My plan to cut congestions on our roads

Much of the current antipathy towards the car derives from the excessive influence Londoners exert over national debates. London is an outlier in being one of the very few places where you can avoid owning a car, and where cycling or public transport is faster than driving.

Indeed a car is less useful in the middle of London than anywhere else: you can’t drive to work, you can’t park at the shops and, if you set out from inner London, after 30 minutes of fraught driving you will merely end up in a worse part of London. This is not true in other cities, where 30 minutes’ drive will take you from the centre to attractive countryside and fast roads.

Using a car in London is also hateful. Not only do you have to contend with the peculiarly solipsistic driving style of Londoners, who lack the reciprocal altruism practised by normal motorists, but you need to take a co-driver with you, rather like the World Rally Championship. ‘Sharp left in 100 yards. Gratuitous 20mph speed-limit in 200. Left, left. Speed bumps for 350. Pointless road-narrowing scheme followed by empty bus lane. Traffic lights which turn green for a nanosecond.’

A friend’s husband was recently fined £100 for driving at 24mph along the Embankment. This means people below median income cannot risk driving into London even when it is essential. Is this really fair?

Besides, the idea that we must wage war on drivers to prevent ever-increasing road use is not borne out by the data. Mileage by car has been declining or mostly static since the late 1980s. The increase before then was largely caused by more people being able to drive (in the 1970s, only around 30 per cent of women held a licence).