U.K. Dept. of Transport Study Says Roads Create Traffic Capacity

A major review of British evidence on the generation of additional motor vehicle traffic by new road construction was released Dec 19. It concluded that in many cases, roads do generate traffic and recommends methods for analyzing traffic generation. The report is entitled Trunk

Roads and the Generation of Traffic, and is published by the UK Dept. of Transport. The vigorous British anti-roads movement hailed the report as vindication of a position it has long held as common sense. The NY Metropolitan Transportation Council and state DOTs in the tri-state region will

not publicly agree that additions to road capacity can induce more demand for car and truck travel. Government experts have accepted that roads generate traffic. The Transport Secretary is starting to listen to public opposition to the environmental destruction caused by roads. It is now time to

sound the death-knell for the Government's controversial plans to widen motorways like the M25, M62 and M6, said a Friends of the Earth UK spokesperson. The Tri-State Campaign has asked Friends of the Earth to summarize the report's findings and tell us how to obtain a copy.