ABSTRACT
This chapter describes five phases of history of post-war transport planning: Age of Road Infrastructure; Age of Transport Revisionism; Age of Contestability; Age of New Realism; Age of Austerity. Since the Age of Contestability, London has been protected from these swings in policy and has benefitted from stable and consistent approaches to transport governance supported by generous subsidies from central government. London was excluded from the deregulation of bus services in 1986 and instead plans and delivers bus services through franchises let to private bus companies via Transport for London (TfL). The White Paper laid out the consensus for radical change and made the case for a sustainable transport system that improved the quality of life and the environment rather than accommodating growth of car traffic and its attendant problems of congestion, pollution and CO2 emissions. In the years that followed the Transport Act 2000, 'new realism' has been reduced to a sustainable travel agenda referred to as Smarter Choices.
