Agency’s ‘failures’ push argument for road pricing

21 February 2007

The Highways Agency’s failure to make progress against a ‘weak’ congestion target, and the apparent ‘insufficiency’ of local authority measures to improve journey times, have increased pressure for introducing road-user pricing.
MPs on the transport select committee seized on evidence that the Department for Transport’s target to improve journey times on the Highways Agency links suffering from the worst delays was already off-track after just 12 months. Despite the fact that the target was ‘unambitious’ – any journey time improvement would mean it had been met – the average delay experienced by motorists on the worst 10% of journeys increased in 2005/06. The Highways Agency reiterated that it was ‘working on a full range of interventions’ in a bid to improve journey times by the end of 2007/08, including introducing ramp metering, improved road works management, and adding capacity to junctions and slip roads. But the committee called for the department to be bolder, and consider road-user pricing for motorways and trunk roads – currently transport innovation fund pilots are only being considered for local roads in conurbations.
This came as the prime minister responded to the 1.7M people who signed a petition calling for the scrapping of the policy to introduce national road-user pricing. But the spokesman stressed that the pilots for the conurbations ‘were not a step to a national pricing scheme’ but were to ‘work out what was possible’. In the largest conurbations at least, road-user pricing appears more likely.
The committee expressed scepticism that measures such as better enforcement of traffic regulations and promoting public transport could contain the ‘person delay’ – delays to journeys across modes – by 2010/11. The West Midlands and Manchester – the two competing for the lion’s share of the transport innovation fund to pay for pilot charging projects – said they were aware new measures were needed.
Keith Howcroft, Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive strategy director, told Surveyor: ‘We’re committed to tackling growing congestion. ‘We will submit a bid later this year for more than £1bn to improve public transport.’ But the 2010/11 target would hinge on improved traffic management and smaller-scale transport upgrades. A spokesman for the West Midlands conurbation – also considering a TIF bid for a charging pilot – said ‘concerns about whether existing local transport plan policies are sufficient to turn the tide of congestion are why we’re exploring more innovative schemes’.
This was echoed by Nottingham City Council’s head of planning, transport and intelligence strategy Grant Butterworth, who said local transport plan 2 measures such as bus lane enforcement were designed to meet the 2010/11 target. ‘We’re well placed to handle the housing and employment growth being planned for Greater Nottingham but are not complacent ‘ br>

Department for Transport annual report 2006: transport select committee report. : www.parliament.uk

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Agency’s ‘failures’ push argument for road pricing

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