ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY



ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY

Introduction

London has the worst traffic congestion in Britain. There is just too much traffic on our roads - and not just in central London. Without firm action forecasts are for 300,000 more cars on London's roads by 2016 and our road traffic crisis is set to continue. Polls routinely show that Londoners, visitor and businesses say there is too much road traffic and that traffic levels affect people's quality of life and damage London's image(Transport for London 2001).

Most people (over 70 per cent) entering central London for work or leisure use public transport so the percentage of people coming in by car is quite small. But those that do still cause enormous and unnecessary problems, congestion being just one of these, for everyone else. Because most trips in London are for relatively short distances about 1 in 5 car journeys terminating in the charging area could transfer to public transport, and many others to walking and cycling. Congestion charging will help people change their travel habits and extend real transport choice. People with a car will be able to leave it at home for many of their trips. The large number of Londoners in households without a car (37 per cent) will be able to travel without feeling like second class citizens.

Discussion

The Government Office for London set up an independent working group of experts in 1998 to prepare a report on how a congestion charging scheme in central London could be put into practice. The Road Charging Options for London report (ROCOL) examined a range of options for a charging system in London, ranging from a paper licence to electronic road pricing. It concluded that an area licensing system, enforced by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology with a ...