London Congestion Charges Don't Work
London's controversial congestion charge suffered a setback last week, when Transport For London (TFL) admitted that the charges to enter central London have not improved traffic. Although TFL claimed that the £8 daily charge had produced a thirty percent improvement in congestion after its introduction in 2003, gains have been rolled back to the point where improvements have been reversed. The Automobile Association explains the conundrum to Courier Exchange, saying "The trouble is, by closing off side streets and short cuts and re-phasing traffic lights for pedestrians – all for laudable reasons – TfL has stifled traffic. Add to that pavement build-outs, re-engineered junctions, and you can see why congestion is rising." This likely comes as bad news to London Mayor Ken Livingstone who is currently running for re-election on a platform that includes raising the congestion charge to a whopping $50.
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Speaking as a Londoner, ANYONE who thinks that the election will sort anything out is sorely mistaken. The only alternative that anyone will vote for is Boris Johnson (Conservatives) and they're a bigger bunch of crooks. They will not reverse any of Ken Livingstone's charges. They may not introduce any new ones, but they'll certainly keep the current infrastructure. I grew up under Tory rule and they'll never change... Part of the reason of the congestion charge is to improve air quality and the environment. But the government do very little to produce wind farms, hydroelectric power and other renewable sources of energy. Moves like this would have a better impact. But it won't happen, because there's no money in it.....
I like The Great Britain, the huge empire of tea packaging. They can manage to milk money from drivers, and they can manage to install zillions of cameras that watch your every throttle tap, yet they are unable to invest money in homeland manufacturing, whether in car industry or in long-term plans of reversing the 8 trillion external debt.
Katie, Please watch for what I think would be the [s]Fuhrer's[/s] Mayor's logical socialist manuever. The claim will be made that the congestion charge needs to be increased to get the desired benefits - faster road construction, reduced pollution, etc. No one will seem to remember that before the charge, the situation wasn't any worse. You see, once the camel's nose is under the tent, the solution is always larger taxes or more government funding. Always.
London Congestion Charges Don’t Work... But it does for government who've managed to stick their hands deeper into peoples pockets and extract even more money from us... thieving parasites.