Letter: Cars: how to combat road congestion

Sir: In your leading article (18 August) criticising the lack of a coherent national transport policy, much was made of the need to reduce car use. But no mention was made of the prospect that there will be more cars to use: this August is likely to see over 500,000 new car registrations and it is predicted that the car population will increase by over 50 per cent in the next 20 years.

Even if we use our cars 20 per cent less, a target that no transport policy has yet even aimed for, let alone achieved, the sheer number of extra cars on the road must increase traffic densities.

Part of the answer must be to restrict this increase in the number of cars: options could include restricting the manufacture or import of new cars, massively higher taxes on car purchase, or requiring the scrapping of an old car for every sale of a new one. But what government would have the courage to do any of this?

MICHAEL BRYANT

London SW1