Better Transport

A new YouGov poll confirms that the British public overwhelmingly want the Government to invest in better public transport rather than build new roads [1]. The poll results raise important questions about the wisdom of a new RAC Foundation report calling for more roadbuilding [2].

In the poll, 62% of people voted for public transport, whilst only 30% voted for roadbuilding.

"The RAC Foundation seems to be living on a different planet from the rest of us,“ says Rebecca Lush Blum, Campaign for Better Transport’s [3] roads and climate campaigner. “With road transport emissions rising each year, the Government needs to heed the call of the public and reduce emissions by investing in public transport."

The RAC Foundation report is advocating roadbuilding because of its supposed economic benefits and supposed negible impact on climate emissions. But the evidence actually shows otherwise:

• Roadbuilding does not necessarily boost the economy. The largest study of its kind into the impact of transport on the economy published in 1999 [4] concluded that roadbuilding did not necessarily aid the economy. And the transport study by Sir Rod Eddington in November 2006 also said that in mature economies there is “considerably less scope” for large-scale transport improvements to deliver economic growth than there was in the past [5]
• The Government’s current major roads programme would increase carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 752,100 tonnes a year [6]. This is equivalent to over six million passengers flying to Paris and back [7]. Road transport currently contributes 25.7% of all UK emissions and is rising [8] 
   

Notes to Editors

Our motoring facts briefing counters claims made by the motoring lobby.

[1] The poll was undertaken by YouGov, a leading market research firm (www.yougov.com). Total sample size was 1,996 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken from 16-19 November 2007. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all British adults (aged 18+). The 1,996 adults were asked “Which if any of the following two areas would you prefer the Government to invest its transport budget in: Public transport or road building?”

See http://www.yougov.com/archives/pdf/transport.pdf

[2] The RAC Foundation has published research, entitled Roads and Reality, which calls for more roadbuilding. http://www.racfoundation.org/

[3] Campaign for Better Transport is the new name for Transport 2000, which has been securing better transport policies and programmes since 1973.

[4] “The available evidence does not support arguments that new transport investment, in general, has a major impact on economic growth in a country with a well-developed infrastructure” – from Transport investment, transport intensity and economic growth: interim report, the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment (SACTRA), 1997. http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/economics/sactra/transportinvestmenttransport3151

Full report: ttp://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/economics/sactra/transportandtheeconomyfullre3148

[5] Eddington report, Section1.1, Does Transport matter for the performance of the economy? says: “Today, in mature economies like the UK, with well-established networks and where connectivity between economic centres is already in place, the evidence suggests that there is considerably less scope for transport improvements to deliver the periods of rapid growth seen historically.”

Paragraph 1.34: “There is some evidence that improving the performance and efficiency of an existing network can be just as, if not substantially more, beneficial than investment in new network capacity.”

[6] Campaign for Better Transport has analysed the Government figures for the carbon impact of all the schemes in the Highways Agency’s Major Roads Programme. The results are available on request.

[7] Research by Paul Watkiss Associates and AEA Technology Environment for Eurostar has shown that each passenger on a return flight between London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle generates 122 kilograms of CO2, compared with just 11 kilograms for a traveller on a London-Paris return journey by train. The roads programme would generate 752,100 tonnes of CO2 a year, which is equivalent to someone making 6,164,754 return flights to Paris.

http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/press_release/press_archive_2006/02_10_06_environment.jsp

[8] Transport Statistics of Great Britain 2007, table 3.8 (b), published by the Department for Transport, 1 Nov 2007

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/tsgb/2007edition/section3energyenvironment.pdf