Interested party
Sir: Ross Clark argues (`There's nowhere else to go', 6 May) that road traffic levels are stable and therefore the need for improvements to the road network has passed.
Mr Clark is highly selective in the years he chooses to support his theory. The peri- od 1990-93 did indeed see traffic levels remain virtually static, but it was also the period of the longest and deepest recession this county has suffered for 60 years. Since 1993 traffic has again been growing. In the five quarters to the end of 1994 traffic growth on an annual basis averaged 3.5 per cent. I am sure that if the economy contin- ues to grow we shall see continuing increas- es in traffic levels for the foreseeable future.
However, even if traffic volumes could be stabilised at current levels most of the road programme would still be needed. Over 20 per cent of the motorway network is carry- ing traffic above the design level with the consequent economic and environmental costs of congestion. Significant stretches of the inter-urban strategic road network remains single-carriageway, is unsuitable for modern traffic and unable to meet acceptable safety and efficiency standards. And something like 600 communities up and down the country are still waiting for the construction of a long-promised bypass.
Richard Diment
British Road Federation, Pillar House, 194-202 Old Kent Road, London SE1
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