The road lobby's answer? Build new roads, rebuild old ones, duel & double and keep roads free for motorists -- the same road map that brought us to the dead end we're at. Free roads don't provide the economic signals needed to determine what roads are needed and when; they allow politicians to build pet roads devoid of economic rationale. If we tolled our roads, instead of funding them through petrol taxes, and general government revenues, we'd have fewer but better-maintained roads, we'd have fewer two-car families and we'd tend to drive our one car far more economically.

What a load of drivel.

 

Our road system is Victorian and couldn't cope with Edwardian levels of horse drawn traffic.

Despite the population being far smaller than it is now.

Despite people hardly travelling compared to now.

And despite there being very little transportation of goods compared to now.

 

London, for example, should have had a new grid of highways across it.

And five ring roads.

 

These were put on the back burner due to the First World War.

The Depression.

The Second World War.

 

They finally resurrected two rings of the five ring system, and combined them into the single oval of the M25.

And, surprise, surprise, a century after five rings should have been built:

The single ring can't cope.

 

That doesn't prove you can't build yourself out of congestion.

It doesn't prove that cars will automatically fill any roads built.

 

It proves the opposite:

A much larger population than that in Victorian times.

Travelling much further.

And transporting far more goods much further.

Can just about manage on a Victorian road system with just a few of the improvements that would have been required for the Edwardians to function with horses and carts.