Congestion Charging Catching On

The apparant success of London's congestion charging scheme has given politicians around the world the confidence to start discussing road-pricing schemes for their own cities. Edinburgh and Cardiff in the UK are set to introduce a charge within two years, Stockholm will start a pilot program next year, Barcelona and Milan have also shown interest in the idea. In North America, San Francisco is openly talking about a congestion charge to complement existing tolls, and the twin cities of Minneapolis St Paul are working on a very comprehensive program to price all main roads and freeways. There is still need for caution: New York's plans have met wider political opposition and London's scheme may have been too succesful - congestion is way down, but so too are revenues.