ROAD BLOCK - alliance against roadbuilding

Press release - 3 July 2006

NEW REPORT SHOWS NEW ROADS CREATE MORE JAMS

£13 BILLION ROADS PROGRAMME MUST BE SCRAPPED

A new report published today shows that new roads lead to massive and rapid traffic growth, much more than was originally predicted. The new study commissioned by CPRE [1] and the Countryside Agency. [2] examined three recent controversial schemes, specifically highlighting the failure of the infamous Newbury Bypass, which generated massive traffic growth in the area. It also examines the failed M65 round Blackburn, where protesters were removed in a week long eviction at Stanworth Valley in 1995. Road Block welcomes the report, believing it severely undermines the case for roadbuilding. The national alliance against roadbuilding called for the £13 billion programme of approved schemes to be scrapped immediately.

Researchers studied three recent controversial road schemes - the A34 Newbury Bypass in Berkshire, the A27 Polegate Bypass near Eastbourne, East Sussex, and the M65 Blackburn Southern Bypass in Lancashire.

They found traffic on these roads had already reached or exceeded the levels forecast for the year 2010. [3] And extra traffic - over and above the gradual increase happening everywhere - had flowed onto local roads as a result of the schemes, undermining the claim that the bypasses would reduce congestion.

The CPRE and Countryside Agency study [4] is one of the first to look at what actually happens once roads have been built. For all three schemes, there was above average traffic growth, increased development pressures on undeveloped land nearby and significant damage to landscapes (see case studies at the end of this email).

Yet these important issues are not being picked up by the Highways Agency's own post-construction analysis for new road schemes. The study concludes that the Government is failing to learn the lessons which could lead to better transport policies and decisions.

The researchers looked at what was claimed for the road schemes at the planning and justification stage and what actually happened once they were built - in terms of traffic flows, landscape and noise impacts and new development nearby.

Rebecca Lush, Coordinator of Road Block, the national alliance against roadbuilding said:

"We welcome this important CPRE and Countryside Agency report which demonstrates that new roadbuilding does not work, wastes enormous amounts of public money, and is very damaging to the environment. To those campaigning against roads it is no surprise. In order to gain approval, road builders will exaggerate the benefits of a scheme, and downplay the costs - in other words lying. A few years and trashed ancient woodlands later, traffic is back up more than ever predicted, but the mistakes still aren't being learned. It is crucial that with road transport contributing 21% of UK CO2 emissions we do not waste a single penny more on this futile and devastating road programme. New roads create more traffic and greenhouse gases, and damage the wider environment. We must learn from past mistakes, starting with scrapping the roads programme".

At Newbury and Polegate the new bypasses did reduce town centre traffic. But the reductions were not as much as originally forecast, whilst traffic has increased on the bypassed roads and on the new bypasses.

Town centre shops in Polegate suffering from losses in trade have actually been campaigning for signs to be installed on the bypass directing traffic back into town!

Yet the study concludes, from Highways Agency traffic data, that the effect of the new Polegate bypass has been to generate 27 per cent additional traffic in the area one year after it opened. [5]

Newbury has also seen rapid traffic growth, with most of the freed-up space on the old, by-passed road being taken by new traffic attracted by new development. This echoes the conclusions of a WS Atkins report in 2005 for West Berkshire Council that traffic had increased on the roads around Newbury by 48% in just four years whilst nationally over the same period traffic had grown by only about 5% [6].

The researchers found the three schemes caused serious and permanent damage to rural landscapes, including an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. [7]

The money spent on evaluating road schemes is only 0.1 per cent of the money spent on building them, and many of the evaluations carried out have yet to be published. [8]

Among the reports recommendations are:



1. post-construction evaluation schemes for roads to have a stronger influence on transport policy and road investment decisions, by being published promptly, widely disseminated and discussed and clearly responded to;

2. more weight given to landscape and environmental impacts in the decision-making process for road schemes;

3. a major, strategic Government study of the extra traffic resulting from all road schemes completed in the past decade and the resulting environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions;

4. alternative approaches to be seriously investigated before new roads are built, such as improvements to public transport and facilities for walking and cycling;

5. stricter rules governing bypasses to prevent infill development (between the bypass and the urban edge), new car-dependent development on greenfields and increased car use.

- END -

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England -  http://www.cpre.org.uk/

2. The Countryside Agency is the statutory body working to make the quality of life better for people in the countryside and the quality of the countryside better for everyone. It is a non-departmental body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). See  http://www.countryside.gov.uk/

3. The Highways Agency forecast for the A34 Newbury Bypass, completed in 1998, was 30,000 to 36,000 vehicles per day (averaged throughout the year) by 2010. The actual level measured in 2004 was 43,800. Meanwhile peak-time congestion within the town is back to original levels. For the M65 Blackburn Southern Bypass, opened in 1997, the Department of Transport forecast 41,000 to 51,000 vehicles per day in 2010. The actual traffic level in 2004 was 52,452. As for the A27 Polegate Bypass, the average annual weekday traffic soon after the opening in 2002 was 23,500 per day but by April 2005 it had risen to 30,157 - a 27% increase, equivalent to 9% annual growth. The projection for 2010 for this bypass was that there would be 32,100 vehicles per day in 2010, but this was based on the assumption that another section of new road linked to the bypass would be open by then (which, in itself, would have added further traffic). In fact, in April 2005 there were 30,157 vehicles per day - so traffic is now approaching the forecast 2010 level, even without this section of adjoining road.

4. Beyond Transport Infrastructure by Lilli Matson, Ian Taylor, Lynn Sloman and John Elliott, published by CPRE and the Countryside Agency (CA). A copy of the Executive Summary is available on request. The full report is being posted on CPRE's website, www.cpre.org.uk/publications/index.htm , and on the CA's website at www.countryside.gov.uk/LAR/Landscape/PP/planning/research.asp

5. In fact the total increase in traffic moving through the area, as monitored by the Highways Agency, was 76 per cent one year after the bypass opened. Most of this increase was due to traffic being diverted from other, smaller local roads onto they bypass following its completion. The additional traffic 'induced' by the new bypass was estimated at 27 per cent.

6. The WS Atkins Newbury Movement Study is available to download at webpage:
 http://www.westberks.gov.uk/WestBerkshire/transport.nsf/pages/NewburyM114721.html . Page 37 of the Newbury Movement Study says 'across both roads [the A339 – the old A34 near central Newbury, and the new A34 bypass], the overall traffic has dramatically risen from 43,900 (1999) to 65,000 (2003), a rise of just under 50% in four years'

7. The North Wessex Downs AONB near Newbury. The Countryside Agency has recently (March 2006) published a discussion note which shows, using case studies, how the impact of new roads on landscape can be greatly reduced through careful design, construction and mitigation.

8. In 2004/2005 the total cost of evaluation for the Government's Highways Agency was only 0.1% of the £507 million spent on trunk road improvements.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Rebecca Lush of Road Block - 07854 693067

CPRE press office - 020 7981 2880

Case studies summary:

1. A34 Newbury Bypass, opened 1998
Main case study findings:
* A34 traffic growth far above both predictions and national average

* Peak-time congestion in town back to original levels

* Traffic relief to old road is being eroded by development-generated traffic

* Development towards bypass so far less than feared, but growing pressure for more

* Landscape impacts as bad as predicted


2. A27 Polegate Bypass, opened 2002.
Main case study findings:
* 76% total traffic increase in the Polegate corridor one year after opening - of which up to 27% may be generated traffic

* Casualties across the area increased

* Major development planned in wake of bypass

* Cophall Roundabout remains intrusive in the landscape


3. M65 Blackburn Southern Bypass, opened 1997
Main case study findings:
* Noise impacts worse and more widespread than predicted

* M65 traffic in excess of predictions leading to pressure for road widening

* Traffic generation by developments omitted from appraisal process

* Landscape impacts of developments omitted from appraisal process

* Noise impacts extend much wider than the appraisal

* Destruction of rural landscape at Stanworth Valley



Road Block
020 7729 6973 / 07854 693067
www.roadblock.org.uk