London has a congestion charge – and traffic in gridlock. We need other ways to end the obsession with cars | Jonn Elledge
The charge was seen as draconian, but new thinking is now essential. Look to the cities trying a range of bold ideas
There was a moment, during the long, strange summer of 2020, when it felt like Covid might reshape London, as it seemed set to change so much else. The streets of the capital, so long given over to dangerous metal boxes spewing out fumes, felt open to human life once again. Main streets were closed to private traffic; and an abundance of new low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and cycle lanes appeared. When the world reopened, the bars and restaurants of Soho began spilling out into the semi-pedestrianised streets.
But this, as with so many of the changes wreaked by the pandemic, turned out to be a mirage. Westminster council removed traffic restrictions in Soho, while Kensington and Chelsea ripped out a brand new cycle lane. Low-traffic neighbourhoods, meanwhile, brought the English closer to civil war than Brexit ever managed. The car remained king after all.
Jonn Elledge is an author and former assistant editor of the New Statesman
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