The ideas and models are interesting from a systems thinking perspective and it is certainly true that local optimisations can have unintended systems consequen

The ideas and models are interesting from a systems thinking perspective and it is certainly true that local optimisations can have unintended systems consequences, but unfortunately it doesn't model reality when it comes to London. The paper makes the flawed assumption that people commuting into London from outside the boundaries of the Underground network start their journey by driving to the boundary and entering the system at that point, which as anyone in London can tell you is not the case. Most commuters from outside the network will arrive at one of the main overland train terminals (Euston, Paddington, Waterloo, Victoria, Kings Cross, etc.) and change mode of transport at those points. Those points certainly do see large congestion, but they are a very different beast to road traffic so I very much doubt the same conclusion would be reached if they were included in the model. The paper also ignores the bus network, which is also heavily used in London, which is I think also different to say New York. If you are going to start studying systems then you need to look at the whole system otherwise you are still just doing 'local' optimisations. If their conclusion/recommendation were to be implemented, I suspect it would make things worse overall as they haven't understood the system.