[ROOTminus1]

There’s been a few major road infrastructure projects in Plymouth, around the A386 over the last 10 years, and plans for the latest installment have been announced at the junction with the A38, the Manadon interchange.

https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/news/have-your-say-keep-manadon-moving

Previous and ongoing efforts to increase vehicular capacity have been, frankly, a shit-show. The Crownhill to Derriford works went over budget and over schedule in part due to mis-management of the main contractors.
The ongoing works at Roborough are an abysmal place to navigate on any mode of transport.
The biggest ‘success’ of road infrastructure has been the new junction on Forder Valley Road and the construction of a relief road which gets minimal usage due to it dropping into the back end of an industrial park instead of connecting to the main road the newly proposed plans intent to improve. The relief road has adequate cycle infrastructure but that promptly ends as it reaches the mega-junction.

Given so much evidence that increasing road capacity is counter-productive, why do so many councils waste millions on these white elephant projects?

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[chrisonabike]

There’s a PhD in there.

There’s a PhD in there.

(And was it yourself who posted this good presentation (section here) about the problem and why we keep going down that road?)

Alternatively there are really simple explanations:

• Because people are asking for it.
• Because that’s what we did last time.
• Because common sense (backed by modelling below) says that will be an improvement on how it is now, and we’re not marked on “what happens in 2 / 5 / 10 years time”.
• Because there is a highways agency / roads department / budget for building roads.
• Because that department (and others in an incidental way) are charged with delivering things like “shorter journey times” and “less congestion” and armed with metrics which (as Chris Boardman points out) effectively are designed to give a “value for money” stamp to building more roads / widening existing roads.  (Even though the UK government itself has repeatedly commissioned reports suggesting that spending more on cycling and walking is great value for money).
• Because there are massive industries making billions with a stake in this happening.
• Because there are many more people who currently feel that efficient driving is an essential and positive part of the economy / their lives.

[Author]

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