PLANNING POLICY

1
PLANNING POLICY MANAGEMENT OF TRANSPORT AND
URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

• Congestion Charging in London
• Prepared By
• 1. Md. Shafiqul Islam
  
• ID 46852
• 2. Thudugalage Don Chaminda Pushpakumara
• ID 46866
• 3. Md. Kamrul Islam
• ID 46851

2
Out Line of Presentation

• Fact Sheets (to some extent the background).
• Key Aspects of Public Consultation.
• What Congestion Charge is?
• Why this Congestion Charge is introduced in
  London.
• Benefits of Congestion Charge.
• Some Key Findings.
• Road Traffic Accident.
• Cost-Benefit Assessment of transport impacts.
• Revenues from the scheme.
• How to Pay?
• What happen if I forgot to Pay.
• Public Information.
• Conclusion.

3
1. Fact Sheets

• The Consultation Process
• The introduction of congestion charge scheme was
  a central point of the Mayors manifesto for
  election.
• Consultation on such a scheme started in July
  2000 with the publication of Hearing Londons
  Views and continued in January 2001 with the
  publication of the Mayors Draft Transport
  Strategy.
• During preliminary consultation TfL consulted 130
  key stakeholders, including sending them a map of
  the proposed charging zone. TfL also arranged a
  series of 14 consultation meetings with groups of
  key stakeholders. 25 stakeholders sent written
  responses to the preliminary consultation.
• Formal consultation on the scheme order started
  on 23 July 2001, running for 10 weeks until 28
  September.

4
2. Key Aspects of Public Consultation

• Notice of the public consultation published in
  the Evening Standard and London Gazette.
• 6000 notices placed 250m apart on streets in and
  around the inner Ring Road..
• Producing and distributing an information pack to
  500 key stakeholders, MPs, business group
  representatives, disability groups, all health
  authorities, motoring organizations, bus and
  train operators, religious organizations.
• Printing a 12-page public information leaflet on
  the proposed scheme and distributing it, copies
  were also available in large print, on tape and
  in eight languages other than English.

5
2. Key Aspects of Public Consultation

• Sending over 2,000 copies of the leaflet to
  members of the public who requested further
  information after calling the Freephone number
  set up to deal with enquiries. 2,500 people
  called the Freephone number in total.
• Placing advertisements giving details of the
  scheme and how to participate in the consultation
  exercise in 11 London newspapers and 11 London
  radio stations.
• Placing documents about scheme in Town Halls or
  Libraries of London.
• Publishing details of scheme on TfL Street
  Management website, which was visited by 11,000
  people.

6
Further consultation period on the proposed
modifications until 18th January 2002. This
includes the following

• Contacting everyone who had responded to date
  with details of the proposed amendments and
  inviting further comments.
• Placing 6000 notices of the proposed
  modifications to the scheme 250m apart on streets
  in and around the charging zone. These notices
  were checked weekly and replaced if damaged or
  missing.
• Arranging meetings with key stakeholders to
  discuss specific points raised.
• The mayor spent over 20 months following
  his election consulting on the details of the
  scheme, in order to meet the demands from
  businesses, residents and a large number of other
  interested groups and in February 2003 announced
  his decision to go ahead.

7
3. What Congestion Charge Is?

• Congestion charging is a way of
  ensuring that those using valuable and congested
  road space make a financial contribution.
• Aims
• To reduce traffic congestion in and around the
  charging zone.
• Journey times are quicker.
• More reliable.
• To encourage people to think again about using
  their vehicles in central London and choose other
  forms of transport if possible.

8
The congestion charge was set for driving or
parking a vehicle on a public roads within the
charging zone between 7.00 am to 6.30 pm, Monday
Friday, excluding weekends and public holidays.
The central London congestion charging zone
covers 22 sq. km. in the heart of London.
9
4. Why this Congestion Charge is introduced in
London.

• The following explains why the congestion charge
  is introduced in London.
• London suffers the worst traffic congestion in
  the UK and amongst the worst in Europe.
• Drivers in central London spend 50 of their time
  in Jam.
• Every weekday morning, the equivalent of 25 busy
  motorway lanes of traffic tries to enter the
  central London.
• It has been estimated that London loses between
  2-4 million every week in terms of lost time
  caused by congestion.
• ? Not surprisingly, Londoners say congestion is
  one of the biggest issues facing the capital.
  Surveys have shown that Londoners do not want to
  see congestion clogging up roads, threatening
  business, damaging Londons status, nations
  economy and Londons environment.

10
5. Benefits of Congestion Charge.

• It helps to
• Reduce congestion.
• Further encourages the use of public transport in
  central London.
• Benefits business efficiency by speeding up the
  movement of goods and people.
• Create a better environment for walking and
  cycling.

11
6. Some Key Findings

• ? Traffic reduced by 10-15.
• ? Traffic speeds increased by 10-15.
• ? Driver responses to charging appear to have
  settled.
• ? Drivers in the charging zone are spending less
  time in traffic zone.
• ? Congestion charging generated 68 million in
  the year 2003 for spending on
• transport improvement, and expecting 80
  million to 100 million in the future.

12
Congestion levels within the charging zone during
charging hoursTfL expected a 20-30 reduction
in congestion inside the charging zone during
charging hours, against a typical traffic delays
of 2.3 minutes/km.
13
Total traffic entering the charging zone during
charging hoursCars, vans, lorries, the
potentially chargeable vehicles movement reduced
by 26.
14
7. Road Traffic Accident

• A reduction in road traffic accidents
  within the charging zone has been recorded
  although it is too early to draw firm conclusions
  from the limited accident data that is so far
  available.
• There has been around a 20 decrease in
  the number of reported personal injury accidents
  within charging hours. Compared to the same
  period in 2002.

15
8. Cost-Benefit Assessment of transport impacts.

• Reduced traffic delays.
• Improved journey time reliability.
• Reduced waiting time at bus stops.
• Lower fuel consumption.
• Reduced accidents.
• All above have economic values.

16
9. Revenues from the scheme.
17
10. How to Pay?

• You can pay the congestion charge either in
  advance or on the day of travel before, during or
  after the journey. The charge is 5 if you pay by
  1000 pm on the day of travel. An additional 5
  surcharge will apply if you pay from 1000 pm
  until midnight on the day of travel. This is to
  encourage early payment.

18
11. What happen if I forgot to Pay.

• At midnight, images of all of the vehicles
  that have been in the congestion charging zone
  are checked against the vehicle registration
  numbers of vehicles which have paid their
  congestion charge for that day. The computer
  keeps the registration numbers of the vehicles
  that should have paid but not done so a Penalty
  Charge Notice (PCN) will be issued to the
  registered keeper of the vehicles of 80. This is
  reduced to 40 for prompt payment within 14 days.
  Failure to pay the penalty charge within 28 days
  results in the penalty being increased to 120.

19
12. Public Information.

• Around 50 of Londoners believe it is breaking
  the law if the charge is not paid.
• About 40 believe that people who avoid the
  congestion charge are cheating Londoners out of
  improvements to public transport.
• Around 70 of charge payers say they have not
  experienced problems with paying the charges.
• The more changes in travel behavior are reported
  as change of mode, rerouting of around the
  charging zone, traveling outside charging hours,
  traveling less frequently to the charging zone.

20
13. Conclusion.

• Research undertaken by Transport for London
  has shown that congestion charging will lead to
  reduce traffic levels which are equivalent to
  those enjoyed during the school holidays.
• TfL is bringing in extra buses to the
  capitals streets, introducing more routes and
  improving the frequency and reliability of other
  routes.
• Although the scheme is good there need some
  more continuous discussion. Some people are there
  who do not want to travel by public transport but
  are not rich enough, this is a problem for them.
  The traffic pressure will be more outside the
  congestion zone. If new routes are applied it
  will be a matter of huge invest. Over all these
  things the scheme is appreciable.

21

• Thank you