Seeing red on yellow lines
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RUSH-HOUR speeds in Central London have fallen in the past five years from 14 to 12mph. Traffic flows increased two per cent in the centre and 11 in the suburbs. And congestion lost London six million bus miles in 1979.
What to do about it? A working party set up by the Home Secretary and the Department of Transport has some ideas.
The report says fixed penalty parking fines should be increased from £6 to £10, and that discounts for prompt payment would save time tracing vehicle owners who don't pay up.
The police say that the capital needs 2500 traffic wardens instead of 1150, and the report urges a pay increase to encourage recruitment.
In response to the report, GLC planning and communica tions leader Alan Greencross said drivers are increasingly parking without regard to others and slowly choking London. It is estimated that in Westminster half the cars are illegally parked durin the working day.
It has been suggested for years that local authorities could fit a device to illegally parked vehicles that would stop them being driven away. Which council will have the courage to be the first to do this? One such device, used in the United States, is known as the Denver Shoe. It can be clamped around a wheel.