The £3.5 billion scheme to widen the whole M1 (excluding a section from Luton to Leicester) was announced by the Department of Transport last year. Sheffield Council are being consulted because of the increased air pollution in areas such as Tinsley, where air quality is already in danger of contravening EU standards, which define the minimum to protect human health. (2) The Highways Agency’s own figures show that traffic levels are set to increase by 50% by 2014, so that M1 congestion would actually be worse after adding an extra lane. Opponents of the scheme believe that the money could be better spent on promoting more sustainable methods of transport. More efficient, better integrated rail and bus services would help to get commuters onto public transport and off congested roads. According to the Highways Agency, traffic flow could be improved, accidents and emissions reduced, and fuel conserved without increasing capacity, through low and variable speed limits schemes. Similar schemes, very successfully implemented in the Netherlands, have been self-funding though speeding fines, and have shortened journey times by discouraging stop-start driving.

Steve Goodacre from Sheffield Friends of the Earth said “M1 widening is a huge waste of public money and a threat to the health of people
living in Tinsley. There are effective alternatives to improving traffic flows that are much cheaper to implement and can reduce pollution.”

Notes

1) No Widening M1 represents an alliance of groups and individuals from all over the country opposed to the widening of the M1. 
2) EU directives on air quality came into force in December 2005. 
Recent studies suggest that 11% of strokes and 6% of heart disease in Sheffield are caused by poor air quality. Tinsley has twice the rate of hospital admissions for asthma than Sheffield as a whole.