Not sure about that, I live in that area and it’s already seen huge new housing so the demand for more and losing more countryside and more pressure on local schools, hospitals and so on is unlikely to be popular even if a road comes with it.Phil wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 19:29Indeed so - but that option isn't on the table and would need a reversal of two decades of Government policy that all development is essential for the country economic well-being. While it would be nice to think that such policies will eventually come to an end, the reality is in a low tax, low regulation, free market economy parties are not going to do that - too many vested interests to protect....Scratchwood wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 18:47
It doesn't stop road improvements being needed or indeed electorally popular in the area if it wasn't connected with lots of housebuilding...
I suspect the pressure for some sort of improvement will eventually return
Given the choice of no housing but no road or new roads plus thousands of houses most residents of the Chilterns / Vale of Aylesbury are going to pick the latter.
As Ive said before, I think the road, the railway and all other infra are justifiable on a “2-3 MKs” being built across the region (eg Winslow), but the locals will hate that!
The other issue is local connectivity, not much point having the expressway as it was mooted unless the routes to/from it are upgraded, eg A41 bypass of Aylesbury (ideally running west adjacent to HS2) amongst many others. There was no indication any of that would happen.
As for where we go now, well, I dont know, a strategic route is needed through there, and piecemeal upgrades to the A421 dont seem to solve the problem as that diverts to the North when the axis is really SW-NE from south of Oxford to Bedford and beyond. Solving inside MK is probably impossible. Driving that part of the route most traffic turns on/off, so I dont think the A421 is a medium-long distance axis now anyway.
We also have the issue of the A34 itself, grossly overloaded around Oxford with other safety and health issues too, with Oxford’s bypasses barely deserving that name (more distributors now), and like the upper M11, it suffers very badly from HGVs and rolling hills greatly sapping nominal capacity on the section to the M4. From there to the M3 it seems ok ish bar joining the M3 although that seems to be planned to be sorted.
All in all its northern half needs an A34(M) upgrade to D3, similar to the new bits of the A14. That cant be done near Oxford so what next?
We then have also the massively overloaded western M25 which this expressway would have alleviated indirectly (my SW to N/E journeys are a toss up of M3/M25 or A34 and cross counrry. If we do nothing what happens there?
In the last 10 years I’ve driven the M3-M11 section regularly, congestion used to disappear northbound between the M4 and M1 but now extends to the M40 and often the M1. That’s not the local traffic that party clogs M3-M4 section as its mostly longer distance stuff.
So disappointing, not least that we just cannot do strategic projects in this country. I spent a lot of time in the Nevada/California area in recent years and their plans to extend the I-11 to create a new strategic Mexico-US-Canada route are how to do it. They dont seem to need to justify it on developing the life out of everywhere en route and neither do they get stuck on what is essentially petty envy of one region against another - they just see an opporunity and are going for it.