“In a few countries, money alone is not enough to qualify for car ownership; commissarial consent is needed as well.
“We see something of the same approach in the anti-motorist policies of the new [Labour-run] Greater London Council (GLC). A campaign is on to wage war against the motorist in the capital, in the hope that if life is made sufficiently difficult for him, he will disappear.”
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That might remind you of a Facebook rant by someone furious about the ULEZ or ZEV mandate, yet it doesn’t mention ‘Sadistic Khan’ or ‘Keir Stalin’, because it’s really from an Autocar editorial printed half a century ago.
“As well as priorities for buses, massive reductions in available street parking and cancellation of road-building plans, there is a deliberate move to cause motorway congestion in an attempt to slow down the flow of traffic into London,” continued Autocar.
“The whole approach of the new GLC represents a disturbing philosophy of motorist oppression, reflected throughout the country.”
One of the first acts of Reg Goodwin’s administration in April 1973 had been to bin the London Ringways plan to construct four orbital roads, the innermost connecting Hackney with Wandsworth, the outermost going as far as Sevenoaks and St Albans.
Autocar opined: “We are appalled and dismayed by this peremptory and ill-considered decision. We feel it must be disastrous for the future of the capital. From every viewpoint, including that of the conservationist lobby, some form of ring road is essential to divert traffic and allow it to flow round London without clogging the centre.”
The leader of the GLC’s Transport Committee, Evelyn Denington, told us that she would like to see special centres built off motorways outside London, where lorries’ loads could be transferred onto smaller cargo vehicles for onward transport.
As for cars, she said: “Restriction is vital. The first thing I must move on is to restrict cars coming into the central area and into other local centres a bit farther out – for example, Croydon or Kingston.”
The Conservatives’ environment minister, Geoffrey Rippon, agreed, saying separately: “[Curbs on] inessential and anti-social journeys by private cars are one of the aims of the government’s transport policy.”
“There had even been talk of black boxes and road pricing, amazingly.
Denington continued: “The first move it seems possible to make is to deal with the public car parks that are licensed by the council and see whether some of them shouldn’t be closed or whether some of them must not open before 10.15am and must be closed from 4pm to 6pm.”