Britain faces gridlock after car journey times rise 16%

Britain's roads are heading towards eventual gridlock with congestion increasing at a phenomenal rate, figures released yesterday suggest.

As experts forecast that the best way to combat growing traffic jams is to invest in new tunnel routes, research has shown that journey times have increased by 16 per cent during the past four years.

The RAC Foundation conference is expected to hear today that the Government will have to raise its investment in trunk roads by 50 per cent if congestion is to be eased.

This is backed by a survey by the driver information company Trafficmaster, which predicted the position was only likely to deteriorate further.

With Britain already suffering from the worst jams in Europe, its population continues to reject alternatives. More people than ever are travelling to work by car over longer distances. Children, who once took the bus, are being driven to school, accounting for a 50 per cent jump in mid-term journey times on some commuter routes. In four years there has been a 9 per cent increase in licensed vehicles in the UK, with nearly 30 million on the road.

In some parts of the country rush hour now extends throughout most of the day. The morning peak spreads from 6am to 11.30am. The evening jams begin at 4pm and continue for three and half hours. The afternoon rush starts at 3pm on Friday, a problem that has now extended to Thursdays.

And the countryside has not escaped the passage of progress. Using data collated from more than 7,000 traffic sensors across the country, Trafficmaster found that the A14 journey between Cambridge and Ipswich had been one of the worst hit, with journey times up by 19.1 per cent. Whereas it once took just over three quarters of an hour, motorists can now expect to spend almost an hour in the car. By 2006, the trip is predicted to take 67 minutes.

While the South has traditionally suffered the worst of the congestion, regeneration in parts of the North has brought increased problems. The CBI says this is a predicament that is costing business £18bn a year.

"It remains to be seen whether the Government's investment in roads makes any difference. People are using their cars more. The trend to revert back to public transport, walking or cycling is going to take another big education process," a spokeswoman for Trafficmaster said.

The report also highlighted the top 10 motorway congestion hot spots, showing that for the fourth year running the M25 between junctions 10 and 21a and the M6 between junction 4 and junction 10a remain the biggest problems. The M6 near Manchester has seen a 164 per cent increase in congestion.

A total of £70bn would be needed between now and 2031 to cope with the expected increase of 46 per cent in traffic, the engineering consultants Halcrow will tell the RAC Foundation conference. This is the equivalent of spending £2.4bn every year between now and 2031 – an annual investment rate about 50 per cent higher than envisaged in the Government's 10-year transport plan.

Where open construction would be damaging to the environment, Halcrow proposed that roads should be put in tunnels, though these are costly.

Sir Christopher Foster, chairman of the RAC Foundation, said: "As the motorist is already contributing some £41bn in taxes each year, an improvement programme of this magnitude over 30 years would be excellent value for money."