Road Charging

As insomnia gripped the other night I had the good fortune to catch a very good discussion about road charging on the World Service. World Business Review It took as a starting point that the British government is laying the groundwork for what could be the boldest traffic management scheme ever undertaken. They stated the fact that opposition to road pricing is fierce in Britain as elsewhere, angry motorists seeing themselves as defenseless targets of a government plot to extract a new tax, while making them pay for their own surveillance. There has been a great surge of opposition on the government's website.  However I don't think this translates as opposition.  Its just fear of the new.  Most people I know who live in Central London welcome the congestion zone, and those who live outside welcome the improvement in buses.  if its modal shift we are after - then its clear that the congestion charge is successful.  Bus travel in London has increased by 37% in the last five years and London is the only world city where car transport has not increased; the decrease in the congestion zone being balanced by an increase outside the zone.

It is clear that traffic congestion is s global issue for congestion is a waste of time, money and energy as well as a completely unnecessary contributor to global warming.

In the programme leading international road transport academic, Professor Stephen Glaister of Imperial College, London, and the London transport authority; former British Transport Minister and candidate for mayor of London, Steven Norris; high tech transport expert Jason Barnes, editor of ITS International; and newspaper columnist, traveller and former member of parliament, Matthew Parris discuss the outlook for road pricing.

While I don't agree with what everybody said, I felt this was a sane discussion between people who understood the problem and had spent a considerable amount of time considering the solutions.  Stephen Glasiter has also very kindly offered a link to his own pamphlet National Road Pricing: Is it fair and practical? and if you want to sign the governments petition to support road charging then go to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Road-Charging/