ABSTRACT
Conventional narratives about transport policy in the 1970s highlight a move from a roads-based system to one centred on public transport. This change is often attributed to public activism and said to be achieved in the face of reluctant officialdom. This chapter examines whether this model fits with the reality of the GLC before the cancelation of London’s Ringways, and suggests that the shift in policy is best characterised by evolution rather than revolution. At the time, official support for public transport and restriction of private motoring was not seen as opposed to road building and had been a consistent part of GLC policy throughout the 1960s – with London seen as a world leader in key fields such as parking control and road pricing. The chapter argues that by 1972, under a famously pro-road administration, almost all of the features of the ‘new’ approach were already in effect. This in turn suggests that the proposed revolution represented by the cancelation of the Ringways should be seen through the lens of local politics rather than underlying policy.
