There are a lot of things which I don’t know. Until today I didn’t know whether I supported people who build roads, or people who protest about them. I could see both sides of the arguement – it does seem a shame to destroy another piece of the planet, but then roads are useful, so if it reduces congestion then that must be good?

This is the kind of thing I am talking about. Hippies protesting about roads and the council beating them up and doing it anyway. There are some good pictures here.

I thought I would do some research and find out who was right, so I looked around and found this. You really should read that.

What it says is that building roads is a waste of time, as it just encourages people to travel further and more often.

“Trying to cure traffic congestion by adding more capacity is like trying to cure obesity by loosening your belt.”

So the hippies are right. I guess it is a bit more complex than that as sometimes a good road system might be able to fix existing problems, but the point is there will always be congestion, and building roads won’t stop it.

It’s good to have opinions based on fact.