Pot-holes getting bigger

Wouldn’t South Crossrail be such a good idea – I could have used it today to attend a conference but instead I had to make more changes and walk those long distances underground at Bank – London’s most central station. I have always thought that Bank was an apposite name for London’s central station. Not simply named London or London Central but named after the industry that is the backbone of the city.

The conference was centred around road network management: delivering a safer, greener and more efficient road system for Britain. It looked far into the future with developments based on technology as well the here and now with the lack of investment in surface repair. The Highways Agency reported on the findings on the managed use of the hard-shoulder along the M42. I am not in favour of using the hard shoulder as a driving lane and I believe that many of the benefits gained by the exercise could have been gained by speed limit reductions during periods of high traffic flow – as happens on the M25 – and the introduction of anti tailgating measures to stop drivers getting too close to the vehicle in front. Of course, the introduction of a road user charge would be a much more effective way of solving the problem.

Indeed the next speaker, Stephen Glaister of Imperial College outlined his solution to the problem of supplying transport infrastructure for Britain. This revolved around road user charging. He had reached the same conclusions that the ETA has been espousing nigh on two decades – that road user charging was central to solving our road transport problems. Where we differ is that he recommended an increase in road building to 600 lane kilometres a year whereas we would not. But it is a welcome move nonetheless.

Further speakers had more industry related briefs: telemetrics, aggregate sourcing methodology and electronic ticketing developments etc. All fascinating stuff if you are in the business but one speaker, Forbes Johnson of Mott MacDonald, spoke of an issue which we would all care about – the pot-hole. We are all aware from our everyday experience that our road surfaces are not the quality that they should be. He demonstrated why our highway authorities are failing to deliver the quality we want and why matters are greeting worse. This problem is global: it affects the rest of Europe, America, China and Africa. His diagnosis is one that I agree with: our method of public finance does not take account of the value of our assets. Essentially, any public good be it a road, school or hospital building is not worth building unless it is maintained properly and in terms of roads that means planning maintenance before the damage sets in. Our current way of spending money on roads encourages new schemes more highly than maintaining old ones. A finance system which recognises the true value of our assets – as used in the private sector – would rebalance this process.

Any cyclist will tell you that the surface quality of a road or street (do you know the difference?) is an important aspect of a safe journey. Yet we are wasting billions because of the lack of timely maintenance – a stitch in time saves nine – government finance must be reformed.