11 July 2003
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has launched a massive road-building programme and signalled that the government's long-term aim is road pricing.
Darling said: 'On any view, existing capacity isn't enough to cope with today's demands, let alone the pressures we will face. We need to widen and improve trunk roads to tackle congestion and improve safety and make journeys more reliable.'
Among the projects given the go-ahead on July 9 were the widening of the M25 and parts of five other motorways, with both physical and traffic management improvements on 12 other roads.
The Arundel bypass and dual carriageways around Stourbridge and Wolverhampton were rejected on environmental grounds. But Darling admitted: 'We can't build our way out of all the pressures we face' and launched a feasibility study for road pricing for cars.
He said: 'Road pricing would be a radically different approach. But it could have huge potential to reduce congestion, to allow faster more reliable journeys. We'd be failing future generations if we did not test its feasibility and examine the gains that could come from it.'
Alastair Jefford, vice-president of the County Surveyors' Society, said the statement represented a practical outcome of the government's first term aspiration of reducing road use. 'You can't suddenly compel people to change their driving habits,' he said.
Stephen Joseph, director of the environmental group Transport 2000, said: 'Widening roads will not solve congestion: it will simply put more cars on the road and make things worse in the long run.'
But Freight Transport Association chief executive Richard Turner said: 'Making the movement of people and goods more efficient and less painful is surely a prerequisite for life in the twenty-first century.'
The government's transport policy came under fire this week from the Commission for Integrated Transport, a body it set up to advise on the issue.
Chair David Begg said its annual assessment had found some progress, but there had been higher than expected traffic growth, worse performance on the railways and a growing gap between fares and motoring costs.
Begg said many local authorities were behind with their transport plans, which had led to worsening congestion: 'We have to question, therefore, whether some of the government's targets can be met.'
PFjul2003
