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Congestion worse than expected
Page 11
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The road network is currently failing drivers, the government admitted last week, but it says the problem of congestion is set to Improve over the next few years.
While there is no "satisfactory data" on the extent of congestion -the information that is available suggests that current performance is worse than in 1997", says Michael Barber, head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit, which assesses the government's performance annually.
Barber says long-term underinvestment and growing usage have put the road network under stress. "Investment in roads dipped until 2000 [with a rise in recent years], while road usage has been rising remorselessly."
Gwyneth Dumvoody, chairman of the transport select committee, adds: "The growth in congestion of 3% is not a new discovery, but we cannot held air way out of it by making more roads. We've always gone along with investment in improving existing roads and safety systems, but one must not assume that just building more roads erases congestion."
One of the problems of tackling congestion is that there is no agreed definition of It, she adds. But Barber says the government is currently developing "new, more sensitive indicators which will enable us to monitor congestion road by road, and city by city". The in rejects any criticism of failing to meet the Ten-Year Plan targets. "We have admitted before that tackling congestion is a bigger problem than we first thought and we're only two years into the plan. There will be major improvements," says a spokesperson.
_ HGV traffic (vehicle kilometres) rose by 0.9% last year, according to the (YT's Road Traffic Statistics 2002. Total traffic rose 2.5%, most Of which was car traffic.