South Hampshire is a sub-region within the South East of England, covering the southern portion of Hampshire. It stretches from the New Forest to the West Sussex border, encompassing the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton, together with the towns of Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport and Havant.
It is home to an international airport and two internationally connected ports and is well served by rail. The M3, A3(M) and M27 motorways provide good road access into and across the area.
The South Hampshire region is constrained by natural barriers aswell of the Solent, New Forest National Park and South Downs. These have contributed to the way the area has developed, in a liner yet disparate nature along the coastline. Beyond the imediate urban areas development becomes more dispurse, bringing with it challenges of rural transport provision.
Since the Second World War South Hampshire has been growing and by the 1970s Portsmouth and Southampton were experiencing significant local traffic congestion. The geography of the cities and area with pinch points at river and rail bridge caused many problems for travelling around. Key roads between the cities such as the A27 suffered and offered very slow journeys. There wasn't much development between the cities outside of the established settlements.
The response was to build the M27 and M3 motorways plus other road improvements brought about a transformation for southern Hampshire. Journey times by car dramatically reduced and new developments of housing, offices and shopping were established. These were mainly along the motorway corridors and caused a change in lifestyles. The population of the area rose to 1 million people.
Jobs and shopping became less concentrated in the cities and other urban areas and coupled with a greater use of the private car, travel patterns changed to reflect this increasingly dispursed population. Whilst the new motorways and other road improvements allowed the new developments and lifestyles there were negative effects. The bus services, traditionally focused on the city centre inevitably went into decline as ridership levels dropped.
These changes in lifestyle and growth in development have resulted in rapid traffic growth particuarly on and around the area's motorways and major roads. Traffic levels have now grown to such a point where peak hour traffic congestion is commonplace and incidents can lead to widespread disruption. Unless urgent action is taken, congestion, is forecast to get much worse in future years.
Currently 74% of journeys in the South Hampshire sub-region are made by private car for commuting. This leads to sections of the motorway network operating near or at capacity. The sections of the M3 from Juntion 9 (A34) to the M27, the M27 around Southampton from Junction 2 (M271) to Junction 7 (A3024) and between Fareham and Portsmouth Junction 10 (A32) to the A27; and the A3(M) to Havant. Sections of the local road network are also at capacity such as the A32 between Gosport and Fareham.
With the predicted growth in traffic on the network the majority of the motorways and main roads will be at capacity. The negative knock on effects of this will impact upon the competitiveness and quality of life of the sub-region.
Congestion in South Hampshire is predicted to increase if no interventions are implemented to curb the growth. The two maps below show the level of stress on the strategic road network (managed by the Highways Agency) in South Hampshire.
