Want to avoid traffic jams on the M62? You’d better move!
THE leader of Manchester council has branded the M62 a ‘public car park’ – and warned trans-Pennine commuters to ‘move’ if they want a congestion-free drive to work.
Sir Richard Leese said anyone who believed the 107-mile-long motorway – which connects Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Hull – would ever be a traffic-free drive was ‘living in cloud cuckoo land.’
Speaking to northern political and business leaders, he added: “The M62 is a large public car park.
“That’s what it is and that’s what it will always be.”
“If you insist on commuting that distance by car there is nothing you can do to solve it other than move.”
Sir Richard said the alternative was a workable public transport system, which would also solve the region’s clean air problem.
The keen cyclist added: “We are going to have to fundamentally change the way we live and the way we relate to transport. Lots of young people are already changing the way they live.
“Seventeen-year-olds are not having driving licences, they are not buying cars.
“People are living in urban spaces where they don’t need cars.” But he said that people needed a ‘workable public transport system’ to be persuaded to do that.”
A Highways England spokesman said they were committed to tackling congestion on the M62 by adding extra lanes as part of smart motorway upgrades to increase capacity by a third.