13.2 Principles for Road Development
MEASURE ROAD1
“5. That where a road scheme comprises an urban bypass, measures must be proposed and implemented to reallocate road space within the bypassed area to sustainable transport and/or public realm improvements;”
This statement should be strengthened. It is well established that bypasses which do not actively prevent through-traffic on the bypassed street simply increase the overall road capacity and lead to more congestion. Therefore, this point should be amended to require that bypassed routes in villages, towns and cities are made impermeable to motor vehicles (except in certain circumstances, e.g. bus gates for public transport) as a condition of the construction of the bypass.
13.3.2 National Roads Projects
If the primary objective/function in relation to national roads is to protect the role of strategic traffic, then road-pricing and public transport upgrades should be the measures prioritised to reduce congestion and improve the flow of strategic traffic.
There is an ongoing trend of pushing through road upgrades under the guise of sustainable transport that needs to end (e.g. Snugborough Road upgrade). There is general agreement in the literature that to reduce the modal share of cars, a carrot AND stick approach must be taken; a carrot-only or ‘one for everybody in the audience’ type approach whereby extra lanes are slipped in alongside bus lanes does not work. Modal shift will not be achieved as long as the attractiveness of driving remains untouched.
A case in point: section 13.5, MEASURE ROAD 9 - Regional and Local Roads Policy states:
“Enhance orbital movement between the N3, the N4 and N7 national roads, by the widening of existing roads and/or the development of new road links, for the purpose of providing resilience to the operation of the M50 and incorporating provision for sustainable transport;”
Will these new roads have bus gates so that they can only be used for public transport and local trips? If so, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of it. Otherwise, these roads will increase car-use, congestion, car-dependency and emissions; business as usual rebranded with terms like ‘enhance’ (increase capacity), ‘provide resilience’ (increase congestion), and co-opting the language of sustainability.