The horror, the horror

Traffic meltdown is looming for London

Screams the RAC Foundation (a road lobby propaganda outfit which benefits from charitable status even though charities aren’t supposed to get involved in political issues).

Apparently it’s all the fault of a terrifying anarcho-revolutionary transport extremist named, er, Boris Johnson.

His focus on cycleways, hire bikes and a new bus system - as well as the Olympics - may turn much of the capital's centre into a no-go area for cars, says the report for the RAC Foundation.

Well it would be lovely if it did but a mayor who has reduced crossing times for pedestrians at signalled junctions, reduced safety and pollution checks on black cabs, allowed motorbikes into bus lanes, reduced the budget for cycling infrastructure in outer London, and who plans to scrap the congestion zone extension and increase tube and bus fares in January isn’t really doing anything radical to promote cycling, walking or public transport.

It’s interesting that the RAC sees something as inoffensive as ‘hire bikes’ as a terrifying threat to the dominance of the motor car.