ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to assess the practical conditions on London’s roads prior to the 1960s and the proposal of the Ringways, to determine the extent to which planners were either responding to a real need or advancing a road building policy for its own sake. Examining the records of the London and Home Counties Transport Advisory Committee (LHCTAC), it notes an absence of funding and a heavy reliance was placed on the regulation of traffic and parking, first through the introduction of new techniques, second through their spread across the city. The list of available regulations was being exhausted while the performance of London’s streets was becoming significantly worse, meaning that by the late 1950s the problem of traffic in the central area had ceased to be an issue at individual points and had fused into a single problem. This created a situation where London’s traffic policy was notably failing to keep up with the growing pressures on the streets, creating pressure for a more substantial solution to the challenge.
