Rethinking Roads – The Case for Cars in Transport Policy

In policy circles today advocating for the use of cars has become taboo..... the dominant discourse is very much pro funding for public transport, and anti-roads, but is this a rational way forwards for the UK...?

Roads can have their advantages...

public transport may work for some people and some areas, but not for all. Consider those living in rural counties with no access to trains, and where buses are not economically viable, or households with children, where cars are crucial.

The problem with rail is that is tends towards being centripetal: it concentrates people around core centres. Roads on the other hand are centrifugal...

There is also an economic argument here too... rails, being centralised, tend to filter money to city centres, by investing in roads, we can diversify wealth more geographically!

And then there was HS2...!

for the astronomical price of HS2 we could have provided every regular traveller between Manchester and London with a luxury Rolls-Royce Spectre. Hyperbolic, maybe, but it underlines the profligacy of mega-projects that serve a narrow clientele: primarily wealthier, urban residents.

Final thoughts...

Possibly there is an ideological bias against roads, and the problem here is that we may be investing in a dysfunctional system by focussing too much on rail, better roads may actually be fairer for all!