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Let an extra lane take the strain..1 or not
Page 28
Page 29
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Will more lanes on motorways slash congestion or increase vehicle usage?
It depends who you ask... Chris Tindall and Dominic Perry investigate.
Twelve feet. That's all it takes to ease congestion on the country's motorways, according to a group of organisations that have teamed up to call for investment in the UK's motorway network. An extra lane in each direction on some of the most congested parts of the Ml, M4, M25, M6 and M62 will solve the problem, they say.
Twelve feet. That's all it takes to ease congestion on the country's motorways, according to a group of organisations that have teamed up to call for investment in the UK's motorway network. An extra lane in each direction on some of the most congested parts of the Ml, M4, M25, M6 and M62 will solve the problem, they say.
Twelve feet. That's all it takes to ease congestion on the country's motorways, according to a group of organisations that have teamed up to call for investment in the UK's motorway network. An extra lane in each direction on some of the most congested parts of the Ml, M4, M25, M6 and M62 will solve the problem, they say.
But will it? Won't these extra lanes just fill up again as demand once again outstrips supply?
Why build hospitals?
"Well don't build any hospitals then," is the curt reply from both the Freight Transport Association's Colin Hagen and the RAC Foundation's director, Edmund King. "If you do, they'll only fill with patients." These organisations, along with the RHA, AA Motoring Trust, CBI and the British Chambers of Commerce, advocate the building of extra lanes.
But memorable though this comparison is, people do not generally choose to fall seriously ill and end up in hospital, as one reader recently pointed out (CM 27 May).
But Hagen defends the comparison:"That is very much our line. Beyond that, our view is that if we don't widen the motorway does that make the problem any better? No. Doing nothing is not an option." But if we build more motorway lanes to ease congestion won't
these organisations be campaigning for further road expansion when these eventually become clogged as well?
"No, we don't think so," says Hagen. "We don't think we are going back to the prevalence of the campaigns of the early '90s. We are not asking to concrete over the country — those arguments are dead and buried."
Hagen thinks people have a mixed-up attitude over road building. They object to increased road capacity but are happy to call for increased capacity on buses and rail: "That involves changes," he points out. "Building bus lanes, extra railway lines."
King also describes the 'road fill-up' argument as "naive and simplistic". He says the objection is not only false but also a sweeping generalisation, intended to divert transport policy and investment in directions that do not serve the public interest.
"People don't drive on the M25 for the heck of it," he adds: "They drive on it because they are going somewhere and often on a journey that is simply not catered for by public transport."
"People don't drive on the M25 for the heck of it," he adds: "They drive on it because they are going somewhere and often on a journey that is simply not catered for by public transport."
"People don't drive on the M25 for the heck of it," he adds: "They drive on it because they are going somewhere and often on a journey that is simply not catered for by public transport."
"People don't drive on the M25 for the heck of it," he adds: "They drive on it because they are going somewhere and often on a journey that is simply not catered for by public transport."
"People don't drive on the M25 for the heck of it," he adds: "They drive on it because they are going somewhere and often on a journey that is simply not catered for by public transport." King points out that the growth in traffic over the past 22 years has not been caused by building new
roads either: the strategic road network of motorways and trunk roads has increased by 1%, while car travel has risen by 61%. The main factor, he says, has been the growth in car ownership.
But Friends of the Earth (FOTE) believes there is an alternative. Spokesman Tony Bosworth says it is persuading the government to put more emphasis on sustainable transport and invest more in local transport plans.
The Way To Go campaign was launched in the run-up to the government's spending review and the review of the Ten Year Transport Plan, which will set the national direction in transport until 2016.
Bosworth describes the coalition of environmental and social justice organisations involved in the campaign as "broad-based"; it includes Transport 2000 and the union Unison. It complains that the Ten Year Plan put a heavy emphasis on road building which marked a significant departure from the 'greener' view of transport policy taken in the 1998 government White Paper. Not the way to go
"We don't think road building is the way forward," says Bosworth. "Twelve Feet Wide is not a longterm solution.We've tried widening motorways in the past. We found that the extra capacity regularly fills up within a few years —like the M25 in the '90s. In some cases the extra capacity filled up in one year."
Bosworth also points to an FOTE survey, which polled AA and RAC members among others, and found that seven out of 10 want more spending on public transport. They also said better public transport is a higher priority than road building. But King says motorists' response to solutions is invariably Utopian: "They support more public transport for other people to use in order to free up the roads for themselves. Friends of the Earth ought to look at the reality" •