How Avoiding The London Congestion Charge Has Changed Behavior In The City

"London Mayor Ken Livingstone introduced the fee in 2003 to relieve the city's traffic jams, and expanded the zone in February. Since its introduction, the congestion charge has reduced traffic, prompted people to use public transportation and cut pollution.

Now, a number of U.S. cities including Dallas, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul and San Diego are considering congestion charges on busy roads or highways. San Francisco is discussing a congestion charge for its downtown, one of the busiest traffic zones in the country. Officials from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority have been to London numerous times to study its scheme, says Tilly Chang, the authority's deputy director of planning."

In this article and the accompanying video, the reporter illustrates how the charge has transformed everyday life in London, from the parent teaching her children to take the bus to school (located within 'the zone'), the individual store owners who feared huge drop-offs in business, and even an employer who bought his workers motor scooters (exempt from the charge). Just as importantly, he shows how the charge is paid, and what happens when it is not.

"The zone is ringed by hundreds of cameras that photograph car-license plates. A computer program reads the shots and checks the license-plate numbers against the list of people who have paid the charge. License plates that show up as unpaid are matched against the government's Motor Vehicle Registry to find the car owner's name and address. People who don't pay are fined about $205 or $102 if they pay within two weeks of getting the fine.

The system, designed to be paperless and environmentally friendly, is expensive. It costs about $184 million a year to run and generates $430 million in revenue, including fines, according to Transport for London."

"London's plan was also the model for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed $8 fee for cars south of 86th Street in Manhattan between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Yesterday, the city reached an agreement with state legislators to create a committee to conduct hearings and study how to implement the plan, along with any other anti-congestion proposals, and will need final sign-off from the state legislature early next year. The project is dependent on receiving at least $200 million in federal funds, although the city hopes to get $500 million. Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement the city would "begin immediately to prepare for the installation of needed equipment to make our traffic plan a reality." (See NYT editorial)

From NYT Editorial:

"Yesterday (7/18), two days after a federal deadline, leaders in Albany were attempting a 13th-hour rescue of the congestion-pricing proposal."

"The (U.S.)Department of Transportation, which has praised Mr. Bloomberg's proposal, has not ruled out that it could extend last Monday's (7/16) application deadline for applying for the $500 million."

[Editor's note: Although the WSJ article is only available to WSJ subscribers, it is available to Planetizen readers for free through the link below for a period of seven days.]