overseen by an independent body
Some of the transport myths debunked by Roads and Reality include:
- New roads don’t just fill up with traffic: whilst they do generate some traffic, they also reduce congestion and remove traffic from less suitable, less safe roads.
- Roads don’t take up large areas of land: trunk roads carry a third of total traffic and occupy just 0.16% of the country.
- New roads have little effect on climate change: freer-flowing conditions and cleaner, greener cars are expected to reduce total CO2 emissions.
- Public transport, important in its own right, can’t solve the problem: cars carry 86% of passenger traffic, and 65% of domestic freight moves by road. Doubling the uptake of public transport would have only a minimal impact on congestion.
One of the report’s authors, Professor Stephen Glaister of Imperial College, said: “The modeling suggests that the Government cannot use the possible future introduction of road pricing as a reason to ignore the need to improve the strategic road network. If national road pricing has been put on the back-burner, more urgency is required for intelligent investment decisions now to keep the county moving in the future.”
NOTES
*Research team of Nick Banks, David Bayliss and Professor Stephen Glaister.