Central London Congestion Charging

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International Union of Air Pollution Prevention
and Environmental Protection Association in
association with the Integrated Program on Urban,
Regional and Global Air Pollution Mexico City
January 19-23 2004
Central London Congestion Charging
David HutchinsonGREATER LONDON AUTHORITY
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What I will talk about today

• Background and context
• Operation of the scheme
• Projected impacts of the scheme
• Importance of monitoring
• Some early indicative results
• Issues we have had to overcome

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Central London

• Greater London - largest urban area in Europe,
  over 7 million population
• Central London - 1 million workers, heart of UK
  business, government, media, heritage
• Suffered worst traffic congestion in the UK
• average traffic speeds 15km/hr
• vehicles typically spent half their time in
  queues
• Congestion was increasing, costing people and
  business time and money
• General acceptance - something had to be done

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Part of a wider strategy

• Congestion charging part of London-wide Strategy
  - No.1 priority tackling congestion
• Integrated approach public transport parking
  loading enforcement congestion charging
• Extensive public consultation over 18 months
• Public transport improvements in advance
• Associated traffic management
• Commitment to monitoring and adjustments

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So how does congestion charging work?
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Paying the Charge

• Daily, weekly, monthly or annual payment,for
  individual vehicle registration number
• Flat charge of 5 per day (Monday - Friday 7am -
  6.30pm) for all vehicles
• Payment by post, telephone, internet, SMS, or at
  self service machines, retail outlets and some
  petrol stations
• Payment available up until midnight, but charge
  rises to 10 after 10pm

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Enforcement

• Vehicle registration numbers observed by fixed
  and mobile cameras and compared with payment
  database
• Cameras linked to automatic number plate
  recognition technology
• If no record of payment by midnight, 80 penalty
  charge sent to registered keeper of vehicle
• Vehicles of persistent evaders clamped and / or
  removed

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Camera enforcement
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Key Exemptions and Discounts

• Motorbikes/mopeds
• Military vehicles
• Emergency services
• Taxis and licensed minicabs
• Disabled persons
• Buses, coaches and minibuses

• Certain alternative fuel vehicles
• Breakdown recovery vehicles
• Certain health service workers
• 90 discount for residents of zone

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Projected impacts

• Reduce traffic inside charging zone by 10-15 and
  2-3 in Inner London
• Cut traffic delays by 20-30 inside charging zone
  and 5-10 outside
• Traffic speeds increase by 10-15 inside charging
  zone and 2-4 immediately outside
• Help bus operations
• Improve journey times and reliability
• Net revenues of 130 million per year

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Investing the revenue early
years

• Improvements
• bus network, including night services
• network accessibility
• safety and security
• for pedestrians and cyclists
• interchanges
• Accelerating road and bridge maintenance
• Transport funding for local authorities

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Investing the revenue - long term

• Expanded Underground and rail capacity new
  services across and around London
• New river crossings of the River Thames
• Improved access to Londons town centres
• Tram or segregated bus schemes
• Selected improvements to Londons roads

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Public Transport Improvements

• Substantial enhancements to bus capacity
• - New routes
• - Frequency increases on existing routes
• - Introduction of larger buses
• New 24-hour services
• Bus fares frozen
• Better enforcement of bus lanes
• Better information security
• Some improvements on Underground Rail

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Monitoring the impacts

• Comprehensive 5 year monitoring programme
• Traffic patterns and traffic conditions
• Public transport operations and passenger levels
• Social impacts, including vulnerable groups
• Business and economic effects
• Environmental impacts, particularly air quality
• Case studies
• Results published every year
• First Annual Report published 3 June 2003

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Some early success

• 20 reduction in traffic entering the zone
• Sample traffic reduction of 16 within the zone
• No increase in traffic on Inner Ring Road
• No significant change in traffic levels outside
  the zone
• Sample traffic speeds within the zone increased
  by 10-15
• Around 100,000 payments received each day
• Public transport able to handle displaced car
  users
• Bus patronage increased by 14 in peak hour

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Traffic entering the congestion charging zone
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Traffic inside the congestion charging zone
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Traffic on the Inner Ring Road
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Bus delays due to traffic congestion
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Bus speeds
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Bus reliability
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Payment channels

• 100,000 payments received each day
• split between all channels
• Retail - 37
• Web - 25
• SMS - 18
• Call Centre - 20 (of which 6 using IVR)

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Key issues we have overcome

• Translating theory into practice in 33 months
• Presenting congestion charging to the public
• Creating the organisational arrangements
• Managing a complex project
• Improving public transport
• Managing traffic around the charging zone
• Public information

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Further informationTransport for London
www.tfl.gov.ukMain public website on
congestion chargingwww.cclondon.com/Background
paperswww.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/cclondon/cc_intro.shtml