- telephone,
- text message,
- post,
- Online or in a shop.
Failure to pay risks a penalty charge notice of £100.
Groups exempt from paying the congestion charge and those eligible for discounts include people with disabilities, residents living within the congestion zone emergency services and breakdown recovery vehicles, taxis, and drivers of alternative fuel vehicles.
3. How are cars monitored?
The scheme is monitored by cameras on roads across the congestion charge zone, which read car number plates and cross-references them against a register of cars that have paid the charge. The organisation responsible for the charge is (TfL); operates the scheme under contract. The system is run on a generally automatic basis using and .
4. The geographical scale of scheme
The congestion charge zone covers a large portion of central London. The boundaries of the congestion charge zone link points in central London such as Euston Road in the north, Commercial Street in the east, Vauxhall and Chelsea Embankment in the south and Harrow Road and Earls Court in the west.
5. The success of the scheme.
- The congestion charge was welcomed by environmentalists as a way of reducing carbon emissions and encouraging people to use public transport, and town planners across the UK have begun looking into the scheme as a way of cutting congestion.
- Vehicles with low carbon emissions receive a discount or an exemption from the charge.
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The congestion charge scheme received a further boost at the beginning of 2008 when researchers from King's College, London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggested there could be unexpected health benefits from the reduction of exposure to nitrogen dioxide. According to the researchers: "The results showed that there was little change in pollutant levels in London as a whole. But there were more substantial falls in the charging zone. Levels of NO2 fell the most."
- Significant improvements in bus services have been sustained.
- Cycling levels within the zone are up 43 per cent since the introduction of the congestion charge.
- The trend for increasing public transport and cycle use, despite growing car ownership sets London apart from other UK and European cities.
- The number of vehicles entering the original charging zone has significantly decreased (by 21 per cent, compared with 2002.)
6. Are there any negative impacts of the scheme?
This scheme has been heavily criticised for numerous reasons, some of these include:
- Opponents have challenged its regressive nature, whereby poorer motorists are charged the same levy as richer car owners, and some have described the congestion charge as a 'tax on the poor'.
- The impact of the congestion charge on businesses within the capital has been a major source of contention. Businesses affected by the charge have been vocal critics of the mayor's scheme, because of both the new costs imposed by the congestion charge and concerns that visitors to central London would be deterred by the daily charge.
- Many firms reported a fall in profits, and felt that the congestion charge was to blame.
7. What is the future of the scheme?
15 October 2009
The Mayor of London, , has announced plans to increase the , as well as scrap the western extension of the zone.
The proposed changes, which are still subject to consultation, would come into effect by December 2010. They are:
- Removal of the western extension of the congestion-charging zone.
- Introduction of an automated payment account system, provisionally called CC auto pay.
- Increase of the daily charge to £9 for CC auto pay customers.
- Removal of the £1 fleet discount. So that fleet operators will pay the same per vehicle as customers using CC auto pay.
Boris Johnson commented:
"The proposed increase in the charge will ensure that the system remains effective in controlling traffic levels in central London, and the revenue will also help us fund the vital improvements to London's transport network that all Londoners want to see."
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