London Congestion Charge Increasing to £8
The increase in the London Congestion Charge was announced this afternoon by Ken Livingston ( as reported in The Guardian).
I do not object to the congestion charge and I believe there were visible benefits in terms of the easing of traffic flow when the charge was first introduced. However, since businesses and individuals have now adjusted to having this charge it has become no different to any other cost in life, merely no different to income tax and council tax, which people have come to expect and account for - therefore its effective has been lost and will always be in due time.
The increase of the cost of the charge is but only one strategy to improving its effectiveness. Sadly this is only for the short term. Once businesses (in particular) and individuals have taken this into account, there will be a reversion to "normal" levels of traffic. Clearly the politicians see this as another cash cow to milk. Ken Livingstone has said that it will raise an additional £45m per year for transport projects. I think its time we ask "please explain?".
As a resident within the congestion charge zone, my only gripe is about the manner in which residents are charged. Residents that have resided within the zone since well before the inception of the congestion charge have been hard done by even with the illusory 90% discounted advertised. It is illusory because of the minimum 5 day purchase requirement. Currently residents are only required to pay 10% of each daily charge but because it is subject to a minimum of 5 days (purely and simply because of the administrative issues), any outing within the zone even for as little as 1 second (unless you avoid the cameras) will cost you £2.50 - it is therefore at best only a 50% discount.
Surely now, given that Ken Livingstone will raise another £45m, they can organise the computer system to simply operate like any electronic toll system operated the world around. The reason for this administrative cost is not transparent but essentially what it means in effect for residents is that we are forced to pay £2.50 per use regardless of your requirements. In future under the £8 a day charge this presumably will increase to £4.
This is clearly an additional tax on residents based purely on the choice of residence. My message to Ken is please invest some of that £45m to developing an automated system that will treat residents fairly. I don't mind having a user-pay system but a minimum 5 day payment is not fair nor equitable.
I do not object to the congestion charge and I believe there were visible benefits in terms of the easing of traffic flow when the charge was first introduced. However, since businesses and individuals have now adjusted to having this charge it has become no different to any other cost in life, merely no different to income tax and council tax, which people have come to expect and account for - therefore its effective has been lost and will always be in due time.
The increase of the cost of the charge is but only one strategy to improving its effectiveness. Sadly this is only for the short term. Once businesses (in particular) and individuals have taken this into account, there will be a reversion to "normal" levels of traffic. Clearly the politicians see this as another cash cow to milk. Ken Livingstone has said that it will raise an additional £45m per year for transport projects. I think its time we ask "please explain?".
As a resident within the congestion charge zone, my only gripe is about the manner in which residents are charged. Residents that have resided within the zone since well before the inception of the congestion charge have been hard done by even with the illusory 90% discounted advertised. It is illusory because of the minimum 5 day purchase requirement. Currently residents are only required to pay 10% of each daily charge but because it is subject to a minimum of 5 days (purely and simply because of the administrative issues), any outing within the zone even for as little as 1 second (unless you avoid the cameras) will cost you £2.50 - it is therefore at best only a 50% discount.
Surely now, given that Ken Livingstone will raise another £45m, they can organise the computer system to simply operate like any electronic toll system operated the world around. The reason for this administrative cost is not transparent but essentially what it means in effect for residents is that we are forced to pay £2.50 per use regardless of your requirements. In future under the £8 a day charge this presumably will increase to £4.
This is clearly an additional tax on residents based purely on the choice of residence. My message to Ken is please invest some of that £45m to developing an automated system that will treat residents fairly. I don't mind having a user-pay system but a minimum 5 day payment is not fair nor equitable.
posted by Joshua at 1:26 PM
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