London's controversial congestion charge suffered a setback last week, when Transport For London (TFL) admitted that the charges to enter central London have not improved traffic. Although TFL claimed that the £8 daily charge had produced a thirty percent improvement in congestion after its introduction in 2003, gains have been rolled back to the point where improvements have been reversed. The Automobile Association explains the conundrum to Courier Exchange, saying "The trouble is, by closing off side streets and short cuts and re-phasing traffic lights for pedestrians – all for laudable reasons – TfL has stifled traffic. Add to that pavement build-outs, re-engineered junctions, and you can see why congestion is rising." This likely comes as bad news to London Mayor Ken Livingstone who is currently running for re-election on a platform that includes raising the congestion charge to a whopping $50.
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The only person in London who thinks it works is the mayor, looks like he’s going to be voted out soon anyway, mainly on the congestion charge issue.
Wow, I am so shocked that this isn’t working. Shocked, I tell you.
Apparently, some forward-thinking New York legislators (surprise that some actually exist!) must’ve got wind of this report before deep-6ing the NYC profit-making…err…congestion charge scheme.
Next you will tell us that Big Brother speed cameras don’t actually improve highway safety!
Here’s a hint: you don’t measure the success of this thing by how quickly auto traffic is moving. You measure it by how well buses and trains are doing, and those pedestrians count as well.
The term “congestion charge” is a misnomer. The goal of the charge is to discourage driving, not to improve traffic flows. (Making money probably also has something to do with it, but I can’t be that cynical.)
The alternative to the charge would be to simply ban traffic, except for commercial traffic and public transit, from the zone entirely. I suppose that the charge is more politically expedient and more profitable.
TTAC keeps on writing how stupid the congestion charge is, but those darn Londoners just refuse to listen.
The CC may be popular in London (over 60% seem to applaud it), it may have reduced air pollution and increased bicycling, but by George, it raises the cost of driving a car, so it must be a Bad Thing.
OK, so traffic is worse now than it was in 2003. Are we blaming the congestion charge for that? Because traffic hasn’t increased anywhere else, I’m sure!
And what about the bigger picture. Cities aren’t all about giving free reign to cars. How’s business in the area? How’s the air? How’s the community changed? Oh, and the income may be a good thing too, depending on what they do with it.
Some perspective, please.
Martin Schwoerer-Um, Google says you are wrong; most Londoners dislike the charge.
First two links for a Google search of: congestion charge poll
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6251377.stm
“A paper produced by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in November 2006 suggested that while 90% of people think congestion is a problem, only 40% support the introduction of road pricing.”
http://news.windingroad.com/countriesmarkets/euro/poll-74-percent-of-londoners-disagree-with-new-congestion-charge/
“POLL: 74 Percent of Londoners Disagree with New Congestion Charge”
Geotpf: In all due respect, from one Googler to another, I think your data is dated. Your first link is from Jan 11, the second from Feb 25. Here’s something from March 19:
“According to an a new IPSOS-MORI poll a substantial 61% of Londoners agree with the Mayor of London’s plans to charge drivers of high-emission vehicles up to £25 for soiling the air above the contentious Congestion Charge Zone, located within the UK’s most prominent metropolis.
Despite the received wisdom that the charge is not popular on the ground, almost seven out of every ten Londoners back the C Charge, according to the new survey of over 1,000.”
http://motortorque.askaprice.com/news/auto-0803/londoners-back-congestion-charge.asp
Martin: We can all debate this until we’re blue in the face, but the election is going to settle the issue. If Livingstone loses to a candidate (BoJo) running on a “global itinerary of apology,” I’d say this will have been one of the issues that took him down. I don’t fundamentally disagree with the idea of a congestion charge, but I definitely think Livingstone has gone overboard with the idea. Again, the election will tell all…
I’m not a fan of congestion charging, but this post (the headline anyway) is misleading. the congestion charge has apparently allowed the city to close off some streets to cars and rejigger things in favor of pedestrians without increasing traffic (which presumably would not have been the case if there were no charge and the number of cars entering the city had not decreased). so londoners are getting *something* for their congestion charges — whether they think it’s worth it is another question entirely.
Speaking as a Londoner, ANYONE who thinks that the election will sort anything out is sorely mistaken.
The only alternative that anyone will vote for is Boris Johnson (Conservatives) and they’re a bigger bunch of crooks. They will not reverse any of Ken Livingstone’s charges. They may not introduce any new ones, but they’ll certainly keep the current infrastructure.
I grew up under Tory rule and they’ll never change…
Part of the reason of the congestion charge is to improve air quality and the environment. But the government do very little to produce wind farms, hydroelectric power and other renewable sources of energy. Moves like this would have a better impact. But it won’t happen, because there’s no money in it…..
I like The Great Britain, the huge empire of tea packaging. They can manage to milk money from drivers, and they can manage to install zillions of cameras that watch your every throttle tap, yet they are unable to invest money in homeland manufacturing, whether in car industry or in long-term plans of reversing the 8 trillion external debt.
Katie,
Please watch for what I think would be the Fuhrer’s Mayor’s logical socialist manuever. The claim will be made that the congestion charge needs to be increased to get the desired benefits – faster road construction, reduced pollution, etc. No one will seem to remember that before the charge, the situation wasn’t any worse.
You see, once the camel’s nose is under the tent, the solution is always larger taxes or more government funding. Always.
London Congestion Charges Don’t Work… But it does for government who’ve managed to stick their hands deeper into peoples pockets and extract even more money from us… thieving parasites.