Protesting against road-building

Britain in the 1980s and early 1990s, had a large road-building programme, but experience showed that more roads led to more traffic problems.

An increasing number of people, not just "green" activists or left-wingers, want money to be invested in public transport rather than new roads. They protest against the number of roads being built. In February 1994, 600 police were needed to end a demonstration against a motorway extension. The extension would have destroyed 300 houses to save 11 minutes' driving time.

The protests have forced the Government to abandon some of its road-building programme.

Michael Vaughan-Rees, Geraldine Sweeney, Picot Cassidy: In Britain. 21st Century Edition, Cornelsen Verlag, 2000, page 68