Government sets new congestion targets

• Traffic congestion set to rise in urban areas
• Government wants to control rate of rise
• New targets reveal change in policy

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The Government has set new congestion targets, which assume that journey times will increase in England.

Ministers will judge traffic control to be a success if journey times increase by no more than 4.4% over the next four years - but some parts of England could increase by much more than this.

In Bristol, for example, the Government believes journey times will increase by 14%, and by 11% in Yorkshire by 2010.

The new figures were published in a Department for Transport (DfT) report, which outlined the targets for the 10 largest urban areas, which are London, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, Merseyside, Bristol, Nottingham and Leicester.

South Yorkshire is expected to experience significant economic growth, resulting in a particularly marked increase in traffic volume, so the Government's aim is to hold the increase there to 7.9%.

In Tyne and Wear, the target is 12.1% and in Nottingham it is 10.5%.

The targets seem to suggest that the Government has changed its tack on congestion - by aiming only to restrict the growth in congestion, it appears to be admitting that its 2000 Transport Plan is no longer achievable. This plan aimed to cut congestion below current levels by 2010, rather than see it rise.

In the long term, the Government plans to tackle traffic levels by introduce a satellite-controlled pay-as-you-drive scheme, but the system is not likely to be in use until 2015.