The Highways Agency’s billion pound traffic gamble

New roads (like the planned south Bristol 'link' as its now been rebranded) dont produce the claimed benefits and actually cause new problems according to research unearthed by the Campaign for Better Transport (see extract from report 'The Highways Agency’s billion pound traffic gamble' below). Little or no joined up (systems) thinking is what I consistently find when I ask questions at meetings about transport issues - many millions of pounds are ineffectively spent as a result.

The Highways Agency reviews its trunk road schemes, one year and five years after they open, to assess how accurate original forecasts were.

These reviews have shown that forecasts are wrong and forecasting is not being improved. The Agency’s forecasts underestimate the effect on traffic, air quality, noise and greenhouse gas emissions. They also fail to predict the economic impact and whether schemes will be good value
for money.

Until the Highways Agency makes some major changes, spending on new roads will remain a very expensive gamble.

Full details here:

http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/system/files/HA-billion-pound-gamble.pdf