Hi
I forget the figures (or the units for that matter!) exactly, but if any of you have read The Sun today then you would have noticed Clarkson mentioning the fact that in 1960, there were 9 million cars and 200 thousand miles of road. In 2005, there are 31 million cars and 240 thousand miles of road.
Now to the untrained Sun reader's eye, it appears that clarkson is making a good point about the level of road growth in this country, and that we should all march down to Downing Street on Sunday and demand that the magic some new roads up for us to combat congestion. My question is, however, is do these figures include motorways as one unit length, or does it account for the fact that motorways have 3 lanes and hence count motorway miles thrice?
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Mike Farrow
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Nine million cars in 1960? - I thought only the very well off could afford one back then, plus there would have been far less company/rental firm cars....
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I think you're probably dead right about hi having massaged the stats somewhat, but hey, if the rapid greenies do it, why shouldn't Clarkson?
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I think you're probably dead right about hi having massaged the stats somewhat, but hey, if the rapid greenies do it, why shouldn't Clarkson?
Damn right, you can prove anything with statistics. What is it they say? "Lies, damn Lies and statistics" :o)
Fight fire with fire!!
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What would be far more useful would be the number of vehicle miles driven per year. My guess is that it has rocketed since about 1970 - fewer rail lines, more cars, and people driving far further to get to work/play etc.
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Start below. I think if you follow the route to data link there is all that kind of thing.
www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/docu...p
teabelly
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Also, folk like myself spoil things a bit in terms of how valid they are - I've got 3 cars, but for obvious reasons, can only drive one at once.
If you asked - how many cars would be driven at once, the number would be quite a bit lower. Many Motor Museums have most of their exhibts registered for road use, and quite a few will be taxed, not sorned. Insurance can be quite cheap for old cars.
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Most of the additional roads mileage has been on housing estates and new towns. Actual "driving" roads very limited.
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Most of the additional roads mileage has been on housing estates and new towns. Actual "driving" roads very limited.
There's an item on Channel 4 teletext (P702) at he moment that says the US has the largest 'highway' network in the world, at 45,000 miles.
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I own a car and three bikes. I can only drive one at once. Counting the number of vehicles is bogus. Number of miles driven is more relevant.
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don't forget to deduct all of the miles of carriageway given over to bus and cycle lanes.
John
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Good point, most routes into London are now effectively a single carriageway.
The best comparison would appear to be miles of A and B classified carriageway available 24 hours per day.
I suspect that the comparison between 1960 and 2005 would at best be static.
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I had a quick fish in the stats:
Road lengths 1960 of principal, motorrway and trunk roads is 45,345
Traffic was 112 billion vehicle Km
Road lengths 1975 was 50.209 with traffic at 231 billion vehicle km
2003 road lengths was 53585 and traffic was 490 billion vehicle km.
I haven't accounted for dual carriageways being twice the length or motorways thrice. It will probably account for road space that has disappeared. It is interesting to note that that trunk road length falls about the same as A roads gain which suggests that between 1975 & 2003 there has been little net gain in A road/principal road building at all.
Traffic is around 4 times what it was in 1960 but there is only about 20% more roadspace.
teabelly
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Traffic is around 4 times what it was in 1960 but there is only about 20% more roadspace. teabelly
Don't forget there remains extensive underutilised road in more remote areas of the UK which will skew any raw comparison of traffic against road miles. Drove from Spean Bridge to Dalwhinnie last Sunday and hardly saw a soul.
20% growth is concentrated on the main inter urban trunk routes so maybe we're not as badly off as we think we are?
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