How To Avoid Gridlock On Britain's Roads - Change Work Patterns
Radical changes to the way we work and commute are needed if the UK is to cut future congestion on its roads, says the CBI.
In a new report called Tackling Congestion, Driving Growth - A New Approach to Roads Policy, the UK’s largest business group argues that time and money wasted on Britain’s congested roads can be saved, and makes a series of suggestions about how government and business can address the issue.
A CBI survey shows 80% of companies see roads as being ‘vital’ to their business, and 96% of companies want to see fresh thinking from an incoming government and a willingness to tackle rush hour congestion as a matter of priority1.
With vehicle traffic having grown by a quarter in just 20 years, road congestion now costs the economy an estimated £7-8bn a year, which is likely to more than double by 2025 unless more action is taken2.
John Cridland, the CBI’s Deputy Director-General, said:
“For too long, Britain’s roads have been a cause of frustration and delays for our businesses and commuters. Some government initiatives, such as road-widening schemes or using the hard shoulder on motorways, have been welcome but hardly scratch the surface of the problem.
Now is the time for fresh thinking on the roads. We need a radical overhaul of how we travel and manage our road system if we are to do more than simply tinker at the edges. Merely slowing the endless rise in congestion is not enough. The CBI would like to see policymakers put the same amount of energy and vision into roads as they are doing on high speed rail.”
The CBI says that simply building more roads will not solve the problem. Instead, an overhaul of the way we work is needed. More companies should adopt more flexible patterns of work, and encourage staff to make use of modern communications technologies, such as video conferencing instead of always travelling to meetings.
The CBI’s proposals to cut congestion on the roads include:
• Encouraging more staff to stagger their commutes and break out of the usual ‘9 to 5’ routine. Flexible working patterns not only bring higher productivity to firms, they can help cut emissions and have been shown to reduce congestion as more people work remotely or change the times they travel.
• Brokering arrangements where commuters making similar journeys take turns driving and share lifts, and introducing shared occupancy motorway lanes. By identifying clusters of employees who live near to each other, reduce congestion by sharing car journeys, or even providing a commuter coach service. Extra lanes on motorways provide a faster route for motorists who choose to pay the toll or are free for cars with more than one person.
• Delivering on the government’s promise of giving all homes and businesses access to broadband by 2012. Video conferencing and other technologies are helping people to work in novel ways, and at different times, but the UK is already falling behind other countries on provision of broadband.
• Trialling more ‘yellow bus’ schemes to cut school run congestion. A fifth of all vehicles during the morning rush hour are on the ‘school run’, with the average length of journey to school for 11-16 year olds growing from 2.8 miles in 2000 to 3.4 miles in 2006. A national dedicated school bus service used by 12% of pupils would eliminate 130 million journeys, cut rush hour traffic by 2.6% and save 55,000 tonnes of emissions.
• Following Scotland’s lead and appointing ‘Street Works Commissioners’ in the rest of the UK. Street works are vital to renew the UK’s ageing gas and water pipes, or maintain the roads, but they can cause congestion and much frustration among road users. Utilities have improved their performance in recent years, but half of street works are carried out by local authorities which are exempt from late fines and other regulations. So, the rest of the UK should follow the example of Scotland, where an independent Street Works Commissioner has the power to fine local authorities for a failure in duties to co-ordinate or co-operate.
The current state of the public finances means there is less public money available for investing in the roads. But the CBI says that dire levels of congestion on parts of the road network mean the Government must not cut public spending on infrastructure disproportionately during the recession, and should restore investment once the recovery is underway.
The CBI report makes the following recommendations on infrastructure and investment:
• Road investment should focus on congestion pinchpoints. Existing bottlenecks should be dealt with as a matter of priority and strategic links built between cities and to freight hubs.
• Greater use of private investment would help deliver road improvements. A range of private finance models are already being used to build infrastructure in the UK, and these can help deliver projects on time and on budget.
• Road pricing should be considered for building new roads or extra lanes. Experience from overseas suggests the public will support a toll on a new road if it is the only way that road will be built, and that tolls used on new lanes on motorways and A roads can help prevent congestion building up again.
The CBI is also calling for reform to the Highways Agency (HA). A third of all UK passenger journeys and two-thirds of freight journeys are on the motorways and trunk roads, managed by the HA. But the agency only has its budget signed off a year at a time, compared with a five-yearly settlement for Network Rail. Future governments should commit to a longer-term investment strategy for our strategic road network, which would help bring more confidence and certainty to the construction sector.
15 March 2010
Note to Editors:
1. CBI Transport survey, 2009
2. The Eddington Transport Study: The case for action, December 2006
The CBI is the UK's leading business organisation, speaking for some 240,000 businesses that together employ around a third of the private sector workforce. With offices across the UK as well as representation in Brussels, Washington, Beijing and Delhi the CBI communicates the British business voice around the world.
Media Contacts:
CBI Press Office on 020 7395 8087 or out of hours pager on 07623 977854.
March 14, 2010
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