UK's New Proposed Road Pricing -- $2 Per Mile

8 June 2005 - 7:00am

The U.K.'s transport secretary considers a 'revolutionary' congestion pricing plan to prevent 'LA-style gridlock.'

U.K. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling wants to prevent "L.A.-style gridlock" on England's major motorways. He's trying to drum up public support for "road pricing," a tax of up to $2 per mile on drivers who frequent the country's busiest roads, to be assessed by way of an ambitious high-tech satellite and GPS surveillance system. Transport experts agree it may be the best way to ease congestion; the political feasibility of such taxes is less clear, though the experience of Old London Towne is promising. In that city, Mayor Ken Livingstone's $9 "congestion fee" for driving in central London has been a smashing success: After just over two years, he claims, gridlock is broken, greenhouse-gas emissions are down, and commuters are filling buses, trains, and sidewalks. "This is the only thing I've done in my political life that turned out better than I hoped," said Livingstone. Is success contagious?

Source: The Guardian Unlimited, June 7, 2005
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These practices are also inequitable since they force non-drivers to subsidize parking costs, reduce travel options for non-drivers, and reduce housing affordability.