Transport Crucible . com

Traffic congestion causes huge problems that can be addressed by improving accommodation or constraining demand for travel by particular modes. This applies to all modes but is most critical on roads which facilitate most transport of people and goods in all developed nations. Emphasis on constraint is favoured by policy-makers for various reasons, especially in the UK, but producing evidence that it effectively cuts congestion is rarely one of them. Conversely, and perhaps perversely, there is evidence that prevailing strategies for UK traffic management make congestion worse for the most commonly used road modes. Nevertheless, the Brits lead the world in developing and imposing measures of constraint in private vehicle road use.
London’s ‘Congestion Charge’ version of Road Pricing is the most exceptional in global terms, while ruthless and highly profitable enforcement of parking restrictions by privatised local government agents is endemic throughout the urban areas of Britain were 80% of the population live and work.
But, having thoroughly investigated why UK policy is dominated by emphasis on constraint, LM research shows that the real reasons are very different to the ones given by our politicians and the transport theorists that they favour. For start, the ‘latent/induced demand’ argument – espoused by Phil Goodwin and disciples – that there is no point increasing road capacity because it will be taken up by an endless flow of new drivers, fails on two irrefutable grounds: First, urban and inter urban congestion is worse in Britain than all comparable modern states but the UK also has the lowest provision of public road space per capita. So there is a demonstrably positive link between higher road capacity and lower congestion levels. Secondly, the assumption that there is an infinite number of would-be drivers for a section of road who would use it if it had more capacity is nonsense. There is always a finite number of people who are able to drive in any area and that is determined by the social and economic circumstances of the region and its indigenous population and actual or would-be visitors.