Hello Ed,I have no difficulty with the date of the article and the way it looks at how the congestion charge was introduced and means used to do so. I believe that, on the whole, history has been written some years after the event and has been revised in view of subsequent developments.I remember congestion in 2003 very well indeed. But I also bear in mind that the population in London 1980 was 6.8m, in 1990 6.775m, in 2010 8.003m and in 2020 9.304m. London has always had congestion problems. Remember in 1981 when Livingstone introduced the Fairs Fare? The aim was to reduce public transport fares hoping more people would use it as a result as well as fighting congestion at the same time. The idea behind it was that rate payers would subsidize this scheme. Fast forward to today, congestion still exists, the density of population in London has grown enormously, 60% of London traffic comes from outside London and public transport continues to be the most expensive compared to other European countries.Of course pedestrians need priority and tourism must be catered for. But, as far as traffic lights are concerned, we go from famine to feast, meaning that pedestrians have almost a minute to cross roads but cars have 30 seconds to go through green lights. This of course means that, by holding traffic back, there is more pollution. All in all, London has not really progressed on matters of congestion since the 1980s.
Ivonne Holliday ● 1822d