Motorway Plans Get The Cold Shoulder Treatment
The RAC Foundation has rejected the Chancellor’s plan of using the hard shoulder on the motorway network. The Foundation claims that this is not an adequate answer to managing future growth in road traffic.
The Foundation agrees with the government that concentrating all road improvements on existing motorways through measures such as motorway widening and hard shoulder running is problematic because existing junctions and access roads are unlikely to be able to cope with increased traffic volumes. The Foundation claims that new road building is also needed if the demands of the economy are to be met.
The RAC Foundation want the Government to focus on developing the motorway network for five main reasons:
*Motorways have lower accident rates than other roads;
* Motorways are generally further away from residential and commercial developments;
* Motorways allow for higher capacities and service levels than other roads;
* New by passes will largely be able to join up with existing main routes, and;
* The British Motorway network is sparse by European standards;
While concentrating all road improvements to the existing network rather than building wholly new routes would:
* Encourage long distance and heavy goods vehicles to use inappropriate routes through residential areas, especially where no nearby motorway exists;
* Reduce the resilience of the overall road network and increases the likelihood of network failure due to a lack of alternative routes;
* Concentrate more traffic on existing routes and increase the likelihood of serious congestion, and;
* Increase pressure on junction and feeder roads that were designed for lower levels of traffic. Continued motorway widening and hard shoulder running activities will increase the traffic pressure seen at intersections.
Professor Stephen Glaister, Director of the RAC Foundation said, ‘To plan effectively for future roads we must learn from our past failures. We need a better understanding of who is using the network and why, and how our infrastructure in the UK measures up to our European counterparts.
“Merely filling gaps within our existing Motorways would be a missed opportunity. This is not a good approach for society, the economy or the environment. We need to think in broader terms. Simply widening existing routes and implementing hard shoulder running will not provide adequate and resilient roads for the future.”
While Tim Green, Director Road Users’ Alliance added, “Roads are the arteries that feed the economy and permit us to compete with the rest of Europe. As a boost to the process of getting Britain back on its feet the Chancellor’s announcement is welcome recognition of the importance of our road network, but it represents too little too late. At stake is the recovery of the British economy and its future growth in the face of global competition.”
Simon McBride
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