Monday, August 25, 2014

Did Congestion Charging Just Go Viral?

[ed. I'd never heard of congestion charging until today. Sounds like a pretty hard-sell.]

Congestion charging or pricing is the practice of setting up cordon tolls around the city on a large-scale to charge entrants for entering during peak hours. Ideally, this is done in an automatic fashion with cameras registering your license plate and directly billing you. This is different from low emissions zones, which are specific zones that limit the type of vehicles that can enter, and when.

City-scale congestion charging is picking up steam as a policy tool to free cities from crippling traffic.Singapore led the way starting in 1975, and LondonMilan, and Stockholm have since followed suit. In 2008, the former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg led a valiant, but eventually doomed effort to install congestion charging around Manhattan. However, despite New York’s setback and otherwise sporadic progress, three news items make me wonder if congestion pricing is reaching a tipping point:

First, despite New York’s failed attempt, it looks as if a bottom-up plan could revive the city’s efforts. With crippling congestion and underfunded transit projects, New Yorkers are starting to rally to the cause. The key to success this time might be better consultation and more community engagement. So far so good.

Second, Stockholm’s at-first shaky congestion pricing plan is now considered an unobtrusive part of life. In fact, its popularity spurred Gothenburg to adopt it, and there are now proposals for all major Swedish cities to adopt the system [in Swedish].

Finally, we turn to the mother lode of traffic: China. Not only have Beijing andShanghai studied the possibility of congestion charging for a while now, it appears that Beijing is going to institute it next year, using its many ring roads to its advantage.

by Tali Trigg, Scientifc American | Read more:
Image: Stockholm Transport Styrelsen.