MAC
02-17-2003, 02:24 PM
London congestion charge gets under way (http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1042491998190&p=1012571727085)
By Juliette Jowit and Jean Eaglesham
Published: February 16 2003 21:56 | Last Updated: February 17 2003 7:32
London motorists face up to two months of disruption as the world's most ambitious congestion charging scheme got under way on Monday - and experts have warned it might never be possible to measure its success.
Rod Kimber, a director at the Transport Research Laboratory, warned it would be difficult to know if the charge was successful because of variations in London's traffic and speeds due to other factors.
"It depends very much on fluctuations . . . in the numbers of road works, the way traffic is managed, or major events like economic shocks," said Mr Kimber. "There won't be meaningful measurements for at least a year, if ever."
This could make it difficult for cities across Britain and the world to consider similar schemes. From Monday morning motorists must pay £5 a day to drive into a zone around the City and West End between 7am to 6.30pm on weekdays.
During the weekend there were many reports of difficulties registering and paying via the website and telephone hotline. In perhaps the most embarrassing revelation to date, Mr Livingstone admitted 45 people were wrongly sent penalty fines before the charge started.
Derek Turner, TfL's managing director of street management, warned there could be "weeks if not months" of teething problems with the technology and traffic.
TfL said 26,000 people had paid for the first day, and 50,000 people had registered to pay by text message. TfL expects about 100,000 people a day to pay the £5 charge.
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ok, if we still have some UK lurkers, maybe on eo fthem could shed some light on this. Granted we have wars and terrorism and space shuttles on the frontpage everyday but I had heard nothing about congestion so bad that they are adding a £5 per day charge to drive your car in london during the day.
What is this paying for? Is it to build more roads and maintain them better or to try to keep ppl out? What are your alternatives to driving? This article seems VERY vague about what they hope to accomplish and they start by saying we have no idea if it'll work and we won't know for a long time anyway.
Although taxes on things that ppl participate in beats the hell out of broad sweeping taxes I hav ealways wondered what they would do if ppl stopped using the things they are taxing.
So many citys in the US now get a fortune from cigarette tax (not in % of income but in $) what if it suddenly became vogue to stop smoking? Anyone who thinks they are spending that money to treat lung cancer and the effects of cigarettes is nuts. Everydsay they discuss using the income from those settlements to pay off the states budget shortfalls.
So what would london do if almost everyone quit driving and they had to establish enough buses to handle those ppl and make them a happy?
(I'm not saying that's not an answer I just wonder what effect that would have)
By Juliette Jowit and Jean Eaglesham
Published: February 16 2003 21:56 | Last Updated: February 17 2003 7:32
London motorists face up to two months of disruption as the world's most ambitious congestion charging scheme got under way on Monday - and experts have warned it might never be possible to measure its success.
Rod Kimber, a director at the Transport Research Laboratory, warned it would be difficult to know if the charge was successful because of variations in London's traffic and speeds due to other factors.
"It depends very much on fluctuations . . . in the numbers of road works, the way traffic is managed, or major events like economic shocks," said Mr Kimber. "There won't be meaningful measurements for at least a year, if ever."
This could make it difficult for cities across Britain and the world to consider similar schemes. From Monday morning motorists must pay £5 a day to drive into a zone around the City and West End between 7am to 6.30pm on weekdays.
During the weekend there were many reports of difficulties registering and paying via the website and telephone hotline. In perhaps the most embarrassing revelation to date, Mr Livingstone admitted 45 people were wrongly sent penalty fines before the charge started.
Derek Turner, TfL's managing director of street management, warned there could be "weeks if not months" of teething problems with the technology and traffic.
TfL said 26,000 people had paid for the first day, and 50,000 people had registered to pay by text message. TfL expects about 100,000 people a day to pay the £5 charge.
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ok, if we still have some UK lurkers, maybe on eo fthem could shed some light on this. Granted we have wars and terrorism and space shuttles on the frontpage everyday but I had heard nothing about congestion so bad that they are adding a £5 per day charge to drive your car in london during the day.
What is this paying for? Is it to build more roads and maintain them better or to try to keep ppl out? What are your alternatives to driving? This article seems VERY vague about what they hope to accomplish and they start by saying we have no idea if it'll work and we won't know for a long time anyway.
Although taxes on things that ppl participate in beats the hell out of broad sweeping taxes I hav ealways wondered what they would do if ppl stopped using the things they are taxing.
So many citys in the US now get a fortune from cigarette tax (not in % of income but in $) what if it suddenly became vogue to stop smoking? Anyone who thinks they are spending that money to treat lung cancer and the effects of cigarettes is nuts. Everydsay they discuss using the income from those settlements to pay off the states budget shortfalls.
So what would london do if almost everyone quit driving and they had to establish enough buses to handle those ppl and make them a happy?
(I'm not saying that's not an answer I just wonder what effect that would have)