Letter: Total gridlock

From Mike Taylor

I read the interview with Phil Goodwin about road congestion and traffic
limitation
(9 June, p 41) and I wholeheartedly agree with all he says, but I
feel that he, like governments, has missed the most important points about
ever-escalating traffic. To extend his own analogy, they are trying to dam the
river with a handful of twigs. The underlying reason we have such a problem with
traffic in the developed world is the steady increase of distance between home
and the places we want to spend our time, which has come about for two
reasons:

First, there is a perception that it is more environmentally friendly to
separate commercial areas from residential areas. Thirty years ago most people
could walk to work, now they have to drive. Rural homes have been sold to rich
commuters coming out from the towns, and agricultural workers have to drive from
town to work, instead of stepping out of the door.

Second, we now have far higher expectations for our leisure pursuits. To be
cost-effective, leisure facilities have to be big and located to serve the
largest catchment area, which effectively means every visitor has a long way to
travel.

Before any traffic reduction measure can be expected to work, far more
research is needed into why people travel at all, not why they use a car in
preference to a bus. Technology can solve some of these problems, but it will
take a strong government to implement it.

Borough Green, Kent