Editing Induced demand (section)

=== Induced traffic and transport planning ===
Although planners take into account future traffic growth when planning new roads (this often being an apparently reasonable justification for new roads in itself – that traffic growth will mean more road capacity is required), this traffic growth is calculated from increases in car ownership and economic activity, and does not take into account traffic induced by the presence of the new road; that is, it is assumed that traffic will grow, regardless of whether a road is built or not.<ref name="Litman"/>

In the UK, the idea of induced traffic was used as grounds for protests against government policy of road construction in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, until it became accepted as a given by the government as a result of their own Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment (SACTRA) study of 1994. However, despite the concept of induced traffic now being accepted, it is not always taken into consideration in planning.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}