The mass of traffic, aside from the A4, A315 and A205 is local. You can't make a coherent plan on the basis of a once in a decade restriction on the A4 driving through traffic onto local roads, either now or when the Hammersmith Flyover was closed for repairs.We need to reduce car usage in London, and that's slowly happening, with a 6% decrease from the peak in 1999. Of course more needs to be done, but not by removing restrictions from driving, as you recommend. We have cars along South Parade purely because it was decided at some point to push a B-road down the side of Acton Common. That can be reversed, and it will add to the reasons for people to travel locally by other modes. It's just not true to say there is some iron rule that traffic choices do not respond to restrictions, any more than to claim that traffic didn't increase when more roads were built. In fact the strongest predictor of driven mileage is household income, so to claim that there is some fixed mileage that has to be driven, whatever the obstacles, is just not true for most people. We generally drive more when it is easier and we can afford to do so, and vice versa. Most driving is a discretionary choice. As you've seen, we're getting a significant increase in children cycling to school with the current measures, with car counts down on South Parade before the A4 restrictions. We need exactly more of this, and we need it faster.
Tom Pike ● 1441d