Seasonal stupidity
Page 30
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The silly season has started with a vengeance. I said to myself when I read of a scheme to ease congestion in central London by creating 80 monumental traffic jams on approach roads.
The idea submitted by traffic planners to the Greater London Council was for a 50p toll to be levied on private motorists entering the central area. Drivers would buy tickets in advance and stick them on their windscreens, to be checked at kiosks at some 80 places.
The proposed exemption of commercial vehicles from the toll was purely academic, as they would be locked in the traffic blocks at the kiosks along with everyone else and would be unlikely ever to reach the centre.
Intensive-care units in hospitals would hve to be multiplied to deal with a record crop of coronaries. The ticket inspectors would need armed guards and the insurance companies would be ruined by claims for damage caused by frustrated, illtempered drivers. In short, life in London would come to a standstill.
Happily, Sir Horace Cutler, leader of the GLC, promptly stamped on the scheme. Thank heaven for amateurs and preserve us from experts.