THE MAN who once accused car-driving commuters of being guilty of an “inappropriate use of road space” has been made Britain’s new traffic congestion czar.

Derek Turner will take over as the Highways Agency’s national traffic director from next month, charged with preventing the nation’s motorways and trunk roads from becoming gridlocked.

Turner was the chief architect of the central London congestion charge and his appointment comes at a time of growing government support for a national road pricing scheme to cut journey times.

Ministers have failed to meet targets on cutting congestion and the Royal Academy of Engineering predicted last week that traffic will increase by 50% by 2050, while the £15 billion annual cost of congestion will double within 10 years.

In his first interview since his appointment was announced, Turner denounced car drivers who clog up motorways by taking short trips. Highways should be the preserve of traffic of “economic importance” such as lorries, he said.

“A lot of the problem is to do with people joining the motorway at one junction and coming straight off at the next junction. These are strategic roads, designed for longer-distance traffic,” he said.

One method of encouraging car drivers to spurn motorways that is being considered by Turner is to have more traffic lights on slip roads. “If people can’t get on to the motorway so easily they will probably choose to use totally acceptable trunk roads,” he said. Critics fear that this will just move congestion to smaller local roads.

Other jam-busting measures planned by Turner include turning the motorway hard shoulder into a traffic lane at peak times, imposing variable speed limits and using improved signs and information. Trials of these measures are due to begin on a stretch of the M42 near Birmingham this summer.

Turner will also oversee the recruitment and management of 1,000 Highways Agency traffic officers, who will cut traffic tailbacks by co-ordinating the clearing up of accidents, rerouting traffic and liaising with maintenance contractors.

Building new roads to tackle congestion is unlikely to be a viable solution in the long-run, according to Turner. As in the case of the M25 — which has had to be widened — they soon fill up with new traffic.

As director of street management at Transport for London, Turner is credited with masterminding the introduction of the congestion charge. In this post he infamously claimed that a commuter who drove to work from Kensington in west London to Canary Wharf in Docklands was guilty of an “inappropriate use of road space”.

However, his relationship with Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, reportedly soured and he resigned a few weeks after charging began.

He then set himself up as a transport consultant advising Cardiff, Dublin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, São Paulo in Brazil and Auckland, New Zealand, on congestion charging. Some experts believe Turner could be perfectly placed at the Highways Agency if ministers go ahead with plans for a national road pricing scheme.

Government research has found that urban congestion could be cut by 50% and congestion on motorways reduced by a third if motorists were charged up to £1.50 per mile at peak times. Ministers believe that the satellite-based tracking technology for such a scheme will not be available for another decade. However, they want several big cities to introduce congestion charges.

Turner denies that national road tolls are part of his job. “I’m a transport professional and that sort of thing interests me, but I have no remit to introduce or develop a proposal for charging,” he said.

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