Collect signatures for a better transport sector and against four-lane highways in Latvia

Collect signatures for a better transport sector and against four – lane highways in Latvia “>

An initiative on climate-neutral and green traffic in 2040 without expensive four-lane high-speed highways, submitted by the youth organization Protest, has been published on the public initiative portal Manabalss.lv.

The proposed Latvian State Road Development Plan for 2020-2040 envisages allocating almost 6 billion euros for the construction of 4-lane high-speed highways – these are 300 million euros every year. This would mean more than doubling the annual budget for national roads, investing in the huge expansion of roads in a declining country at a time when we need to do everything we can to tackle the climate crisis and achieve climate neutrality. Transport policy must promote green mobility, so investment must be made in public transport and the proposed national road development plan cannot be supported.

The construction of high-speed roads as large as currently planned is not justified by practical necessity. One of the key indicators in this area is traffic intensity. For example, the number of vehicles per day. Road designers traditionally plan a four-lane road with a shared carriageway when the traffic intensity exceeds 30 to 36 thousand vehicles per day. In Latvia, such intensity is currently exceeded only on the Riga-Jurmala highway and on the Sigulda highway near Bergi. However, in many places where high-speed roads are planned, traffic is currently low, even 15 times lower,
than in the above criterion.

Latvia’s national road development plan must be proportionate, developing the Riga bypass and investing funds in regional roads as well – people living further away are those to whom public transport cannot reach and who need personal transport. The main investments must be made in improving and developing rail and public transport, which are more environmentally friendly and in line with the European Green Course’s goal of “reducing transport emissions by 90% by 2050”.

The priorities of transport policy must be different from the previous ones: resumption of electrification of the railway network, development of the train and bus fleet, further co-financing of public transport tickets, promotion of access to public transport for people with disabilities, the elderly and people with prams. It is also very important to promote the principle of multimodality in the transport system.

The construction of a high-speed road on such low-intensity road sections is not economically justified. These roads will have to be maintained in good quality, i. sk. cleaning snow and icing from the wide road surface, which creates significant maintenance costs. This funding will have to be spent in an area where it is not particularly necessary from an economic and social point of view, minus funding in areas where it is much more necessary on a daily basis.

In Latvia, the number of vehicles per 1,000 people is significantly lower than the European average, and although it tends to increase, there is no reason to think that the traffic intensity will increase, for example, 15 times.

In the future, the introduction of electric transport and artificial intelligence solutions in traffic must be taken into account. The relatively cheaper operating costs of electric vehicles can encourage further daily journeys, i. sk. increasing the territory of the Riga metropolitan region. Artificial intelligence solutions, in turn, will ensure safe traffic on existing roads, even with increasing traffic intensity. These factors must be taken into account when planning future traffic flows.

If this initiative is successful, significant savings will be made – 6 billion is more than 3,000 euros per capita in Latvia. Instead, we can promote the availability and convenience of public transport, making our daily journeys faster, cheaper and more enjoyable. Such investments are also a necessary step in averting the climate crisis.

You can vote on the initiative here. The purpose of collecting signatures is 1000 signatures. The initiative is planned to be submitted to the Ministry of Transport. So far, almost 200 supporters have signed up to the initiative.