"These figures should shock the chancellor, " said Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation.

BBC: Transport poverty hits 800,000 homes, says RAC

Speed limits always trade time against safety, notes Stephen Glaister of the RAC Foundation, a motoring lobby.

ECONOMIST: Drivers are slowing down to save money

Stephen Glaister, a transport economist at Imperial College, points out the implications.

ECONOMIST: Why doing business with the government can be a bad idea

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said the government was looking for radical solutions to the "chronic problems" of congestion and rising traffic levels due to population growth and under-investment.

BBC: Road pricing: More new roads could be funded by tolls

Indeed, Professor Stephen Glaister, director of motorists' advocacy group the RAC Foundation, suggests much of the hostility on the roads stems from a lack of understanding and suggests levelling out the legislation would reassure drivers that the rules were being applied fairly.

BBC: Is dangerous cycling a problem?

Stephen Glaister of the RAC Foundation, a motoring lobby group, points out that road-building could look even more attractive if the government were to allow private firms to upgrade and run the things, charging European-style tolls to motorists and potentially freeing government cash to be spent elsewhere.

ECONOMIST: Infrastructure

"This report will give only limited comfort to the UK's 35 million drivers who continue to pay near record prices at the pumps, but the OFT does identify the true cause of drivers' misery - the chancellor and crude oil prices, " said Prof Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation.

BBC: OFT says UK petrol market is working well