport Plan. But the latest figures from the Department for Transport in its Traffic in Great Britain Q1 2004 report reveal that traffic continues to rise. In the first quarter of 2004 total traffic jumped 1.8% to 120.8bn kilometres compared with 118.7bn kilometres in the same period a year earlier.
This indudescartraffic,whichrose by 2% between the first quarters of 2003 and 2004, and goods traffic, which fell 1% over the same period. The cost of jams The Freight TransportAssociation estimates that road congestion is costing the UK economy more than £20bn each year — equivalent to over £450 for every man,
woman and child in the country. It is not surprised by these results, a spokeswoman says: "Car traffic continues to grow but it is operators that are most affected by this when they are trying to make deliveries.
"The increase in vans is largely due to a growth in multiple-drop deliveries as a result of home and intemet shopping, while the fall in HGV traffic highlights how the industry has become more efficient in consolidating freight — trucks account for only one in every 60 vehicles on the road." Peter Spooncer from Market Deeping-based Spanners Transport believes that the government should be investing more in improving the road infrastructure:"We do a lot of work in Cambridge and at 6am in the morning
it will take only an hour and a half to get there. However, on the way back the journey can take double that time." Harder to move
David Blockley from Leeds-based David Blockley Recovery agrees that it is getting much harder to move around: "We are based only half a mile from the motorway network but it can still take us 20 minutes to get onto it. I don't know what the government can do though — there isn't enough space to build any more roads.
"One of the problems is that there are too many sales reps on the road. I am sure with the technology that is available now a lot of their work could be done over the phone or on the intemet."
But the government argues that there is a clear distinction between traffic (the number of vehicles on the road) and congestion (vehicles at a standstill). A Department for Transport spokesman says the government has invested a lot of money in the road network to improve the movement of traffic, and that the increase in cars is a sign of a healthy economy. Road traffic in the UK Total traffic rose by 1.8% Car traffic rose by 2% Light van traffic rose by 1% Pedal traffic rose by 3% Goods traffic fell by 1%