Our view

Safer routes to school for young people promote physically active travel for all. Photo: © Sustrans

The Government should develop policies that reduce the number of car journeys people make, rather than try to increase transport capacity by building more roads. If there were fewer car journeys, we wouldn't need to sacrifice more of our countryside to road construction, and carbon dioxide emissions would fall. We need to improve our understanding of road-building outcomes, too, so that we can develop policies based on facts rather than predictions.

Reduce the need to travel
We need to plan for homes, businesses and transport together. Local authorities should require new housing developments to incorporate places of work, shops and schools, and improve access to these facilities in existing developments where possible. Our report, Back Together Again calls for decisions on transport and land use to be reunited to create better communities and fewer journeys.

Improve conditions for physically active travel
We're using cars for very short trips – 61% of trips between 1 and 2 miles are by car. These trips can easily be made by physically active travel, such walking and cycling, which are not just good for the planet but also good for you.  Many planners and engineers still view our streets and lanes as conduits for cars rather than places for people.  Facilities are often put in as an afterthought and can make conditions worse, such as guardrails for pedestrians and gutter lanes for cyclists.  Lowering speeds and flows of motor vehicles should be the first priority.

Provide better public transport

High quality public transport, nationally and locally, would help combat road congestion on journeys of all lengths.  Integration, such as smart cards, bike hire and break bulk delivery services in town centres, as well as safe routes to stations and rural bus stops might not be as headline grabbing as new roads but are far more effective.

Find out the facts, learn from past mistakes
Road-building schemes are fuelled by claims of the solutions they could bring. We need to know if these claims have any basis in reality. Our report Beyond Transport Infrastructure shows that, far from producing the benefits claimed, new roads fail to solve congestion problems and even generate traffic. They can have a devastating impact on the countryside, fuelling further development and eroding tranquillity.

Post-completion road evaluations need to be improved, to:

• Better measure the effect on landscape and residents beyond a road's immediate vicinity
• Study the actual effect on levels of carbon dioxide emissions
• Analyse traffic growth to determine how much the new road is itself generating new traffic
• Assess impacts on physically active travel beyond the immediate area
• Monitor land use changes, such as closure of local services and greater centralisation

The results must be widely available and used to influence road-building policy, planning and funding decisions.

When a road project is promoted as being good for economic regeneration we must ensure that the claimed benefits are realistic. Economic Impact Reports are produced for many road projects and should be a key part of the decision-making process for new transport schemes.