Posts Tagged ‘morning’

Counting the cost of travel in London

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

In 1900, motoring was a luxury hobby in Britain, and there were only 8,000 cars in the whole of Britain at the start of the 20th century; but by the end of the century the car population had soared to 21 million. The number of cars on the roads began to rise during the 1920s as manufacturers started to make small, lightweight and cheaper vehicles for a wider market. Cars at this time were still relatively expensive. The Austin Nippy, was at the top of the Austin 7 sports car range and cost £152 – about £8,500 in today’s money.

The boom in car ownership occurred in the 1950s and 60s. Car ownership in London quadrupled between 1950 and 1970 as standards of living rose and car prices fell. By the mid-1960s, there were 1.5 million cars registered in London and the numbers continued to rise until the end of the century when 2.2 million cars were registered at London addresses. (more…)