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Motorway Madness?
By Roger Harrabin
Environment Correspondent
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Progress of the Regional Studies, Due to Report Throughout the Year
In the study shows that over half the commuters on one stretch of the M1 are doing highly-dispersed round trips of more than 86 miles a day. And every year local councillors make matters worse with new business parks straddling the M1 and generating even more traffic. Many of these journeys would be tortuous by bus and train.
The best long-term solution, consultant Denvil Coombe says, is to persuade people to think twice about moving far from work by charging them for using congested motorways or city streets. The cash could instead be spent on trains and buses.
The team want to encourage innovative solutions like car-sharing centres at motorway service stations. Their research suggests that charges of 20p per rush-hour kilometre in towns and 2p per kilometre on the motorway would stem two-thirds of projected traffic growth.
The team recommend motorway-style roads ringing the town, but diluted their charging proposals after opposition from councillors (critics warn that traffic into Cambridge may increase by 30% as a result.)
The M1 team say 10 lanes of motorway may be needed to accommodate commuters around Nottingham, but are ambivalent about motorway charging because it would divert traffic and discriminate against poorer drivers. But they conclude: "Can we build our way out of congestion? The answer seems to be no!"
The Birmingham-Manchester study (West Midlands to North West Conurbation Multi-Modal Study, MIDMAN) says the M6 in Staffordshire should be expanded, but then tolled in the future. The separate West Midlands study wants to widen the M42 but restrict the M6 through Birmingham to its current width. It urges Birmingham and Wolverhampton to price roads soon, with wider pricing to follow.
The South Scotland study is grappling with similar ideas, as the team studies maps showing drivers commuting coast-to-coast from the west of Glasgow to the east of Edinburgh. While a few members consider this a matter of voter choice, the majority are said to be concerned about the trend.
The M25 study - again being advised by Denvil Coombe - think a new road pricing policy in the suburbs of London would be politically impossible, while the new Outer M25 proposed by some motoring groups would encourage even longer commuting. Research for the M25 team shows that the majority of commuters hop onto the motorway for just one or two junctions to ease their journey to work. There is a strong case for making them pay - or for installing ramp metering (traffic lights at junctions).
Find out more about the congestion charging debate.
LINKS
- Transport think tank
Multi-Modal Study (SWYMMS)
Multi-Modal Study (CHUMMS)
Multi-Modal Study
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