Road users pay their way
Road users pay £38bn in VED and fuel duty and only £9bn is spent on roads. This £29bn difference is eight times the £31/2bn cost of road transport’s carbon emissions.
- Both rich and poor people rely on roads
Both rich and poor rely heavily on roads, although the rich travel more. The poorest 20% of families make 72% of their travel by car and 93% by road compared with 82% and 88% for the richest 20%.
The decreasing level of trunk road construction will also be raised within the presentation. Between 1986 and 2006 average flows on trunk roads have increased by at least a half but construction rates have fallen from around 800 lane kilometres a year to about 100 lane kilometres a year.
Stephen Glaister, Director of the RAC Foundation says
‘Roads are essential to the UK economy and our way of life. The myths surrounding road planning are unfounded and unhelpful. It is therefore essential that our future road requirements are understood, embraced and planned for. This is a process that must start today. Efficient pricing, which reforms costs to improve efficiency and provides additional capacity to preserve mobility, is the most sustainable and realistic strategy for roads.’