Your headline, 'Urban traffic problems start to pile up for Uber' ( FT 12th Oct ) delves into an allegorical interpretation but not a literal one.
Uber's breakneck growth has led to an approximately 30 fold increase in PHV activity in London's Congestion Zone since 2012 ( TfLTPH figures )
It is clear that this rapid increase in overcrowding cannot be allowed to continue unless Central London is to grind to a halt - very likely in the run up to Christmas.
Some instrument needs to be devised to limit opportunistic positioning by it's drivers who head empty for West End hotspots in order to exploit the App's nearest car allocation function.
A system of allowing only those drivers who have been allocated a 'booking' access to the Congestion Zone would ease traffic, reduce pollution and go some way to appease the Taxi trade's justifiable criticism that, in it's current modus operandi, Uber drivers are essentially plying for hire illegally.
In 1654 Oliver Cromwell in an effort to bring discipline and control to a chaotic marketplace bestowed upon Taxi drivers an exclusive right to service immediate demand for carriages
A rampant and unrestrained Uber will return London to something infinitely worse than a 17thC traffic jam.
To undertake the kind of research advocated by William Claxton-Smith (letters 12/10) would require a much longer period than the urgency of the threat allows and I doubt show any plateauing or reduction of pollution whilst the Congestion Charge remains a derisory £12 and Uber, a PRIVATE HIRE service continue to be exempt from paying it.
To undertake the kind of research advocated by William Claxton-Smith ( letters 12/10 ) would require a much longer period than the urgency of the threat allows and I doubt show any plateauing or reduction of pollution whilst the Congestion Charge remains a derisory £12 and Uber, a PRIVATE HIRE service continue to be exempt from paying it.
'Plus ca Change, Plus C'est La Meme Chose'