Car numbers double in 20 years

By Greg McKevitt
BBC News

Major road improvement projects are already underway

The number of cars on Northern Ireland's roads has doubled in the past 20 years, according to government statistics.

Although the total population is about 1.7 million, there are almost one million vehicles on the road.

With many Christmas shoppers stuck in gridlocked misery, there have been calls for more to be done to ease congestion.

Gordon Best of the Quarry Products Association says: "We depend more on our roads network than any other region of the UK yet we spend less on maintaining our roads network.

You used to know when you had reached the border because you were leaving Northern Ireland's good roads for the Irish Republic's bad roads - that has now completely reversed Gordon Best Quarry Products Association

"We've spent the last 40 years throughout the Troubles not investing in the roads network.

"Look at our cousins in the south of Ireland - you used to know when you had reached the border because you were leaving Northern Ireland's good roads for the Irish Republic's bad roads - that has now completely reversed."

High-profile road investments in recent years include much-needed upgrades for Belfast's Westlink and the cross-border route near Newry, and new roads are being built as part of a 10-year infrastructure improvement programme.

The cost of car parking is going up in parts of Belfast from January, while park-and-ride schemes from Sprucefield into the city were introduced last year in an attempt to reduce congestion.

'Catching up'

Mr Best says the money spent per kilometre on roads in Northern Ireland is about a third of the investment in Wales and a quarter of England's funding.

"We have a lot of catching up to do - we need to allocate adequate funding to maintain the roads because if it's not done, in the longer term it will cost much more," he said.

Building more road space addresses the problem of congestion in the same way as loosening one?s belt addresses the problem of obesity Lisa Fagan Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth transport campaigner Lisa Fagan disagrees, saying building more roads would not solve any problems.

"Building more road space addresses the problem of congestion in the same way as loosening one's belt addresses the problem of obesity," she says.

"It accommodates the growth but does nothing to solve the underlying problem.

"If Northern Ireland is to tackle obesity, cut its carbon emissions and boost the economy, then Finance Minister Peter Robinson must switch investment from roads towards buses, trains, walking and cycling."