I agree with his concerns, however I think the solution is NOT to build more roads (that just encourages even more traffic overall and shifts the problem elsewhere) but for freight to go by train instead.
Not as straightforward as you may think. I live near the container base at Freightliner terminal, and Mossend freight depot. The latter's not a problem because it has excellent access to the A8 Glasgow-Edinburgh road (and, from there, access North and South via the M74/M73-A80/A725...)
But Freightliner's Coatbridge base is an absolute nightmare. It's on an unclassified road, and passes by
a school. There's a
set of traffic lights so high up to allow the lorries to see them that they are nearly impossible for car drivers to see (and I've seen many people go through them at red). If you don't know they're there coming off the roundabout, you could easily miss them.
This is a nightmare. To get anywhere, they have to crawl through some residential areas of Coatbridge, and some unsuitable roads. Like bypassing, poorly planned rail freight terminals simply shift the lorries elsewhere, in this case to unsuitable areas.
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By passes are not the answer. They cost a bomb, destroy the environment and leave any businesses like shops and cafes on the old road isolated?
Bypasses are often needed. A good local example is the Bellshill Bypass section of the A725. Without this road, the local roads would simply seize up-they could not cope with thousands of extra cars a day that would still need to make this journey. And it's hardly destroyed the local area; businesses were thriving (until the recession and subsequent arrival of Tesco anyway).
A lot of the traffic's going to be there, like it or not. Bypassing is often the only feasible outcome. And, in this case, it is. Looking at the local area, I'd imagine that a dual-carriageway bypass is the best solution.
