Does York’s Roads Policy Align with its Climate Goals?

York’s road’s policy has been described by a York Press reader as completely insane.

The reader points out that York is planning to spend £63 million dualling the Outer Ring Road, and another £66 million ‘improving’ the road network. Meanwhile the sums to be devoted to sustainable travel and cutting pollution are miniscule by comparison.

York’s Climate Change Strategy and Transport

York has, in theory, committed to being a net zero carbon city by 2030, but policies do not appear to be in place to achieve this goal.

Transport represents 28% of York’s total emissions. The Assistant Director of Policy and Strategy recently told the council’s Climate Change Policy & Scrutiny Committee that transport emissions must be reduced by 71% – but even that is not enough to reach net zero. The 71% reduction would only contribute to a 54% reduction in total emissions.

York’s Climate Change Strategy is not public, but it is due to be approved by the council’s Executive in June 2022.

York Outer Ring Road

The proposed dualling of the Outer Ring Road (ORR) is a large project to increase road capacity; it will inevitably induce more traffic and increase emisisons. It represents the failed idea that ‘one more lane will fix it‘.

Is the City of York being honest about the carbon impact of the ORR project? The short answer is no. On York’s ORR page, under the sub-heading The Need for YORR Improvements, the council states:

“The upgrade of the road and the roundabouts will help to reduce congestion and journey times, encouraging traffic out of the city centre in line with our carbon reduction and air quality ambitions, and onto larger roads where flows can be managed effectively.”

city of york council

There’s a lot of muddled thinking and heroic assumption in that one sentence. Some of the problems with it are:

• new or widened roads are always billed as reducing congestion; in fact what happens is that after about 3 years there is the same amount of congestion, but with a higher overall volume of traffic
• the extra traffic wouldn’t just drive up and down the widened Ring Road; it would spill over onto local roads and junctions, making congestion even worse than before
• the idea that traffic will be “encouraged out of the city centre” is fantasy. Long-distance drivers will continue to use the Ring Road; local drivers will use their local roads
• “encouraging traffic out of the city centre” wouldn’t result in carbon reduction even if it were to take place. Why would that reduce emissions?

The most objectionable part of the City of York’s statement is the misleading suggestion that building roads reduces carbon emissions. It is a fact that the process of building a road involves high carbon emissions, as set out by the Institution of Civil Engineers. Then once the road is built, induced traffic increases emissions further.

It is disappointing that the council feels able to mislead people in this way.

In November 2021, they told me that they had done a Carbon Impact Assessement, but they refused to show it to me. They said it would be published in February 2022, but that has not happened.

As a bare minimum, we should be able to expect honesty and transparency from the City of York.

IPCC Climate Change Reports

We’ve had three climate change reports from the IPCC making up their Sixth Assessment.

The first was from Working Group 1 on the Physical Science Basis for climate change. It was a warning of ‘Code Red for humanity’, and said that massive and immediate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are needed.

The second, from Working Group 2, was about Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. It noted mounting loss of life, biodiversity and infrastructure.

The third report has been published today. It is from Working Group 3 and concerns Mitigation of Climate Change. It calls for rapid, deep and immediate cuts in carbon emissions. Global emissions need to peak within 3 years to stave off the worst impacts.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said:

“Some government and business leaders are saying one thing – but doing another. Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.”

antonio guterres

Should York be expanding road capacity, traffic and emissions just at the moment the IPCC says emissions must peak? Is the City of York saying one thing but doing another?