Environmental policy and the heavy goods vehicle in conurbations.

Evidence suggests that some of the most severe environmental problems associated with heavy goods vehicles are to be found in conurbations. This paper assesses the scale and nature of these problems in a sector of the west midlands conurbation and discusses policies for dealing with them. The paper is directed in particular at the two policies which would affect the largest number of both heavy goods vehicles and of households: lorry quietening and strategic lorry routeing. It is concluded that a policy of lorry quietening will benefit nearly all the households and shopping centres on the base network of the sector by holding down traffic noise levels and may even produce a small net db(a) reduction by 1995 despite vehicle growth. A strategic lorry route network at the conurbation level would provide considerable and long lasting environmental benefits for those roads excluded from the network, but these benefits would only be achieved at the cost of considerable disbenefits arising on those roads included in the network. It is concluded that if the latter policy is to be acceptable it would probably have to be combined with some ameliorative measures directed either toward the lorry itself or to the activities and buildings along the network. (author/publisher) for covering abstract of this seminar see IRRD no. 229391.