The Conservatives yesterday pledged a nationwide road-building spree, insisting that Britain's motorway network had failed to keep up with the "immense social liberation" of women and pensioners holding driving licences.
Launching a number of policies intended to set out their position as the party of the motorist, the Tories attacked the "myth" that new motorways generate extra traffic, and insisting that construction was the key to tackling congestion.
The Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, said a 13% rise in travel over the past decade had come from a 13% increase in people holding driving licences. He said 25 years ago, only a third of women in their 40s drove. Now it is three-quarters.
"It is not the construction of new roads which is causing more traffic," said Mr Duncan Smith. "It is the immense social liberation involved in more women and more pensioners than ever before having the opportunity, and making the choice, to drive themselves."
The shadow transport secretary, Tim Collins, said he would back imposing tolls on new motorways to help fund the construction. He said tolls on the Dartford river crossing and the Birmingham northern relief road were achieving "widespread acceptance".
He also promised to raise speed limits on some motorways to 80mph, and to cut speed cameras in favour of extra traffic police.
The Tories published figures suggesting that British motorists drive less than their neighbours, travelling an average of 6,505 miles in 2000, compared with 7,166 miles in Italy and 7,179 miles in France.
But some experts said demand would expand to fill the space available. Glenn Lyons, transport professor at the University of the West of England, said: "The evidence shows that as traffic speeds increase, we choose to travel further. Once the roads are better, people often choose to move a bit further away and travel longer distances to work."
The RAC Foundation said this week that Britons have the longest average commuting time in Europe, travelling an average of 45 minutes to work - twice as long as the Italians.
The Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, Don Foster, said: "As to the construction of new roads, when the M25 was widened it very soon became as congested as ever, showing you cannot simply build your way out of congestion."
