Vol. 1, No. 2. Congestion Charging

Vol. 1, No. 3. Congestion/ Road Charging: Working Notes

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New thinking about mobility - - >

Some advance words on the Congestion Charging Brief

This one may work out a bit differently from your initial expectations.

The role of the Advisory/Briefs is not to "sell" a given remedial measure or approach to local government. To the contrary the goal in each case is to provide a neutral expert appreciation and decision guide, both from the technical end as required to select, prepare and get most mileage out of the concept, while at the same time putting the basic issues and, excuse our French., desiderata into a balanced strategic context reflecting the priorities, limitations and realities of your city. Thus you may find that any given concept may be a good idea in many ways, but perhaps not the right one for your city at this time.

Congestion Charging is a good case in point, not least since it is getting extensive media coverage which by and large - since it is more often than not fed by those most directly involved in the project - tends to point up the accomplishments of each project (and here we refer of course above all to the London and Stockholm examples which more than any others are showing the way). There is of course at the same time a continuing flow of negative press as well, since dissatisfied citizens and critics - of which there will always be many every time anyone tries to do anything that is different and breaks the old patterns and in the process upsetting all kinds of people and interests. But in general the latter is more episodic and more often than not would seem to suggest that these are examples of niggling while the basic concept is essentially doing its job. Maybe so. Maybe not.

How does a mayor or local government position themselves in the face of these contradictory claims? By and large the city governments which are looking into congestion charging today tend to have a generally favorable view of the basic principles and possibly the technologies, while also understanding that this is very much a political hot potato, which they deal with by saying that the topic is "under study". The advantages of such a more prudent approach are certainly worth considering, not least since the projects and the technologies still leave us with a number of unanswered questions. (Which the Brief will also get into of course.)

Better, Faster, Cheaper:

Vol. 1, No. 3 thus takes the challenge to local government and other concerned agencies a full step further in a final section, "Better, Faster Cheaper". What this closing component of the Brief does is first to provide a short list of what are often identified as the objectives behind any given CC project, typically such things as specific target levels of reduction of . . . traffic congestion, travel and waiting times, air emissions, along with positive impacts on things such as public transport speeds and usage, cycling within the zone, road safety and local business custom. Another announced claim, hence objective, is to use the charge as a mechanism for getting additional money for public transport improvements. But each of these needs to be looked at objectively, including with careful attention to "boundary effects" in the immediate surrounding areas.

In this closing section, we shall be outlining for our readers with their very special decision challenges, a certain number of alternative concepts which they may wish to have a close look at before taking a final decision on Congestion Charging as their favored strategy. In this case, alternatives are plentiful and include such things as strategic parking policies; other economic instruments, some of which perhaps easier and cheaper to bring on line; transfers of street space in target areas or paths to more space-efficient (and hence also more environmentally efficient) modes; selective street closures; and the long list goes on. One of these which might surprise and will be the object of a later Brief, is the idea of simply removing all the traffic lights in the target area. Objective: smoother flows of traffic, less congeston, time savings on trips, diminshed accident rates, and a more human city. Sound unlikely? Stay tuned.

The bottom line from a New Mobility Agenda perspective is this: Congestion Charging can if you get it right be a powerful instrument for cities, but it is not one that can be brought on line in a few months (rather the set up time is at least several years), nor is it cheap or easy to make into a success. It certainly has its place in the list of new mobility instruments that our cities should be looking at, but the prudent city manger will consider it only in its full (and very rich) context.

Subscribers will be able to discuss these issues and trade-offs with the team behind this Brief as part of the Hot Line service.