New Roads: The Damage Done And The Lessons Unlearnt

Monday 3 July 2006

Traffic on new roads is growing much faster than the Government forecast, according to a new study commissioned by CPRE [1] and the Countryside Agency. [2]

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

They found traffic on these roads had now 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.

Their 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 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.

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 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.

The researchers found the three schemes caused serious and permanent damage to rural landscapes, including an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. [5]

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. [6]

CPRE Chief Executive Shaun Spiers said: 'New roads damage the countryside and the wider environment. They blight favourite views, and their noise can carry for miles. We must learn from past mistakes, but so far as road building is concerned this study shows we're continuing to repeat them.

Graham Garbutt, Chief Executive of the Countryside Agency, said: 'We need to be sure that the effects of building new roads over the countryside are fully understood, learning from schemes already built and using the lessons. This report provides key recommendations for making this happen.'

Among those recommendations are:

• 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;
• more weight given to landscape and environmental impacts in the decision-making process for road schemes;
• 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;
• alternative approaches to be seriously investigated before new roads are built, such as improvements to public transport and facilities for walking and cycling;
• 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.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

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). The Agency is changing - more at the end of this news release.

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 summary report is available from CPRE's press office and the Countryside Agency's. 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 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.

7. 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.

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