Campaign for Better Transport slams Government plans for 'traffic hell'

The Government predicts we will have to contend with 5.7 million more cars on our roads by 2031, a growth of 21%. Simply parking these cars would fill a 52-lane motorway all the way from Edinburgh to London. Worryingly, because we are also driving more, the Government forecasts show that traffic will increase even more – up 31% by 2025.

The result will be ‘traffic hell’, warns Campaign for Better Transport: more traffic jams, longer journeys, more pollution and more stress. The organisation, formerly known as Transport 2000, is today outlining a better way forward for traffic.

Executive Director Stephen Joseph says, “We can’t go on like this – traffic is destroying our communities, our health and our environment. The Government must stop catering for all this traffic and instead give people and businesses good alternatives to driving. Campaign for Better Transport will continue the organisation’s long-standing role of coming up with practical solutions to transport problems.”

Top traffic hotspots

Campaign for Better Transport has compiled a list of the top 10 traffic hotspots – the places where traffic has grown fastest over the last decade:

1. Tameside: 38.6%

2. Oldham: 34.5%

3. Doncaster: 28.8%

4.South Gloucestershire: 27.3%

5. Rutland: 25.5%

6. Medway Towns: 25.0%

7. North Somerset: 24.7%

8. Barnsley: 24.4%

9.West Berkshire: 23.8%

10. Northamptonshire: 23.8%