The Government’s new Transport Investment Strategy, says the RTPI, usefully recognises that transport appraisal should assess the contribution to a more geographically balanced economy, and commits to exploring new ways of funding and managing economically-significant roads that lie outside the Strategic Road Network. However, these policies should explicitly acknowledge that major routes ‘into and around urban centres’ require a multi-modal approach in order to improve congestion and reliability.

This Strategy does not acknowledge that increasing road capacity for private cars only provides short-term relief from congestion, as ‘induced traffic’ soon fills new lanes. This will happen even faster if new capacity unlocks car-dependent housing sites. New developments should instead be planned around sustainable transport capacity.

References to scenario planning are welcome, especially those which account for new technologies and demographics. Uncertainty can be addressed through flexible schemes that adapt to a changing society. However, numerous academic studies have challenged even the lowest traffic demand forecasts used in this Strategy, suggesting that traffic will uncouple from economic growth. It is also unclear whether scenarios will account for different ownership models, such as fleets of shared, autonomous vehicles, which impact on the allocation of road and parking space.