keeping the nation moving
TRANSCRIPT
Keeping the Nation Moving
Philip Gomm
Head of External Communications, RAC Foundation
RUA meeting, ICE, 3 May 2012
www.racfoundation.org
The history of traffic
Why we are where we are
• More people
In 1950 UK population was 50 million
In 2010 UK population was 62 million
• More cars
In 1950 there were 4 million vehicles in GB
In 2012 there are 34 million vehicles in GB
Cars are more affordable than ever to buy (not run)
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Motoring Price indices relative to Prices of all Items
January 1987 = 100 to January 2012
All motoring
Tax and Insurance
Maintenance Fuel
Car purchase
Car owning society
Person Traffic Density
The future
The future... in numbers
Congestion
Money, money, money - roads
• 91% of passenger miles on the roads
• UK drivers pay £27 billion in fuel duty and
£6 billion in VED alone.
Total: £33 billion before you add in VAT,
company car tax etc.
• Only £9 billion spent on roads
Money, money, money - rail
• 8% of passenger miles takes place on the
railways
• £7.6 billion spent on rail
Where should scarce
resources be allocated?
• Benefit cost ratios aren‟t everything, but
they‟re a damn good start.
• HS2 to Birmingham has BCR of 1.2 and is
officially rated „poor‟
• Top ten unfunded road schemes listed by
RACF & Arup in Nov „11 had BCRs above 6
The schemes are out there
PM weighs in
• “... there is nothing green about a traffic
jam and gridlock holds our economy
back. [We should] widen pinch points, add
lanes to motorways by using the hard
shoulder to increase capacity and dual
overcrowded A-roads.”
David Cameron, ICE 19 March 2012
Priorities
Preserve the infrastructure we already have
Prioritise work on the basis of need & value
Consider how to deal with the impending
funding gap
