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Traffic Congestion in London

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Traffic Congestion in London
Currently, most large cities of the world are experiencing huge problems with traffic jams that have repercussions on financial and ecological aspects of human lives. It was identified by last researches that it takes people 30% of their traveling time to drive through traffic congestions, whilst their cars make almost 75% of total air pollution. The same problems had experienced the London city in the middle of last century. According to report of the Ministry of Transport (1964), new car registrations in the United Kingdom doubled from 500,000 in 1958 to over one million in 1963. Furthermore, there was an independent survey among London residents in 1999 which concluded that the public transport and congestions are the two most “important problems requiring action” (ROCOL, 2000, chap. 2, p.5). Rising concerns about congestions in London has led to creation of the Congestion Charge Scheme which was mainly focused on finding an appropriate solution. This essay will evaluate the effectiveness of the system on solving the problem and its effects on different aspects of lives.

London is historically exposed to traffic jams. As noted by Leape (2006, p. 1), “by the 1990s, the average speed of trips across London was lower than (sic) at the beginning of the twentieth century – before the car was introduced”. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1998) stated that within 30 years the traffic speed in London had fallen by 20%. Rising concerns about traffic led to creation of London Congestion Charging Research Program. Regarding to its report, it was firstly proposed to charge £4.00 on vehicles entering central London area (MVA Consultancy, 1995). The second alternative was known as the ROCOL report which was mainly based on area licensing and parking levy. As opposed to the first solution, ROCOL proposed to allow vehicle drivers to travel in the charging zone as frequent as they want without paying at each entrance. Despite of the theoretical


References: Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. 1998. “Traffic Speeds in Inner London: 1998” DETR Statistics Bulletin. 98:22. Transport Statistics Division. http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/documents/downloadable/dft_transs tats_021875.pdf Leape, Jonathan.2006. “The London Congestion Charge.” Journal of Economic Perspective, 20(4): 157–176. Ministry of Transport. 1964. Road Pricing: The Economic and Technical Possibilities. London: HMSO. MVA Consultancy. 1995. The London Congestion Charging Research Programme: Final Report. London: HMSO. ROCOL [Review of Charging Options for London] Working Group. 2000. Road Charging Options for London: A Technical Assessment. London: HMSO. http://www.gos.gov.uk/gol/transport/161558/228862/228869/?view=Standard Transport for London. 2003a. Congestion Charging: Six Months On. London, October. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/downloads/pdf/congestion-charging/cc-6monthson.pdf. Transport for London. 2003b. Congestion Charging: Three Months On. London, June. Transport for London. 2004. Impacts Monitoring Programme: Second Annual Report. London, April. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/cclondon/cc_ monitoring-2nd-report.shtml. Transport for London. 2006. Impacts Monitoring Programme: Fourth Annual Report. London, June. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/cclondon/pdfs/FourthAnnualReportFinal.pdf.
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