Traffic results from poor policy: ABD

Housing policy causes congestion, says body

By PH Staff / Monday, 19 December 2005 / Loading comments

M25: the roadworks are done

The Government should prioritise reducing the need for car journeys, such as making it easier for people to move closer to their jobs, rather than listening to lobbyists arguing that building more roads means more traffic. That's the thrust of the latest policy statement from the Association of British Drivers.

Prompted by the completion of the M25 widening works between the M3 and M4, the motorists' group statement refutes the oft-quoted statistical interpretation that has led, according to the ABD, "to predictable claims by the anti-roads lobby that increasing highway capacity just creates more traffic. This simplistic argument is totally false."

The ABD argued that: "Government figures show that, between 1951 and 2004, the UK public road network grew in length by just 30 per cent, while in the same period the volume of traffic grew by nearly 750 per cent. This shows quite convincingly that traffic levels are not related to the extent of the highway network.

"Traffic flows are, instead, linked to economic growth. New roads only generate traffic if there is suppressed demand. Looked at another way, if highway capacity is inadequate then economic growth is restricted and we all suffer as a result. The UK has suffered from underinvestment in its road network for far too long."

The ABD reckoned that: "The problem is deeper than that."

ABD spokesman and former transport planner Malcolm Heymer said: "Car ownership levels in the UK are only average within Europe, but we have higher than average levels of congestion. In addition to the failure to invest adequately in new roads, there has been a lack of understanding by successive governments of how transport is affected by policies in other areas.

"The present government's transport policies include reducing the need to travel, but many of its actions work against that policy. For instance, the UK has a very high level of home ownership, but moving house is both expensive -- due to high levels of stamp duty that the government has imposed -- and stressful, due to a lack of legal deterrents to potential buyers who decide to pull out at the last minute.

"Consequently, when people change jobs -- as they must now expect to do several times during their working lives -- they are reluctant to move house. They would rather stay where they are, spend the money they save on improvements to their existing house, and put up with a longer journey to work. The government should be making it easier, not more difficult, to move house, and it should also be giving financial incentives to companies to encourage innovations such as teleworking."

According to the ABD, peak hour traffic is boosted by 'school run' parents, who feel they have little choice but to drive their children to distant schools because of government failure to improve educational standards in all schools.

ABD chairman Brian Gregory said: "Instead of blaming drivers for congestion, the government should be looking at the transport implications of its failures in other policy areas. Transport has been the Cinderella of politics for far too long, and the results are plain to see by anyone who has the misfortune to have to use our overcrowded roads on a regular basis."