7 Conclusion
73. Congestion costs the economy billions of
pounds every year. It is not restricted to specific roads at certain
times, but can happen on any road, at any time of the day. It
can be very localised, or can involve the strategic road network,
and different contexts require different strategies of road management.
In general, although there is little appetite for more legislation
to reduce congestion, there were calls for the existing legislation
to be used more effectively and for the remaining parts of the
Traffic Management Act to be implemented. In 2004, the Traffic
Management Act was expected to promote a change in culture in
local authorities' approaches to road and traffic management.
There has been some change but, seven years on, the picture remains
patchy: there are examples of improved practice, but also plenty
of room for improvement. Now is an opportunity for the Government
to reiterate the message about proactive, comprehensive and coordinated
traffic and network management that underpins the Act.
74. There is a risk, particularly with staff
being shed by central and local government, of expertise in road
and traffic management, particularly in Intelligent Traffic Management
and the use of new technology, being lost. There is a considerable
level of interest and commitment to better road and traffic management
among the professional institutions, industry and interest groups
but this requires leadership and coordination from the centre.
Implementing our recommendations would require modest investment
in this area, but this would be a small price to pay for helping
to reduce congestion while leaving the management of local roads
in the hands of local authorities. The current review of the Highways
Agency provides the Government with an opportunity to achieve
this.
75. Many of our recommendations are about ensuring
local highway authorities co-operate with each other, and with
the Highways Agency, in ensuring that the road network is managed
effectively as a single entity, rather than as a patchwork of
hundreds of isolated units. The DfT has a crucial role as a strategic
overseer, promoting and disseminating examples of good practice
and ensuring that local authorities undertake their road and traffic
management functions successfully. The Government is looking to
the Local Government Association (LGA) to do more in this respect,
and as this is a new role for the LGA in this field, the Government
should work with the association in the initial stages, to help
it develop that role.
76. We have also indicated how the Government
could do more—much more—to improve driver behaviour,
particularly by making the driving test more rigorous and publicising
the Highway Code and the TP traffic information button
on car radios more effectively. Tackling congestion involves a
range of actions, many of which depend on local authorities to
implement, but central Government has the primary responsibility
for demanding and achieving improvements. As in many other transport
contexts, the current Government's commitment to localism must
not provide a pretext for the DfT to abnegate this responsibility.
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