Manchester Blog » London Congestion Charge

Manchester’s Congestion Charge Effect

Jim Symcox — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:00:39 +0000

Table of contents for Manchester Congestion Charging - Reprinted from Good Company

The worst case is that Manchester’s councils and their consultants predict a range of goals that congestion charging will achieve. Goals that even their most optimistic dreams would never achieve.

How do I know that?

Look at a report by Transport for London, the body that runs London’s congestion charging scheme. It notes that six out of 13 traffic targets set for 2010 will not be met, including:

· reduced congestion (congestion will actually increase by 8%)

· meeting air quality targets (increased diesel pollutants)

· reducing greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide emissions will increase)

· improving bus reliability

· reduce numbers of people seriously injured or killed (likely to be met)

· encourage more people to use public transport (likely to be met)

However, as Lynne Featherstone, chairwoman of the London Assembly’s transport committee, says:

“We won’t be able to bring down the levels of congestion in the suburbs the only thing we can do is improve bus services. Since I came into power there were four million bus journeys a day now there are six million.”

More people are using public transport in London but that increases the numbers of bus and taxi journeys and with it diesel pollutants. London Underground appears to be even more heavily overloaded than before the London scheme came into force.

A significant increase in congestion and pollution in the London suburbs around the congestion-charging scheme zone has been noted.

Manchester’s approach seems likely to have the following effect:

spread traffic over the day as no charge is applied outside the peak times
People able to change their start and finish times can avoid the charge by staggering the times going to and leaving work or going shopping
Aiming to reduce congestion by rewarding, or at least not punishing, those who drive at non-peak times
People in the city centre retail areas Who must be in ready for customers and who are on low wages will be affected by the charge
Anyone who must be in the office or drop children off at school or at childminders during the peak times is still affected.

London – Manchester Difference

(This is the second post adapted from an article I wrote printed in the “Good Company” Northwest Business Newspaper.)

The huge difference between Manchester and London is London’s vastly superior transport infrastructure.

London’s Infrastructure

London has:

the Underground, available over a wide area of London and beyond
Central train stations (King’s Cross, St Pancreas, Paddington and Euston servicing a vast swathe of the area around London with commuter trains
London’s bus network has been augmented to offer even more spaces for passengers
The vast number of black cabs available

Manchester’s Infrastructure

Manchester has:

Good bus services for popular routes like Bury to Manchester (X59) and similar services from towns outside the centre
Elsewhere bus journeys involve several changes to reach a destination, which has the effect of increasing a journey time enormously
The Metrolink, currently only provides links to a very few towns, increasing a little with the Big Bang to Oldham and Rochadale
Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly train stations provide commuter trains for areas outside Manchester

Compared to the London Underground the train stations and Metrolink services a tiny number of commuters each day.

Congestion Charge Versus Public Transport

In the end the congestion charge’s ability to make any impression on Manchester’s predicted traffic congestion hinges on two things:

1) The price of the public transport option versus driving a car and paying the charge

2) The perceived availability and convenience of public transport
Probably the worst bit of news for congestion charging is that bus and Metrolink ticket prices are so high that it comes down to whether you’re willing to pay for the convenience of using a car. Which let’s face it everyone does because we’re still buying huge amounts of petrol despite the prices.

In the next post about congestion charging I’ll explain how London business was affected by congestion charging and what might happen in Manchester.

LiveJournal tags: Manchester Congestion Charge, Congestion Charging, London Congestion Charging, Good Company Articles, Jim Symcox, Machester Metrolink

IceRocket tags: Manchester Congestion Charge, Congestion Charging, London Congestion Charging, Good Company Articles, Jim Symcox, Machester Metrolink

del.icio.us tags: Manchester Congestion Charge, Congestion Charging, London Congestion Charging, Good Company Articles, Jim Symcox, Machester Metrolink

BuzzNet tags: Manchester Congestion Charge, Congestion Charging, London Congestion Charging, Good Company Articles, Jim Symcox, Machester Metrolink

Technorati tags: Manchester Congestion Charge, Congestion Charging, London Congestion Charging, Good Company Articles, Jim Symcox, Machester Metrolink

Tweet This Post Digg This Post Stumble This Post

Previous in series

The New Gold Rush – In Manchester

Jim Symcox — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:25:15 +0000

Table of contents for Manchester Congestion Charging - Reprinted from Good Company

Manchester’s congestion charging is coming whether people want it or not. And yet apart from funding the Metrolink expansion it has the potential to trigger a new gold rush!

Eight of Greater Manchester’s councils voted to move forward with congestion charging for Manchester by agreeing to go for money from the government’s Transport Innovation Fund. Trafford and Stockport voted against the bid.

With the funding the government wants 31 public transport improvements. Including the tram link to Manchester airport, more buses and train carriages.

It’s expected the congestion charge will be imposed towards the end of 2012 when all transport improvements are complete.

What Manchester Congestion Charging Means

A recent survey released on the 23^rd July 2007 by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce looks at congestion charging in relation to business.

Survey question #3 asked people to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 6 on their “knowledge and awareness of the Transport Innovation Fund and congestion charging proposals.”

Of the 643 members answering question #3 59% rated themselves as a 3 or less and 12% had “no knowledge.”

Congestion Charge Details:

The congestion charge targets the main routes into and out of Manchester.
Two rings of sensors will be set around the city to monitor the vehicles entering during the morning rush “hour” (7am to 9:30am), or leaving during the evening peak (4pm to 6:30pm).
The Outer ring of sensors roughly follows the line of the M60 and the Intermediate ring circles the city centre.
The planned congestion charging area is 12 times larger than London’s original area.
An onboard electronic tag in your car registers when you pass a sensor. Cameras using number plate recognition capture details of cars without tags so they can be fined.
Inbound peak traffic pays £1 for crossing the outer ring and a further £2 to cross the intermediate ring.
Outbound peak traffic pays £1 for each ring they cross going home.

If the London congestion charging model is used once you’ve passed a circle you can pass that same circle (in the same direction) more than once in a day without further charge. So nobody will pay more than £5 per day.

As I’ve said previously on this blog, people are writing about congestion charging as though it’s inevitable. And yet research reveals that people still plan to continue using their cars to get into work in town.

David Cameron’s ludicrous attempt to “go green” by charging for using supermarket car parks is quite simply a tax on the poor. Because you can bet your life that people with money in their pocket wont bother about a little penalty for going shopping. Whereas the poor may well be deterred from taking their car and getting a fortnight’s worth of shopping for the freezer and instead make lots of little trips to the supermarket instead. And worse drive there and drop someone off to do the shopping and keep their engine running so they can move if they get noticed by those appointed to oversee parking. How does that help the environment then Mr. Cameron?

In the next post about congestion charging I’ll explain what London expected to gain from congestion charging and what happened there. And how the findings affect Manchester.