How should London's next mayor make its streets work better?

Advisors to Boris Johnson have argued that more road-pricing, fostering "active travel" and creating attractive urban environments can all be part of the right response to London's rapid growth

The next London mayor will inherit a traffic jam of troubles with the city's streets. Boris Johnson came to power in 2008 promising to "smooth traffic flow" and will leave his successor with a growing congestion problem and some furious disputes about road space and how it should be managed. The wider context is the rapid growth of the city as a whole, creating a need for more transport capacity, more offices, more homes, more of just about everything in same amount of space. Streets are where these pressures are often felt the most.

There are attractive ideas for setting things right but many of them, such as Caroline Pidgeon's for curbing the flow of large vehicles at peak travel times, produce counter arguments that should also be listened to. A widescreen view of the streets issue is required: one that recognises that streets are places people spend time in as well as travel through, that sets firm priorities and that smooths tensions between them with flexibility and imagination. The mayor's very own design advisory group (MDAG) has provided a good vantage point from which to start.