Bigger and better roads can be environmentally sustainable (or not?) 17-04-2007 The transport sector is responsible for 14 per cent of the greenhouse gas
emissions. Many green civil society organisations therefore want to curb the
funding for road transport in favour of more sustainable transport systems, such
as (light)rail. As a response to these calls, the European Road Federation (ERF)
has published a discussion paper on the sustainability of roads. In this paper,
the ERF argues that better roads reduce car emissions. It also emphasises that
restraining the capacity of the road network is environmentally
counterproductive.
The ERF makes these claims on the basis of the study carried out by SINTEF, a
Norwegian scientific and industrial research organisation. However, the SINTEF
study also points out that expanding a heavy congested urban road generates new
traffic. The simulations show that in this scenario, car use will increase with
45 per cent at the cost of public transport use. The authors therefore conclude
that, especially in large cities, it is virtually impossible to solve the
traffic problem by increasing the road capacity. The ERF does not mention these
research results in its discussion paper.
Though the ERF is an obvious advocate of ‘bigger and better’ roads, it does
acknowledge that the design and maintenance of roads should be environmentally
sound. According to the ERF, this can be achieved by:
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