Dave Arquati wrote:

No, no, no, please, no, to all of that. They planned to do it some time
ago (http://www.btinternet.com/~roads/lon...ringway1.html).

I know about the planned ringway. I don't think they should go ahead
with the whole of that though.

Of course, the Westway was a roaring success for the residents of the
area it cut through.

Are you sure? Traffic has always headed into London from the West and
it would do so without the A40 and the elevated M4, probably on the A4
instead, so the Cromwell Road, with its museums and hotels would simply
be totally choked. And those who don't use the A4 would use the A4020
(much of which used to be the A40) passing through Ealing etc. even
though they have intention to go to Ealing, whilst conflicting with
local traffic.

The little bit of the West Cross Route that comes South off the A40 is
a fairly useless road - it's good down to Shepherds Bush then takes you
through residential roads that were never meant to be a highway. Going
Northbound, if you want to continue North you have to take A40 and A406
or work your way through the local areas of Harlesden and Neasden. Its
only real purpose is as a relief road for Wood Lane.

These urban motorways only serve to generate new car traffic

Maybe a little but most of it will just be diverted off other roads.
For example someone coming from Portsmouth heading North may well go up
the A3, onto this road and subsequently the M1 rather than using the
Western stretch of the M25. Certainly those who live in Kingston going
North are more likely to use it. But are these people going to
specifically make more journeys by car just because the road is there?

If they want to encourage more people to use trains then improve the
railways too.

(whether tunnelled or not), and are also incredibly expensive
particularly if tunnelled).

It's more expensive to build a tunnel than a bridge but it does mean
they don't have to buy up land and compulsory purchase orders may
obviously cost more.

Talking of cost though, do you know how much revenue is lost everyday
through traffic queues?

And actually, a road, if used properly, will usually take a greater
volume than a railway. On a D2 dual carriageway, for example, if cars
are travelling at a 2-second gap, you get 30 cars in each lane passing
per minute. If each car has 2 occupants, that's 120 passengers a minute
in each direction. You'd need to run a very frequent train service to
carry that many.

Anyway, they were supposed to be raising all this money to improve
roads through the congestion charge but all I've seen is totally
unnecessary roadworks on roads that aren't broken. But then we know Ken
is anti-car.

Which is thankfully why you'll
never see a grade-separated South Circular any time soon.

Do you live and drive in the South of London?

Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London