Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of road schemes on (a) congestion, (b) induced traffic and (c) modal shift between private cars and public transport; if he will publish the details of any such studies; and if he will make a statement.

All strategic road schemes promoted by the Department go through detailed analysis as set out in its Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG). These business cases are underpinned by transport modelling that estimates changes in congestion, induced demand and modal shift when proportionate. A post-opening project evaluation (POPE) assesses whether the benefits set out in a road scheme’s business case are on track to be realised through systematically evaluating metrics in relation to traffic flows, journey times, journey time reliability, safety and environmental impacts. All these are published on the Government website.

Highways England’s 2019 POPE summary analysis brings together the evaluations of around 85 major road schemes that opened between 2002-2014. This shows that around 73% of the schemes evaluated achieved the objective to ‘improve journey times/reduce congestion and/or delay’. Highways England analysis of induced demand includes changes of mode, destination, trip frequency and new car trips. The POPE evidence suggests that 76% of schemes assessed did not lead to induced traffic.

The forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan will consider the transport sector as a whole and the increased contribution that all modes need to make to achieve an economy-wide net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050. We are committed to levelling up public transport connections across the country and making public transport attractive for all, from investing a record £48 billion to modernise our railways, driving forward significant improvements in performance, punctuality and reliability; to the recently announced £5 billion of new funding to overhaul bus and cycle links for every region outside London.