§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the traffic growth forecasts for England used by his Department for the periods 1963 to 1970, 1970 to 1980 and 1980 to 1990; and if he will give the actual traffic growth for those periods.
§ Mr. KeySince it started to use national forecasts of road traffic in about 1970 the Department of Transport has used or made six principal forecasts. They are given for selected years in the table in index number form, with a base of 1968 = 100 for the earliest forecast, and with a base of the index of actual traffic compared with 1968 for the subsequent forecasts. The table also includes an index of actual traffic growth since 1968.
The index numbers are of the total of all motor vehicle traffic except two-wheelers, for Great Britain. After 1975 the forecasts were made in a range of low and high growth, and the two figures for each year reflect that range.
589W
Forecasts Year Actual traffic 1968 base 1971 base 1975 base 1978 base 1982 base 1988 base 1968 100 100 — — — — — 1970 107 112 — — — — — 1971 114 — 114 — — — — 1975 124 141 133 124 — — — 1978 137 — — — 137 — — 1980 144 173 160 145–160 — — — 1982 150 — — — — 150 — 1985 165 194 179 165–186 147–162 159–165 — 1988 202 — — — — — 202 1990 221 212 198 184–208 158–182 171–189 212–220 1992 1218 218 203 190–215 160–189 174–197 222–236 1 Provisional.