Traffic jams ? Levy congestion fee

Traffic jams ? Levy congestion fee
Vijay Times

Fed up with frequent traffic congestions in the City? How about levying a congestion fee? This could well be the remedy for all the traffic ills, feels Chandra Vikash, CEO of Ten Systems. Speaking on the “London Congestion Charging Scheme - Transport Management Lessons’ here on Wednesday, he said London, Singapore and the Netherlands have imposed such a fee to prevent congestion in their business districts.

Vikash, who was a member of a pilot project on congestion fee in London.

He said the UK plans to introduce the scheme throughout the country by 2015.

He said: “The system was introduced in an 8 sq mile area of London, which witnessed bumper-to-bumper traffic between 9 am and 6 am. Within a few days of introduction of the scheme, the congestion levels came down by 30 per cent.” He said except bicycles, all vehicles had to pay eight pounds for accessing the road. For payment verification, cameras were installed at all the entry points. “If any vehicle was found not paying charges, penalty notice was served on the driver of that vehicle,” Vikash said.

He also suggested creation of ‘home zones’, from where people could reach multi-storied parking lots on bicycle or electric vehicles from where they could take their vehicles.

Vikash said before implementing such a system in Bangalore, a digital masterplan must be prepared on home zones and a network of arterial roads prepared.

He also said Bangaloreans consider the utility of any vehicle before purchasing it.