Congestion Charge, Tube Strike, Road Works, Fare Increase. Essential travel is a huge preoccupation for Londoners. It would be interesting to know how many people in Greater London are employed close enough to home to be able take a fifteen minute walk to work. Very few I suspect. The 'school run' is an expression that has now become part of modern English and sometimes these kids are being driven miles. Driving kids to school. Travelling to work. Travelling back to arrive home and slump exhausted in front of the telly. Is this a life? Was it for this that the labour movement of old struggled? Of course, no one wants a return to the isolated and parochial communities of the nineteenth century. Exploring the world at large is one of life's great pleasures. Perhaps this is the key to the whole problem. If work, education, shopping etc. can be provided locally travel could then assume it's rightful place as an adventure, rather than a stressful, dreary, alienating necessity.
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