I've cracked it. While Richard Hammond... Sorry... Philip Hammond, reckons that electric cars the same size and the same in number as today's petrol cars will magically cure congestion (what do I know, it's him that's transport secretary so presumably has an army of boffins at his disposal), I've a radical new suggestion.
Ban compulsory universal education.
Anyone riding into Edinburgh today in the October-week-off (haven't they only just gone back after summer?!?!) could not argue with the potential efficacity of such a measure. Sure there would be some drawbacks - there would be a redundancy in government for the education secretary, but on the plus side that's Michael Gove.
(On a serious note (oh, okay, I was serious about Michael Gove) can you imagine the effect on traffic levels if something was done about getting kids to school without the use of personal cars? When the ill-fated (and ill-thought-out) congestion charge for Edinburgh was being debated there was a sign on the back of a bus, paid for by the Council, asking "Wouldn't it be great if the traffic every day was like in the school holidays?" A friend of mine contacted the Council to ask why, then, they didn't consider something around school traffic to reduce congestion, and the response was "We don't believe that school traffic has that much effect on daily traffic." Which raises two points: firstly, why use the point in an advert then?; and secondly, open your eyes!).
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