Congestion Charging.

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Congestion Charging

  1. What is CONGESTION? Why is it a bad thing?

Congestion is a pile up of traffic that isn’t moving. It normally occurs in urban areas where there are a lot of major businesses, and an enormous number of people either, travelling to work by car, going shopping or passing by to reach another destination.

A pure example of congestion is Central London. It is extremely high, especially on the weekdays when most people are working, not only at the shops, markets and restaurants but also at the banks and offices.

Those who live outside London either have to wake up very early and use the public transport or the other solution is to travel by car.

Today the majority of people prefer to travel from one destination to another by car, whether it is a short or long distance, for the majority it is faster and reliable.

  1. What is CONGESTION CHARGING? Why will it entail?

  • London suffers the worst traffic congestion in the UK and amongst the worst in Europe.
  • Drivers spend a day and a half in traffic every week.
  • A lot of drivers in Central London spend 50% of their time in traffic jams.
  • Drivers in central London spend 50% of their time in queues.
  • Every weekday morning, the equivalent of 25 busy motorway lanes of traffic tries to enter central London.
  • It has been estimated that London loses between £2–4 million every week in terms of lost time caused by congestion.
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Congestion charging is a way of ensuring that those busy roads contribute money for London’s transport.

It encourages people to use the public transport. Therefore there will be less congestion than before and for those who use the roads, their journey would become quicker than before as fewer vehicles are entering the congestion-charging zone.

Ken Livingstone’s targets…

  • Reduce traffic levels by 10-15 percent.
  • Make more people use the public transport.
  • Integrate national rail and other transport.
  • Introduce new rails.
  • Prevent delays on London’s roads and when traveling by train and tube.
  • Improve times of distribution of ...

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