London Releases Its Fifth Annual Congestion Pricing Study

Transport for London is out today with its fifth annual Congestion Charging Impacts Monitoring Report. If you've never seen any of the previous reports, it's worth a look. The 279-page document -- you can download the whole thing here -- provides a remarkably detailed assessment of the overall performance of London's surface transportation system (Compare it to the DOT section of Mayor's Management Report here in New York City and you will understand how much catching up we have to do).

Here are some of this year's findings from London:

• Congestion Charging has maintained reduced levels of traffic in centralLondon and cut congestion in the western extension by up to 25 percent.
• In 2006, around 70,000 fewer vehicles entered the same area each day.
• Before charging began, some 334,000 vehicles entered the original zone each day.
• An increase in cycling within the zone of 43 per cent.
• Congestion Charge generated provisional net revenues of£123m in 2006/07, which will be spent on further improvements totransport across London, particularly bus services.
• Further analysis of economic trend data continues to demonstratethat there have been no significant impacts from the original scheme onthe London economy. Indeed, the London economy has been particularly strong over recentyears, with recent retail growth at roughly twice the national growthrate.

Photo: Aaron Naparstek, March 2007