Toll Motorways
Privatising the roads can be achieved in a numerous of ways. One way would be to invite private construction companies to bid for contacts to build motorways which they would pay for, and allow them to charge tolls to motorways users. The advantage is that they can be set at levels which allow the free flow of traffic on the motorway. The higher the potential congestion the higher toll charged. Also if a stretch of motorway is too congested on a particular day or at a particular time of day, the motorway owners could charge a higher toll to relieve the congestion. Therefore this would reduce the amount of traffic
Introducing bus lanes
If bus lanes were introduced then it will restrict car access through giving priority to buses, so making using public transport a more attractive alternative to the car. The time saved by using buses will encourage individuals to go from using private transport to public transport. This will reduce the amount of vehicles on the road and the amount of congestion. However, this may not be successful if the bus service is not of good quality, and run regularly. If this isn’t the case then individuals will not change from using the car to the bus. It is not a short term solution; it may take some time for people to swap to using buses rather than cars.
Road pricing
Another way to reduce congestion would be to charge people to use the roads. This could be done by cars being fitted with a meter. This could be fed with pre-paid cards, such as telephone cards or with points which would be used up as the car went along. Or the meter would be read on a regular basis, maybe once a year when the car was given its MOT. They would then be billed after the mileage had been done. The meters would be activated by beacons on the road side or gantries over the road. This would discourage motorists driving along congested roads, and therefore reducing congestion. However, there are problems with this, the technology would be expensive to introduce and the system would have running costs. Also motorists regard the roads as ‘free’ and would resent having to pay for them, and so there would be political backlashes.
Reducing the speed of traffic
By reducing the traffic speed this will increase the level of congestion. So this may encourage car drivers to seek alternative means of transport. In the long run this should encourage individuals to switch to a non-car mode of transport, reducing car use and congestion. However, the problems of this policy are the change and the amount of time it may take for the policy to have effect. The policy will cause more problems in the short run and may therefore be ineffective in the long run. The policy may be ineffective because of the problems of finding a readily available alternative to private car use.
