Building roads is presented by its powerful supporters as the best way to move fast. But does it fix anything? Conventional economic thinking is that roads are the lifeblood of the economy, essential for boosting efficiency. Yet the evidence of 100 years of transport policy based on this notion is that road building is a pointless, Sisyphean task. A generation ago, a report by Sactra found that adding capacity to the road network simply encourages more people to jump into their cars, thereby quickly filling up the new lanes and ensuring that congestion is in no time as bad as before.
The Labour government must swiftly resolve this contradiction. It has inherited a massive road-building programme estimated to be worth up to 27bn, enough at least to fill a good proportion of the famous 22bn black hole. Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, is a minister in a hurry; indeed, her motto is move fast and fix things. However, the very ambiguity of that phrase highlights the dilemma.
[
Collection
]
[
|
...
]