The French have a good saying for that, (pardon any spelling problems)
Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose, meaning roughly : the more things change, the more they remain the same!
A major congestion problem which our leaders seem oblivious of is the width of so many modern executive cars, which are so common in London. When you get 2 big Mercs trying to pass each other, and more exec limos parked either side of the road they really slow everything down. The growth has been so gradual no-one notices, but you look at any exec car in a parking bay!
Or my old Bedford CA van (the snub-nosed one) was a fair size in its day, these days it is comically petite, not much bigger than a Suzuki Wagon, which is classed as a small/compact hatchback.
