Twenty years ago, London’s traffic was paralysed. The average time taken to drive across the city was slower than 100 years earlier – before the car was invented. Clearly something needed to change. Mayor Ken Livingstone cast around the world for ideas and, inspired by Singapore, settled upon a congestion charge.
Vehicles would be charged £5 per day to access the most congested zone in the heart of London. On its 20th anniversary, the fee is now £15 per day and London’s congestion charge has been heralded as a success, with vehicle numbers reduced by 33 percent. Milan, Stockholm and Gothenburg have since introduced their own version of the charge.
A 2022 study of various congestion-easing measures in European cities I conducted with Paula Kuss found that a congestion charge was the most effective tool. When weighed up against initiatives such as limited traffic zones, car sharing programmes, and apps, congestion charging was shown to be the best at reducing the overall number of cars in the city centre. Removing parking spots and replacing them with bicycle and pedestrian lanes was the second most effective intervention.
