Tackling congestion by making better use of England's motorways and trunk roads : twenty-fifth report of session 2004-05, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence

Road congestion is estimated to cost industry and commerce [yen]3 billion a year, with around 7 per cent of the motorway and trunk road network suffering heavy congestion at peak times.

Although the Government has set a target to stabilise congestion at 2000 levels by 2010, it has acknowledged that this will not be achieved.

This report, which follows-on from a report by the NAO (HC 15, available below), looks at how the Highways Agency is tackling the problem.

The report concludes that the Agency has been too risk averse in testing and using measures adopted abroad and that they have failed to give motorists the information they need to make choices before and during their journeys.