Tales of tolls and sharing

The coalition government is currently considering whether to sell off Britain's road network in a bid to help tackle the country's huge deficit.

SELLING OFF THE ROAD NETWORK

If privatising does eventually go ahead the buyers will inevitably be toll road companies who would charge us to help maintain the nation's road network, and for profit. And while that will make some of us baulk, we realise toll roads are commonplace in mainland Europe and there are signs that they do help alleviate congestion.

Estuarial crossings such as the Humber, Severn and the Thames at Dartford have been charging drivers for years without major objections from the public. Also, the M6 toll road opened in 2003 has seen equivalent east-west journey times slashed by up to 70 minutes (if you are prepared to pay the £5 charge).

There are inevitable downsides of course. The key objection will be that drivers will use backroads through towns and villages as 'rat runs', to avoid using the tolls roads.

UNWANTED SIDE EFFECTS

In theory this will lead to excessive congestion and pollution in these social spaces. Another problem is that building yet more roads has an inevitable negative impact on the environment.

The previous government considered the introduction of toll lanes on existing motorways, where only vehicles paying a fee would be allowed to travel.

THE US EXAMPLE - TOLL LANES

Evidence from other countries shows that such lanes work: in the US for example, the I-394 toll lane in Minneapolis, Minnesota helps keep the traffic flow moving at the speed limit for 95 per cent of the time.

Another option is car-sharing lanes. Such a lane was introduced on the A647 in Leeds in 1998 and they have now spread to Birmingham, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

Britain's first motorway car-share lane opened in 2008 on the junction between M606 and M62 south of Bradford and has proven to be successful, cutting up to eight minutes off a journey during peak travel.

CAR SHARING LANES

Such lanes can also provide benefits to non-car-share drivers. In Leeds journey times were reduced for non-car-sharers by nearly two minutes because of the introduction of the A647's car-share lane.

Hard shoulder running is also seen as a useful weapon in the fight against congestion. The pilot project on the M42 allows drivers to use the hard shoulder during peak times. This was judged a success with journey times being reduced by up to 26%.

HARD SHOULDER RUNNING - A CASE STUDY

In December last year hard shoulder running was also introduced on a seven-mile stretch of the notorious M6, one of the most congested motorways in Europe, and you can expect to see similar schemes rolled out on to sections of the M3, M4, M5 and M27.

The intention is to end up with 500 miles of motorway hard shoulder running. But, as with toll roads, Britain is lagging way behind its peers. There are already 17 hard shoulder running schemes in the Netherlands and six in Germany that cover 124 miles.

While many of us might understandably be unhappy at the idea of yet more costs alongside ever-increasing car taxes and petrol prices, if we're to deal with the issue of congestion, such schemes may need to be embraced by the public sooner rather than later.