The London Congestion Charge

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I'm choosing to do my third blog post about The London Congestion Charge article that was assigned for us to read this week. I think I choose this article because it goes along with the congestion relief theme that I did for my last blog post. Perhaps the London congestion charge could give U.S cities an example of a successful method to providing congestion relief.

The London congestion charge was put into place on February 17, 2003. The charge for driving and parking within the congestion zone was£5.00 per day between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Spatially, the congestion zone encompasses central London and its major tourist sites, official government buildings, shops, and entertainment venues.
According to the article, "Traffic speeds in central London had fallen more than 20 percent since the 1960s, from an average 12.7 mph for the morning peak period in 1968 (and a high of 14.2 mph in 1975) to 10 mph in 1998." As a result of these conditions, , most traffic in central London was at a stand-still during peak hours. The city’s leaders had to come up with a solution to encourage people to not drive into the city center. The charge was the solution officials adopted in 2003, and it has proven to be a success. The article states that, "... private cars, which accounted for almost half of central London traffic before the charge was introduced, now represent just over one-third, a fall of 34 percent." This was major accomplishment for the design of the congestion charge. The zone now has less private cars, but the article also notes that the number of taxis entering the zone had increased. Even so, driving speeds went up to 11.2 mph from the initial 9.3 mph in 2003.


This research on London’s model demonstrates a congestion charge on private vehicles worked in London’s case, and could possibly work in other cities. However, the success of London’s congestion charge was only made possible by the fact that London's public transportation system is robust and reliable and there was a large public uproar in favor of the policy.
I don't think replicating London's congestion charge would be successful  here in the U.S. because most major American cities don't have efficient transit systems like London's, and U.S. residents are unlikely to favor charges such as these. However, I would actually like to see a hybrid version of the London congestion charge being implemented in U.S.'s largest cities. Maybe we should try this out!

Edited by Justin Sherrill

Reference
Leape, J. (2006). The London Congestion Charge. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 20(4). 157-176.

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 21, 2018 at 6:26 PM

    A hybrid version of this would be very interesting Portland! I wonder if it would work, what element do you think it would be required for this to work in Portland?

    ReplyDelete

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