Here’s another way to reduce congestion that London is using.
In Support of the Congestion Charge
By Cameron Munro
This commentary appeared in Washingtonpost.com on August 7, 2007.
The congestion charge on motorists in central London has been held up as a model across the globe for cities looking to reduce the traffic jams that tie up their streets and highways. The charge has brought substantial benefits to those who live and work in London — whether they drive or take mass transit — and it could do the same in traffic-clogged cities in the United States.
London drivers are charged the equivalent of $16 per day for traveling into the center of the city between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. They can pay the charge by phone, on the Internet and in many stores. They can even set up accounts so they don't have to remember to pay the charge every day they travel into the zone.
There is simply no other measure as effective in quickly reducing traffic as congestion charging. The theory of congestion charging was established by transportation planners and economists as far back as the 1950s. But only recently — in cities like Singapore, London and Stockholm — has the theory been put into practice. It has been demonstrated to be as effective at controlling congestion in reality as in theory.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal for congestion charging in downtown Manhattan will be studied by a New York State commission. If congestion charging goes into effect in New York City and is as successful there as it has been in London, other congested cities across the United States might adopt similar plans. Perhaps Washington — with some of the worst traffic congestion in the United States — will consider such a system in the future.
London's congestion charge, which began in 2003, doesn't need big toll plazas. Instead, the system is enforced using some 700 cameras across 200 sites in the charging zone.
In addition to providing an efficient and accurate means of checking whether drivers have paid the charge, the data provided by the cameras has also been crucial in investigating the foiled car bomb attempts in central London in June and previous terrorist incidents and crimes.
