Smart motorways have been controversial ever since their inception in 2006. The original intentions of improving journey times, reducing emissions and increasing effective road capacity were universally supported. Unfortunately, safety concerns soon dampened public enthusiasm and in April 2023 the government announced that no new smart motorways would be completed.
Your concise roundup of world number plate news from near and far.
And so another year draws to a close, and it's been an eventful year for us. 'May you live in interesting times', says the old curse. No matter which origin story, if any, you choose to believe, the 'interesting' is clearly a euphemism for 'troubling'. We, like many other people, find ourselves living in those interesting times: much of the last year has been challenging, some of it has been sad, but a lot of it has been happy and optimistic.
Former Met Police chief Lord Hogan-Howe contributed to a debate in the House of Lords about plans to introduce regulation for London's pedicabs. Lord Hogan-Howe took a step beyond the discussion's focus when he suggested that measures adopted for pedicabs could also be applied to bicycles. Predictably, his thoughts included number plates.
Firstly, no, it's not your imagination: cars really are that ridiculously expensive now compared to a few years ago. Both new and used cars prices have shot up and, although they may mostly have peaked, prices are not coming down anywhere near as quickly as they rose.
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