The report, published this week, shows that Britain has the most crowded and congested roads, the fewest motorways and some of the worst public transport among the leading industrialized countries. For every mile of road, more than 1.6 million passenger miles are travelled each year - a difficult statistic to understand but the key point is that this is more than twice the European average.
In 2006, road transport-related taxes raised 32 billion of which just 8 billion was spent on roads, mostly on repairing damage caused primarily by goods vehicles (of which a high proportion are not UK-registered and therefore pay no UK tax) and on anti-traffic and safety measures. Only 6% of passenger travel is by train and 84% is by car, yet the government spends 6.5bn on rail subsidies.
The fact that the report was presented by Steven Norris MP, the Conservative Vice Chairman and transport spokesman, indicates that it may be the way the Tory party are looking to go if they come into power. Significantly, the report doesnt really suggest that more of the 32 billion should be spent on roads in future, despite apparently deploring the status quo. Rather, it suggests that private finance should be used to build more toll roads like the M6 link, and that relatively small charges on congestion hotspots could be used to raise money for their improvement - "a six-hour peak time weekday charge of 10p/km on a six-lane motorway priced to run close to capacity could in a year raise around 1.5 million per km - sufficient to pay for widening to eight lanes or indeed, to construct a brand new six-lane motorway in parallel. A charge of 5p/km for cars and light vans and 10p/km for goods vehicles on all roads could, in a year, raise over 25 billion; enough to pay for the construction of 1,200 miles of six-lane motorway. In context, this would mean that a doubling in the size of the current motorway network could be paid for in under 2 years".
This may look like some improvement for motorists against the present government's apparent preference to tax more without improving roads much in the vain hope that traffic levels will decrease; but surely the ultimate answer, as we've proposed before, is for government to give incentives to employers and employees to increase staggered working hours and particularly working from home. That cuts traffic levels, reduces congestion, improves quality of life, reduces crime, reduces accidents - surely its worth spending a few billion?
Malcolm McKay, Motorbase News Editor
