What's the Problem?
You can't build your way out of congestion - road widening and new road simply encourage more traffic. The governments own studies confirm this. When the proposals for the widening were originally agreed, it was noted that the only way to lock in the benefits would be to employ road-used charging. This has not been mentioned in the current documentation.
Air Pollution and Noise
There are many towns and villages along the M1 - many of these already have problems with air pollution and increasing traffic will make this worse. Pollution from traffic has been shown to increase respiratory problems such as asthma and chronic bronchitis. More people have heart attacks when air pollution levels are higher.
Road Traffic Accidents
Over 3,000 people are killed every year on roads in the UK, and a further 200,000 injured. Encouraging more people to drive on motorways will not improve road safety.
Climate Change
This is already happening - freak weather events are occurring far more often and the pattern of our seasons is changing. Left unchecked climate change will cause droughts and famines. Floods will leave thousands homeless and without land to grow crops. Only a massive reduction in our CO 2 emissions can stop this nightmare scenario occurring. CO 2 emissions from road transport are actually increasing and currently constitute 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Oil is running out.
The need for oil has already fuelled many conflicts. No-one knows exactly when the oil will run out altogether, but the sooner we end our dependence on oil, the better.