Congestion
charging and GPS. Not the most obviously conjoined of twins, but
as Europe's major cities slowly and painfully grind to a halt
thanks to the over-reliance on the machine that gave us our freedom
100 years ago (the car), congestion charging seems set to be 'the
way to go'. Thirty-one major cities across Europe have expressed
interest in following London's bold step to charge its drivers
for the privilege of clogging up its roads. Despite political
and ethical opposition that at one point threatened to consign
the scheme to the already over-filled dustbin marked 'potentially
good ideas that ran out of potential', London's Congestion Charge
has been a success. Traffic is down by such great levels that
the revenue stream generated by drivers paying £5 to enter
into the cordon are much less than predicted ... so has the scheme
already become a victim of its own success? What other cities
will implement their own schemes? And when? And where does the
M6 Midlands Expressway come into it? And what happened to the
GPS bit? Where London's charge is incredibly simple (you book
a space inside charge zone by means of a phone call, text message,
email or visit to a retail outlet) some cities are set to trial
GPS as their favoured method of tracking who has paid and who
hasn't. The words Big and Brother should not necessarily spring
to mind ...
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