The Metropolis

The decline of the car in London is clear. We should embrace it

Mike Pollitt | Tuesday 4 December, 2012 20:00

Earlier this week Adam highlighted the curiosity of the Evening Standard’s campaign on behalf of car drivers and parking spaces in Westminster. He quoted figures showing that just 2% of people who visit central London do so by car, van or lorry.

A new report by Scott Le Vine and Peter Jones on behalf of the RAC Foundation adds some long term context.

Here’s the report’s graph of car traffic trends across the UK.

Car traffic in London (the line at the bottom) has been declining since 1999. The difference with the rest of the country is obvious and striking.

This is the graph for rail journeys.

The large jump in London’s rail journeys in 2006/7 is because journeys made on travelcards were then incorporated into the data for the first time. That aside, we can observe a medium-to-long-term increase in rail use, to go with a medium-to-long-term decrease in car use.

And not just rail. Since 1995, London bus travel has seen a higher rate of growth in miles travelled than any mode of transport anywhere in the country (see p13 of the report). There’s been nothing short of a bus boom.

This is the reality. We should embrace it, and start asking whether rows of parking spaces is the best way to use large areas of the city’s land.

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