Because their budget is dependent on their own forecast of road traffic?
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Not as simple as that I don't think. Despite figures about decline in road traffic, there is a big division between London, where the traffic decline has been most (indeed, Wikipedia provides no ex-London numbers) and the rest of the country, where public transport is much worse. For example half the bus journeys in England took place in London.
The UK currently buys more new cars than anywhere else in Europe as well, partly due to credit availability, but clearly there is demand, and there is a huge pro road pro motorist lobby, as is clear when fuel taxes are increased.
So I think the DoT have ended up reflecting largely this pro car part of the UK.
I buy new cars in the uk using credit but don't drive them much. My baseline miles per week is 0. Occasionally we use our car at the weekend. Still, I buy a brand new expensive car every few years. I guess I just old enough to.be effected by the idea of the car as a status symbol, but young enough to be caught up in urbanism.
So you rent a status symbol to put outside your house? What an easy thing to just stop doing.
Gosh you're right, I'll do it right now! Thanks!
Get yourself one of these instead http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Headington_Shark
I see it often enough already. In fact, I'd rather it was on someone else's house. I would forget it was up there if it was on my own.
That's you but statistically behavior and wealth like yours is a blip.
Its hardly a matter of being wrong one year and accurate the next. They make wrong predictions every single year. Here's the US:
http://www.ssti.us/2013/12/new-travel-demand-projections-are...
Note the careful editing to not show numerous historical examples where pre-90 or so, any negative fluctuation was a statistical fluke or a short term downterm, promptly made up. So pre-90 or so, it was always correct to extend the trendline at the average growth line.
Admitting the party is over would offend very powerful monied interests. Follow the money... a lot of money is made building and selling exurbs, and a minor secondary industry is going to have political problems stating the high level policy change of "the party is over". A mayor, governor, president needs to state the policy change before the pothole filler is permitted to observe it. You see this phenomena in economic figures and in the meta selection of economic figures (the Dow, the unemployment rate, the GDP, the .gov inflation rate all used to "mean something" to the lifestyle of the general population. Not so any more, they are meaningless now in practice.)
Worth noting that this is the same Department for Transport that is surprisingly keen on high speed rail links like HS2.
[I'm in Scotland where good old low speed rail seems to having a resurgence the new (re-opened) line from Edinburgh down to the Borders looks fantastic - I'm kicking myself for not buying a house in Heriot a few years back].