Do you think the congestion charge in London has made a difference and?

Question

should Manchester introduce similar charging?

Answer 1

Yes. The congestion charge has made a huge difference to the amount of PRIVATE cars in London. What polititians forget is public transport is readily available in the capital. They have an underground railway network, buses that run frequently and (if you can afford them) millions of black cabs. Can the same be said of Manchester?
I used to live in Cambridge, a university controlled city. The council there are also considering 'road charging' (also parking charges at your place of work!)
This is grossly unfair. There is no underground railway, the buses are infrequent and cyclists, who pay nothing towards the upkeep of the roads, are given priority over the motorist!
I moved out of Cambridge 10 years ago. Back then it took me 45 minutes to drive 3 miles to work
I now drive 12 miles to a rural location and it takes 20 mins on a bad day.
Road pricing is just shifting the problem elsewhere.

Answer 2

Yes, it is a great improvement.

Before the congestion charge was introduced in February 2003 getting around central London during the day was a real pain. Roads were congested and buses did not move at all.

There was an immediate improvement in travel times, reduced congestion on the roads and (slightly) cleaner air for us Londoners who live in the city.

Even now there is a difference between traffic levels inside and outside the zone.

One problem with the charge is the effect on businesses just inside the zone, who have reported losses in trade as customers find somewhere else to go.

I don't know Manchester well enough to comment on whether they should introduce similar charging, but generally I think we should all be expected to pay for travelling in central areas of a city. That is the only way we can make them more pleasant places to be, less traffic choked and much healthier environments for all of us.

Answer 3

Manchester has a pretty good public transport system from what I remember of it, so a car is not so essential for living there as it is in many other places. I don't agree with the congestion charging, you pay road fund license to use the public roads, so to say oh but you can't use these unless you pay another charge as well is a little insulting. Especially as London still gets congested anyway. Perhaps it could be a good idea if they used the funds to offset the cost to start building an underground network in the city. That gives people plenty of choice on how they want to travel then.

Answer 4

There's a great thing about the congestion charge - it's essentially undemocratic...

Who passes congestion charge laws? How much do they get paid? Are these people big users of public transport?

So, the rich people, and their representatives in politics, get to pass laws that get the rest of us off the road and out of their way. Their interest in public transport is at a fairly low level - it's not something they need, except to get us out of their way.

How do people like nurses and teachers and cleaners, who all work odd hours, get to work without public transport (it doesn't exist when they need it)? They have to drive. Hmmm! Now, the congestion charge may or may not be 24 hour. But it means that the rich can travel whenever they like on uncongested roads, while the rest of us have to "move over".

As an aside. The old soviet republic, used to have a law: party cars (those with the party flag) had priority. If one of them hit you it was, by definition, your fault. You should have got out of the way. Congestion charging has the same effect - but based on market principles.

This may seem like the rant of a lunatic. However, the point I'm really making, is about democracy. We have a situation where the people who pass the laws are essentially unaffected by them. This brings laws and democracy into disrepute. But before you say that everyone has to pay the charge consider this. The charge is the same whether you are on £200 a week or £200 an hour. On £200 and hour, you only have to work a few minutes to pay the charge.....

Rant over. Why is public transport in this country so rubbish?

Answer 5

Congestion charging does NOT work. I was a london mini cab driver when the charge/tax came out so was exempt from paying but, it made hardly the slightest difference. Its just another tax. Nobody drives to central London for fun - do they? You drive because you HAVE to drive. It just encourages people to clone number plates or not register their cars.Brilliant, shall we al do that??? Manchester - keep well away, its the beginning of road pricing, cloned number plates and fines coming through your door for something you havent done. BE WARNED.

Answer 6

I have no personal experience, but as far as I know the American embassy is refusing to pay their charges. Apparently it's into thousands of pounds. So in that respect, maybe it isn't working??!
I think congestion charging it's just a way of squeezing more money out of the general public, I'm not a driver but I personally believe it's wrong to charge people so much money for every little thing we do in life. Something has to be free some time, surely?

Answer 7

Yes it has by almost 20%

I think Manchester should adopt this scheme and I'm pretty sure most cities in the whole world will do something similar to reduce congestion, pollution and make folk use our superb public transport system

Answer 8

Sorry to get on my band waggon but most of the present problems in the world are due to the fact that there are too many people Too many people equals too many cars
If we bring in proper birth Control there will be less traffic congestion But no one will address this problem all the grand schemes are short term measures

Answer 9

the only difference it has made, is to give Ken Livingston
more money to employ more unneeded political correct
busy bodies to interfere with the dwindling London work force, I think there should be a gun fight between red Ken
and George Galloway to the death, the winner tried as a witch then burnt at the stake,

I'm getting carried away again.

Answer 10

Yes it's made central London a much nicer place to visit. I never drive there as trains so convenient for me. Less noise, less fumes, possible to cross the road &c. &c.
Other cities? need to look at the public transport access first