The London Congestion Charge is a fee for motorists entering the Central London area. London was not the first city to adopt congestion charging, but as of 2005 it is the largest city to do so. The organisation responsible for administering the charge is Transport for London (TfL).
The fee was introduced on 17 February 2003. The daily fee of £8 must be paid by the registered owner of a vehicle that enters, leaves or moves around within the Congestion Charge zone between 7am and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. If the charge is not paid by 10pm on the day of travel the charge is increased to £10: this is intended to cut the number of last-minute payments. Failure to pay by midnight means a fine of at least £50. From 17 February 2003 until 4 July 2005, the fee was £5.
In September 2005, the Western Expansion of the Congestion Charge was confirmed, and it will come into effect in February 2007.
Some vehicles such as buses, minibuses (over a certain size), taxis, emergency service vehicles (i.e. ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles), motorcycles, alternative fuel vehicles and bicycles are exempt from the charge (technically, some of the exemptions are 100% discounts and still require registration). Residents of the zone are eligible for a 90% discount if they pay the charge for a week or more at once.
The stated aim of the scheme is to encourage travellers to use public transport, cleaner vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles or their own two feet instead of motor cars and vans, thus reducing congestion and allowing for faster, less polluting and more predictable journeys. TfL says that much of the money raised in the scheme is invested in public transport.
-
Scrap the congestion charge.Voted for by piazza cavour.
Yes, i agree that the congestion charge has made the city a cleaner place, and the roads are safer, but what annoys me with the congestion charge is the greed of our government.
How are we supposed to pay eight pounds a day, minus the expensive parking or as an alternative use, the now even more busy public transport. Even the public transport isn't cheap, an adult single on a london bus is now £1.20 whereas it used to be 80p, also people are frightened and sometimed intimidated by the terroist attcks on london transport in july of this year. Please tell me what is the alternative to this fiasco!!!
Adding your reply:
Registration is required because of issues with spam. It is fast and free! This author would LOVE to get a comment from you, please join!
October 10, 2005
Edit | Reply
This is greed?
It sounds to me like it just works to make traffic flow more smoothly, so people get to work on time more reliably; and to decrease air pollution from there being way too many cars in one area. It also seems to be intended to decrease the number of automobile accidents, and indeed, by giving a leg up to public transportation, to give a hand to people who don't necessarily want to buy a car to drive to a relatively close-by job. Am I mistaken?Please register or login to comment! It's totally free