I was delighted to see this story told, but a crucial part of it is missing (London’s lost mega-motorway: the eight-lane ring road that would have destroyed much of the city, 13 December). In the mid-1960s a small group of us, mainly transport economists, got together to fight the then policy of solving congestion in cities by building roads, because it was actually counterproductive. The more people take to their cars, the more public transport deteriorates, setting off a further switch to cars – a vicious circle already in evidence.
One member of the group, Michael Thompson, carried out a cost-benefit analysis of the three ring road plan. It showed that the inner Motorway Box would be disastrous while the middle one, now the M25, was worth building. This was published later as Motorways in London.
