Analysis
An analysis in The Times says that the study concludes that the UK's transport network is broadly adequate, connecting the right places, so the government does not need to worry about building new infrastructure such as high-speed rail links and cross-country motorways, but should instead concentrate on improving existing road and rail networks. That there are key points in the existing network at which pressure has to be eased. That parts of the network that are vital to economic success should receive investment and that congested and growing cities should be prioritised, as should inter-urban corridors and ports and airports. Their full cost to the environment, including their contribution to climate change, should be paid by all modes of transport. It states also that Sir Rod supports the gradual introduction of road pricing when there is political support for it, and that reformation of the planning system is required to speed up the building of infrastructure projects. [1]
The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently, and have only had common ownership since 1967.
Environmental full-cost accounting (EFCA) is a method of cost accounting that traces direct costs and allocates indirect costs by collecting and presenting information about the possible environmental, social and economical costs and benefits or advantages – in short, about the "triple bottom line" – for each proposed alternative. It is also known as true-cost accounting (TCA), but, as definitions for "true" and "full" are inherently subjective, experts consider both terms problematical.
Road pricing are direct charges levied for the use of roads, including road tolls, distance or time based fees, congestion charges and charges designed to discourage use of certain classes of vehicle, fuel sources or more polluting vehicles. These charges may be used primarily for revenue generation, usually for road infrastructure financing, or as a transportation demand management tool to reduce peak hour travel and the associated traffic congestion or other social and environmental negative externalities associated with road travel such as air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, visual intrusion, noise and road accidents.
Another article in The Times focusses on the support given in the report for road-pricing, stating that the report suggests it as an alternative to a massive road-building programme to relieve increasing congestion that would damage the UK's economic competitiveness. It says that by 2025, road-pricing could deliver economic benefits worth £28 billion per year by halving congestion. It also notes the report's warning of the "very significant risks and uncertainties involved in delivering a pricing policy" particularly related to the required technology. This article also states that the air transport industry needs to become sustainable, possibly by requiring air passengers to pay their "full environmental costs", and that there is an economic case for more runway capacity. It also mentions that the report notes that due to falling passenger numbers, there is a case for improving the bus market outside London by strengthening competition. [4]
Reactions
Friends of the Earth were reported to have criticised the report's support for airport expansion, and to have supported its stance that large-scale road-building was not a solution. [5]
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 74 countries.
BBC News also reported that the RAC Foundation, the road safety and environmental charity founded from the RAC research arm, prior to the de-merger of RAC plc, believe that motorists may be persuaded to support road-pricing if they were convinced of the benefit, and if other motoring taxes were reduced to compensate them, given that "nine out of 10 people don't trust the government to deliver a fair system of road pricing". [5]
The RAC Foundation is a registered charity.
The Royal Automobile Club is a British private club and is not to be confused with RAC, an automotive services company, which it formerly owned.
Motoring taxation in the United Kingdom consists primarily of vehicle excise duty, which is levied on vehicles registered in the UK and hydrocarbon oil duty which is levied on the fuel used by motor vehicles. VED and fuel tax raised approximately GB£32 billion in 2009, a further £4 billion was raised from the value added tax on fuel purchases. Motoring-related taxes for fiscal year 2011/12, including fuel duties and VED, are estimated that will amount to more than GB£38 billion, representing almost 7% of total UK taxation.
Transport 2000, the public transport advocacy group founded by railway unions in the 1970s, are reported to have said that revenue from road-pricing should be used to improve public transport, particularly the railway network, and not used for road-building. [4]
The Freight Transport Association claimed that the protection of freight flows needs to be given priority and cannot wait for the introduction of road-pricing. [5]
Transport in the United Kingdom is facilitated with road, air, rail, and water networks. A radial road network totals 29,145 miles (46,904 km) of main roads, 2,173 miles (3,497 km) of motorways and 213,750 miles (344,000 km) of paved roads. The National Rail network of 10,072 route miles (16,116 km) in Great Britain and 189 route miles in Northern Ireland carries over 18,000 passenger and 1,000 freight trains daily. Urban rail networks exist in Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle. There are many regional and international airports, with Heathrow Airport in London being one of the busiest in the world. The UK also has a network of ports which received over 558 million tons of goods in 2003–2004.
The London congestion charge is a fee charged on most motor vehicles operating within the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ) in Central London between 07:00 and 18:00 Mondays to Fridays. It is not charged on weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (inclusive). The charge came into operation on 17 February 2003. As of 2017, the London charge zone is still one of the largest congestion charge zones in the world, despite the withdrawal of the Western Extension which operated between February 2007 and January 2011. The charge helps to reduce high traffic flow and minimise air and noise pollution in the central London area and raise investment funds for London's transport system.
Congestion pricing or congestion charges is a system of surcharging users of public goods that are subject to congestion through excess demand, such as through higher peak charges for use of bus services, electricity, metros, railways, telephones, and road pricing to reduce traffic congestion; airlines and shipping companies may be charged higher fees for slots at airports and through canals at busy times. Advocates claim this pricing strategy regulates demand, making it possible to manage congestion without increasing supply.
Traffic congestion is a condition on transport that as use increases, and is characterised by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction between vehicles slows the speed of the traffic stream, this results in some congestion. While congestion is a possibility for any mode of transportation, this article will focus on automobile congestion on public roads.
Sir Roderick Ian Eddington AO FTSE is an Australian businessman. He is currently chair of the government body Infrastructure Australia and a director of News Corporation, continuing his long association with that company. He has served in other senior positions including as CEO of British Airways.
The United Kingdom has a network of roads, of varied quality and capacity, totalling about 262,300 miles (422,100 km). Road distances are shown in miles or yards and UK speed limits are indicated in miles per hour (mph) or by the use of the national speed limit (NSL) symbol. Some vehicle categories have various lower maximum limits enforced by speed limiters. Enforcement of UK road speed limits increasingly uses speed guns, automated in-vehicle systems and automated roadside traffic cameras. A unified numbering system is in place for Great Britain, whilst in Northern Ireland, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers.
The M4 relief road is a proposed motorway south of the city of Newport, South Wales. Originally proposed in 1991, the scheme was dropped by the Welsh Government in 2009 when costs had risen to £1 billion. They were revived in 2011 with indications of support from the Treasury given in April 2013. There was controversial media speculation that it would become the United Kingdom's second full toll-paying motorway. In July 2014 the Welsh Transport Minister, Edwina Hart, stated that the scheme, following the so-called 'black route', would go ahead and could be completed by 2022. On 4 June 2019, however, the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, announced that the scheme would not proceed.
The London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre. They were part of a comprehensive scheme developed by the Greater London Council (GLC) to alleviate traffic congestion on the city's road system by providing high speed motorway-standard roads within the capital linking a series of radial roads taking traffic into and out of the city. Following a series of protests, the scheme was cancelled in 1973, at which point only three sections had been constructed.
The Greater Manchester congestion charge was part of a bid to the Government's Transport Innovation Fund for a £3-billion package of transport funding and the introduction of a road congestion charge for Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. In 2008, two cordons were proposed—the outer encircling the main urban core of the Greater Manchester Urban Area and the inner covered Manchester city centre. The Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund was rejected by a referendum on 12 December 2008.
The Smeed Report was a study into alternative methods of charging for road use, commissioned by the UK government between 1962 and 1964 led by R. J. Smeed. The report stopped short of an unqualified recommendation for road pricing but supported congestion pricing for busy road networks.
Traffic in Towns was an influential report and popular book on urban and transport planning policy published 25 November 1963 for the UK Ministry of Transport by a team headed by the architect, civil engineer and planner Professor Sir Colin Buchanan. The report warned of the potential damage caused by the motor car, while offering ways to mitigate it. It gave planners a set of policy blueprints to deal with its effects on the urban environment, including traffic containment and segregation, which could be balanced against urban redevelopment, new corridor and distribution roads and precincts.
Road protest in the United Kingdom usually occurs as a reaction to a stated intention by the empowered authorities to build a new road, or to modify an existing road. Protests may also be made by those wishing to see new roads built or improvements made to existing roads. Motivations for protests may be altruistic or selfish. In some cases, protests have also acted as a training ground for individuals and groups who continue to be active in campaigning and advocacy.
The East West Link is a proposed 18-kilometre tollway in Melbourne, Australia, to connect the Eastern Freeway at Clifton Hill with the Western Ring Road at Sunshine West. The Napthine Coalition Government signed a $5.3 billion contract with the East West Connect consortium in September 2014, just prior to the November 2014 state election, to begin construction on the eastern tunnel segment of the project. It became one of the central issues in the election, and a subsequent change in government led to the project's cancellation at a cost of $1.3 billion. The problem of poor "connectivity between Melbourne's Eastern Freeway and CityLink" has since been included in Infrastructure Australia's list of Australia's 32 "highest priority" infrastructure needs and various solutions remain part of long-term state road planning.
The Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund was a failed bid by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) and Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) to secure £1.5 billion from the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF), a major public transport funding mechanism in England, for the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. There would have been an additional £1.2 billion borrowed and paid back through a mixture of public transport revenues and weekday, peak-time only Greater Manchester congestion charge.
"Investing in Transport–East West Link Needs Assessment" was a major transport study undertaken in Victoria, Australia, by infrastructure consultant Sir Rod Eddington to propose improvements to transport links between the eastern and western suburbs of Melbourne. The report was commissioned in 2006 by the Government of Victoria following the model of the Eddington Transport Study in the United Kingdom and was released in April 2008. Eddington's report recommended new road and rail tunnels, further rail network electrification and improved cycle and bus routes in a bid to reduce congestion. Some of the report's recommendations were implemented by the Brumby Labor government, but many others remain unfunded.
The Independent Transport Commission, abbreviated to ITC, is a research charity and think tank based in the United Kingdom, devoted to exploring issues in the fields of transport, planning and land use. It is politically neutral, and has established a reputation as a nationally respected independent voice on transport and planning policy.
Road pricing in the United Kingdom used to be limited to conventional tolls in some bridges, tunnels and also for some major roads during the period of the Turnpike trusts. The term road pricing itself only came into common use however with publication of the Smeed Report in 1964 which considered how to implement congestion charging in urban areas as a transport demand management method to reduce traffic congestion.
The UK National Infrastructure Commission is the non-ministerial government department responsible for providing expert advice to the UK Government on infrastructure challenges facing the UK.
