[sustran] UK Think-tank calls for national congestion charge

[Kisan Mehta]

Dear Colleagues,

The following is interesting.  In addition to congestion charge to reduce the number of vehicles on the road,  
we need to levy fairly high pollution tax for reducing air pollution.  Developing countries need to take 
additionally stringent measures to reduce vehicles by making their acquisition difficult. Best wishes   

Kisan Mehta 
Tel'Fax: 00 91 22 2414 9688
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Planet Ark : Think-tank calls for national congestion charge
UK: October 15, 2003
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22543/story.htm

LONDON - An influential think-tank has called for the government to
introduce a nationwide congestion charge to cut traffic levels and
pollution, raising up to 16 billion pounds in the process.

A report yesterday by the Institute for Public Policy Research, which has
close ties to the Labour party, said Britain should abandon its current road
tax, paid annually by motorists, and replace it with a scheme which charged
by the kilometre.
"Congestion charging could not only help to reduce traffic and cut pollution
but also provide a much needed source of revenue for paying for better roads
and public transport," the report's author Julie Foley said.
The report suggested that motorists in urban areas should pay around 20
pence per kilometre, with cheaper charges for those in rural communities
instead of the existing road tax of up to 165 pounds per year.
It predicts such a congestion charge would raise 16 billion pounds, more
than the 13 billion pounds that national and local government spent on
transport in 2002-3.
In addition the scheme could cut traffic by 7 percent and reduce carbon
dioxide emissions by 8 percent, helping Britain meet its climate change
target to cut such emissions by 20 percent by 2010.
Government forecasts predict that traffic in the U.K. will have grown by
20-25 percent, through lower fuel prices and greater fuel efficiency .
Unlike other European countries Britain has few toll roads. However in July
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said a feasibility study would examine
the possibility of imposing road user charges.
It followed the success of a controversial five pound a day "congestion
charge" introduce in London in February to cut traffic in the capital's
centre. Traffic driving into the eight-square-mile (21 sq km) central zone
covered by the charge fell 16 percent in the first three months.
Darling admitted that a national congestion charge would be a technically
far more ambitious scheme.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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