Photo: Daily Telegraph

We borrow the phrase from the CPRE campaign and its opposition to the National Networks National Policy Statement  which is out to consultation. CPRE have a helpful page for those of you (like , regrettably, us) who have let this one slip by. Essentially the NNNP statement  is based on Department for Transport thinking which we commented on last year. Below is what we sent in – do try and send in a reply by the end of 26th February 2014.

Dear Department for Transport,

 I am writing to you because the Road Danger Reduction Forum opposes the draft National Networks National Policy Statement you are consulting on. You are:

 • Making official forecasts of traffic increasing by 46% by 2040 unchallengeable, even though traffic has stabilised at 2003 levels. More importantly, the urgent need is to REDUCE motor vehicle traffic rather than assume it will increase.

 • Your return to what CPRE and others call “Roman-style road building with roads that plough straight through Green Belts, nationally treasured landscapes, ancient woodland and wildlife sites” etc. will generate more motor vehicular traffic and exacerbate any attempts to control problems of mass motor vehicular use such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, noxious emissions, danger, community severance, visual intrusion, loss of local community, children’s independent mobility, healthy travel etc.

 While this proposal is a terrible threat to public health, local and global environments etc., this document, the first national road and rail policy, is a fantastic opportunity to plan transport better. Instead we would like the policy to:

 • Commit to extending the rural rail network and improve its resilience.

 • Require better facilities on the main road network to get new bus and coach services moving and, for shorter distances, to make cycling and walking safer and easier.

 • Roll out nationally the measures used so successfully at the 2012 Olympics to prevent congestion by reducing the need to travel and demand for road space. These would be particularly effective to manage growth of van traffic.

 * Commit to increasing costs of motor vehicular use and levels of road traffic law enforcement which, while valuable and necessary in their own right, would reduce the amount of motor vehicular traffic and the supposed need for more road building.

 Yours sincerely,

Dr. Robert Davis, Chair, Road Danger Reduction Forum