There are a number of things that upset me about life in London today. The endless proliferation of “luxury flats” marketed abroad while ordinary Londoners can’t afford to rent a basic home? Yes, that upsets me. The fact that so many young people in the capital are so utterly devoid of manners that they see nothing wrong with listening to their phones on public transport without headphones? Deeply upsetting on an existential, future-of-mankind level. How about grown men often nearly knocking me or my children over on the pavement with their giant-man-baby electric scooters? Yup. Pretty upsetting.
But if I have one gripe about modern life in London, it’s something that I really, really can’t stand. It’s that, increasingly, it seems like everyone — even people I otherwise genuinely like — drives a massive SUV. So the news that mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has asked Transport for London to investigate their impact on Londoners is most welcome.
