CARS could be banned from bottleneck stretches of some motorways to improve the flow for lorries, according to a scheme being studied by ministers.
The idea is to shut access junctions at peak periods to keep local commuter traffic off frequently-jammed sections of motorway - such as that of the M6 at Birmingham - so that long-distance commercial vehicles can keep moving.
That might keep HGV traffic rolling on the motorways, but it will only switch congestion - and pollution - to the towns choked with extra cars.
At best, this can only be a short-term, piecemeal solution.
The ideal must be not to keep trucks on the motorways, but to remove more of them - by switching more freight to the under-used railways as part of an integrated transport policy nationally.
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