Road building
33. Road congestion would be relieved by establishing
a better balance between road capacity and demand. This could
be achieved in three ways:
- by restraining demand through
pricing, regulation, technology, and land-use policies;
- by optimising the use of existing capacity through
management, regulation and technology; and
- by the creation of new capacity through infrastructure
and technology.[64]
It is clear that a judicious mix of all three aspects
will be needed. The Department has adopted a package of measures
to tackle road congestion, which includes road improvements, traffic
management and demand management measures.
34. In the foreword to the Transport White Paper
the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, states that
Where it makes economic sense, and is realistic
environmentally, we will provide additional transport capacity…
We want to see road widening and bypasses to tackle the worst
areas of congestion.
Road building was put forward as a solution to inter-urban
road congestion by several witnesses in our inquiry.[65]
Roads are the most extensive component of the transport system:
almost 250,000 miles of road in the UK provide access to almost
every property and 93 per cent of all travel is by road.[66]
Yet although direct comparison with Europe is not straightforward
because of the UK's extensive network of non-motorway trunk roads,[67]
it is clear that we have one of the lowest motorway densities
in Europe.[68]
35. The Highways Agency's 'Targeted Programme of
Improvements' is the Government's £8.6 billion road building
schedule and includes road widening, junction improvements, and
bypasses.[69] The rolling
programme has covered 97 schemes since 1998, including some of
the priority areas identified in the multi modal studies, and
20 schemes have so far been completed.[70]
These road improvements are currently being undertaken in the
absence of demand management polices. The Government should set
out systematically what level of road use it regards as economically
necessary. It should establish what scale of road building it
thinks would be needed to enable the network to cope efficiently
with such a level of traffic. We believe the Government should
be more explicit in stating what level of road capacity is required,
rather than having a rolling programme of piecemeal schemes. We
suggest that this issue should be addressed in a new inquiry by
any Transport Committee established in the next Parliament.
36. In the foreword to the White Paper, the Prime
Minister also states
We cannot simply build our way out of the problems
we face. It would be environmentally irresponsible - and would
not work.
Although a need for inter-urban road improvements
was recognised by a number of witnesses, few called for road building
to keep pace with unrestricted traffic growth. Implementing a
significantly expanded inter-urban road building programme, without
complementary demand management policies, would raise some difficulties.
First, it would create serious increases in urban congestion,
when the additional traffic on these expanded inter-urban roads
hit the urban network, which is geographically constrained and
hard to expand.[71] As
Peter Mackie, Professor of Transport Studies, University of Leeds,
told us:
A pure capacity enhancing programme is inconceivable.
It is unaffordable. It would be unacceptable on environmental
grounds. If you could overcome those problems on the inter-urban
network, you would run into tremendous difficulties at the interface
between the inter-urban network and the local road network.[72]
37. Secondly, the traffic forecasts which would be
used to underpin the design of new capacity would themselves be
very different depending on whether they anticipated a future
context with road pricing, or without. The Institute of Civil
Engineers suggested:
A presumption of policy in favour of pricing
would require a range of forecasts of the effects of pricing on
every scheme or proposal and an entirely new assessment procedure
would be needed.[73]
Thirdly, it was suggested that no road improvement
scheme could be properly assessed unless it is clear how it interacted
with future plans on road pricing.[74]
There would be an expectation that the benefits of new capacity
would be higher, but the road design different, if pricing was
implemented during the lifetime of the road. The Government should
look at the package of measures available to it and the interrelations
between them. It should plan its road building and improvement
programme in the context of its demand management and traffic
management policies, in particular taking into account the possible
impact of national road pricing.
38. The Government has stated that it is not possible
to build our way out of congestion and at the same time it says
that some new road capacity is necessary. It needs to set out
its view on the level of new capacity needed, where it is needed
and why it is needed, far more clearly. A national road pricing
system could significantly alter travel behaviour. The Government
needs to reconcile its long term road improvement programme with
its policy on demand management and traffic management. The three
approaches must not be considered in isolation.
'Soft' factors
39. The Department for Transport's 2004 document
"Smarter choices: changing the way we travel", showed
that 'soft' measures, or 'smarter choices' as the report refers
to them, could have a positive impact on traffic and congestion
levels.[75] These measures,
which include school travel plans, workplace travel plans, teleworking,
public transport marketing, cycling facilities and car clubs,
could reduce peak hour urban traffic by as much as 21 per cent.
Given that the Road Pricing Feasibility Study found that reductions
in urban traffic levels of 4 per cent could reduce urban congestion
by half, the impact of 'soft' measures could be enormous. They
should be adopted without delay.
40. The report notes that these measures would be
at their most effective in conjunction with other policies, including
road pricing:
Those experienced in the implementation of soft
factors locally usually emphasise that success depends on some
or all of such supportive policies as re-allocation of road capacity
and other measures to improve public transport service levels,
parking control, traffic calming, pedestrianisation, cycle networks,
congestion charging or other traffic restraint, other use of transport
prices and fares, speed regulation, or stronger legal enforcement
levels.[76]
Some of these policies were suggested to us as a
means of tackling congestion. Stronger use of parking controls
and charges was recommended, including rigorous enforcement of
existing parking regulations and an extension of workplace parking
levies to car parks at out-of-town retail outlets.[77]
Speed management was also identified as having a potential role
in reducing congestion.[78]
The Highways Agency has trialled variable speed limits on parts
of the motorway with success.
41. The Department for Transport's own research has
shown that 'soft' factors, such as travel planning, proper cycle
facilities, marketing of public transport, teleworking and the
like, could have significant impacts on travel behaviour and congestion.
The impact of 'soft' factors could be greatly enhanced by complementary
demand management policies such as road pricing. Similarly, road
pricing itself can be made more palatable and attractive by using
these 'soft' policies to support it. During the period when pricing
is awaited, interim tools including both 'soft' measures and 'hard'
ones such as parking control, speed management and efficient allocation
of road capacity, should be implemented widely and without delay.
64 The Royal Academy of Engineering (2005) Transport
2050 The route to sustainable wealth creation. London. Back
65
RP 11A, RP 14, RP 15, RP 19, RP 29, RP 31, RP 39, RP 47. Back
66
The Royal Academy of Engineering '(2005) Transport 2050 The route
to sustainable wealth creation'. London. Back
67
Q421 Back
68
CBI Is transport holding the UK back? Back
69
Announced in 1998 as part of 'A New Deal For Trunk Roads In England'.
And Q614. Back
70
DfT Annual Report 2004 p31 and Future of Transport White Paper
p37 Back
71
Q221, RP 17A, RP 21A. Back
72
Q378 Back
73
RP 44 Back
74
RP 26. Back
75
DfT (2004) 'Smarter Choices: Changing the Way We Travel' Volume
1 final report. Back
76
DfT (2004) 'Smarter Choices: Changing the Way We Travel' Volume
1 final report, Summary. Back
77
RP 17A, RP 50 Back
78
RP 01, RP 17, RP 22, Back
