More roads 'won't solve' congestion, says cycling advocate

By STUART DYE, transport reporter

Building roads will not solve transport problems and congestion charging carries a host of unforeseen and unwanted consequences, according to one of Britain's leading transport thinkers and most colourful politicians.

Steve Norris was in Auckland over the weekend as the keynote speaker at New Zealand's fourth annual cycling conference.

He is the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London and chair of the UK National Cycling Strategy Board.

But he remains best known in the UK as "Shagger Norris" after the tabloids exposed details of the politician having five mistresses "on the go" at once.

Mr Norris has maintained that "the affairs actually stretched over 25 years".

He is similarly candid about the reasons he left Parliament in 1997 after three years as the minister for local transport.

"I retired to spend more time with my money."

Unlike other UK politicians he has managed to shrug off the controversy and remain a popular public figure. Many political analysts predict Mr Norris will win the mayoralty from Ken Livingstone in next year's election.

His election promises are based on fighting crime and solving London's transport problems.

And there are stark lessons from the UK capital that politicians here would be advised to listen to, says Mr Norris.

"Congestion charging in London was predicted to earn £212 million [$588 million] when it was introduced.

"Just six months on, the net income for 2003/2004 will amount to just £6 million [$16 million]."

Mr Norris is not against congestion charging per se. But transport planners needed to be clear whether it was a revenue-gathering tool or to keep cars off city centre roads, he said.

In London it had damaged business, pushed congestion to different parts of the city and proved a tax only on poorer people.

"There are lots of unintended consequences and that's the big lesson."

Mr Norris also said that building more roads was not the answer.

And many transport ministers around the world were often afflicted with "big project-itis".

They were intent on building giant roads regardless of whether it cost billions and was contentious.

Speaking at the launch of the NZ Cycling conference, Mr Norris said it was "crashingly obvious" that a major percentage of journeys did not need to be made by car.

The challenge was to change people's mindset to see cycling as a viable journey mode.

The responsibility to make it so, and a safe and pleasant option, fell to transport politicians, he said.

The two-day conference featured workshops, seminars and talks about cycling and its importance to health and the environment, as well as its potential as an affordable and practical transport mode.

The conference was organised by Cycling Support NZ and hosted by the North Shore City Council.