London's Mayor: Businesses Led On Congestion Charge

Fearing that London's ever-worsening traffic congestion would drive industry to other European cities, business leaders first broached the topic of congestion charging for the British capital, according to Mayor Ken Livingstone. "The business community does not come forward and recommend a charge on itself unless it recognizes there is a real problem,"

Four years after the congestion charge went into effect, automobile traffic is down by 20 percent while commercial traffic has increased, and London's economy is growing at three times the national average. Meanwhile, a proposal to charge the heaviest polluting private vehicles the equivalent of $50 per day is pulling a 78 percent approval rating.

Mayor Livingstone also offered advice for New York as it debates a congestion pricing system modeled on his own. "There may be one or two people who predict gloom and doom," he said. "Ignore them."