Britain | Less jam tomorrow

Britain needs to embrace road pricing

The government will have to find a replacement for vehicle-fuel duty

Cars queue in a long traffic jam on Knightsbridge in London, England, on October 22, 2020. Government plans to expand the London Congestion Charging Zone to help fund a bailout for beleaguered public transport body Transport for London (TfL) are reportedly running up against fierce opposition from Conservative Party MPs in the capital responding to leaked details of the proposals. (Photo by David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images

BRITAIN’S ROADS are some of the most jammed in the world, with roughly 41m vehicles crawling along 250,000 miles of tarmac. Congestion is estimated to cost about £10bn ($12.5bn) a year in lost time. Plans to build new “smart motorways”, which would add capacity by getting rid of hard shoulders, have just been dropped. Average speeds are slowing (see chart 1).

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Less jam tomorrow”

From the April 22nd 2023 edition

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