Having just returned from a two-week holiday that took in five countries in Europe (it’s forty years since I first travelled in Europe - goodness me) I’ll offer the following observations.

1. There are an increasing number of pedestrian zones in historic areas, and they’re very pleasant; and the congestion charge in London appears to have a positive effect.

2. Contrariwise, Germany and England (at least) are increasingly locating their suburban retail services and their new residential highrises in highway corridors.

3. A significant number of Europeans appear to view sitting in traffic for hours as part of the price of progress, or even a valid form of recreation. The road around the Bodensee, a large and impressively scenic lake, was an almost unbroken traffic jam; leaving Konstanz to get out of this ring we took one hour to go four kilometres on a national highway, due to a combination of (presumably normal) afternoon volume and lane closures around idle road construction sites.