It turns out that the government's £27 billion road-building plan (according to Sunak, "the biggest ever investment in strategic roads and motorways") was decided on without the detailed environmental assessment that has been a legal requirement since 2014 to ensure that itis consistent with our CO2 reduction and air quality commitments. The justification? The government argues that new roads are needed to combat congestion, and that modal shift to walking and cycling cannot replace most longer journeys and the transport of goods or freight. Clearly, they have learnt *nothing* from past practice: that more roads merely induce more traffic, resulting in the same level of congestion and even more pollution. The secondary point on modal shift is nonsense: there is no suggestion that walking and cycling can replace longer journeys, simply that the need is to reduce unnecessary car use to allow for them. And have they not realised that cargo bikes can deliver many deliveries in urban settings? This blind stupidity in the face of the fossil fuel production of pollution and greenhouse gases makes one despair of the government.
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