Counting the cost of travel in London

A feature article by aregan, Apr 12, 2008         

In 1900, motoring was a luxury hobby in Britain, and there were only 8,000 cars in the whole of Britain at the start of the 20th century; but by the end of the century the car population had soared to 21 million. The number of cars on the roads began to rise during the 1920s as manufacturers started to make small, lightweight and cheaper vehicles for a wider market. Cars at this time were still relatively expensive. The Austin Nippy, was at the top of the Austin 7 sports car range and cost £152 - about £8,500 in today’s money.

The boom in car ownership occurred in the 1950s and 60s. Car ownership in London quadrupled between 1950 and 1970 as standards of living rose and car prices fell. By the mid-1960s, there were 1.5 million cars registered in London and the numbers continued to rise until the end of the century when 2.2 million cars were registered at London addresses.

Increasing car ownership meant increasing traffic congestion. By the 1960s, London’s traffic problem was considered to affect only the evening and morning rush hours in central London. It was not until the 1980s that congestion came to be a problem across London at more or less all hours of the day. This culminated in 2003 with the introduction of the controversial London congestion charge, a fee for motorists travelling within those parts of London designated as the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ). The main objectives of this charge were to reduce congestion, and to raise funds for investment in London's transport system.

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