All motorways pollute - or do they??

Everyone knows pollution is a BAD THING. ((Fx:Nod your head here and look sad, wise and judicious. A wry smile adds to the atmosphere of inevitable gloom and despondency.))

But when we pause just a little to cast a critical eye at the spin emanating from government sources, what do we find?

All those vehicles being driven along motorways undoubtedly pollute. The slower the vehicles are forced to go, the more they pollute. If vehicles can travel at cruising speeds without congestion, the pollution they cause is at a minimum. ((Fx:Nod your head again, here, this could be fun.)) It follows that roads which do not permit vehicles to travel at cruising speeds are a direct cause of extra pollution.

There are well-known to arise considerable benefits to wildlife and plant divesity from having all those protected environments along motorway verges.

The argument by the government's Department of Transport is that providing more roads GENERATES more traffic. That is a deliberate scientific falsehood. Reducing their argument ad absurdum, they would 'cure' all congestion by closing all roads permanently. Providing more roads PERMITS more traffic to flow, true, but there is already a huge amount of suppressed demand waiting for government to satisfy the needs of those wishing to travel. It is the further artificial suppression of demand that the government is at present hell-bent upon creating. What is needed, instead, is more roads, not less, able to permit the passage of vehicles without congestion.

The extra pollution caused by the expansion of air travel makes the pollution caused by all road and sea traffic virtually negligible. Reduce the pollution caused by air travel and the 'pollution' excuses trotted out in the current governmental war on the motorist will be seen to be the falsehoods they are.