Better Transport

Plans to widen motorways around the country would damage the countryside and increase traffic, noise, pollution and carbon emissions. Motorway widening is also extremely expensive: one proposed widening project is set to cost £1,000 per inch!

Happily, a recent trial on the M42 showed that Active Traffic Management (ATM) can be an effective alternative to motorway widening. ATM involves opening up the hard shoulder to cars during peak times; when combined with a 50mph speed limit on all four lanes it resulted in lowered pollution, fewer accidents and lower carbon emissions.

After the success of the trial the Government announced a national feasibility study to consider rolling ATM out nationally, including as an alternative to large and expensive widening schemes.

However, we exposed in the Guardian that the Department for Transport were initially refusing to consider ATM for the M25  during the feasibility study. Instead it is pushing ahead with plans to widen the M25, at a total cost of £5 billion. We have been pressing the DfT to consider ATM instead of widening the remaining sections. We have partially won, as ATM is now being considered for junctions 5-7 and junctions 23-27. However the DfT is still pressing on with widening on junctions 16-23 and 27-30 and is ruling out 50mph ATM despite its known benefits. We don't understand why these schemes are not being considered for ATM too.

Please write to the Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly, and ask her to seriously consider 50 mph ATM for these sections of the M25 as an alternative to widening.

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