"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
"Robin May" wrote in message
...
"Dave Arquati" wrote the following in:


Ken wanted to extend it into Kensington & Chelsea and Tower
Hamlets - I'm not sure exactly how far into either. The limited
map on the BBC News site showed just the Kensington & Chelsea
extension since 52% of residents were in favour. It didn't seem to
extend as far as the logical boundary (the West Cross Route) but
instead seemed to run up Gloucester Road or some parallel route in
the south (Queens Gate, or maybe Exhibition Road/Sydney St etc?).

Only 33% of residents in Tower Hamlets were in favour of the
extension so the map didn't show the eastwards extension.

I think it's ridiculous to extend it into Tower Hamlets, the poorest
borough in London. There would be bound to be people who were outside
the congestion charging zone but whose local supermarket or school or
similar important service was inside it, and who'd be left with no
adequate substitute method of transport. And for people who really
don't have a lot of money, that would be very unfair.

Everyone seems to think that congestion charging has to be done the way
the
Central area was done, even though that was done very poorly (CC cameras
in
cul-de-sacs off the Inner Ring Road, etc ). I don't know what the
objectives
with Tower Hamlets are, but a single north-south cordon could bring all
the
benefits of CC charging with few of the oft-quoted disadvantages.

For instance, put CC cameras on every bridge over the Grand Union Canal
from
Victoria Park to the Thames, OR on every bridge over or under the DLR
between Bow and Limehouse. You would only need a fraction of the cameras
you
would need to surround the area, and you would stop all peak flow through
the borough to the City, while inconveniencing few of the journeys to or
from Tower Hamlets itself.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped

I would say that people are cheapskates and for medium-distance journeys
(i.e. from inside the M25) there would be much misuse of the East Cross
Route to avoid the cordon, with people from further out using a different
approach route altogether - like the A12.

The problem IMO with extending the zone to part of Tower Hamlets is that it
doesn't really give any congestion relief benefit. If people are travelling
through the zone extension to Central London, they already pay the charge so
it makes no difference to them. If they travel through the extension on
their way elsewhere (e.g. via the Rotherhithe tunnel) - then there's no
alternative road route, although the East London Line extensions may help.
If they are travelling to or from the zone, they're probably either
travelling to a deprived area which would be very hard hit by charging, or
to Canary Wharf, which probably isn't even in the zone extension anyway!
(And I always have the impression that not that many people drive to Canary
Wharf BICBW).

There would be a small benefit for residents and businesses of the zone
extension, in seeing travel costs to the central charging zone reduced.

I don't think extending to Kensington & Chelsea has as many of these
problems because it's a much more affluent area less likely to be
economically hit by charging, and IMHO transport in the area is much better
than in Tower Hamlets (except for the DLR). I also hate seeing buses speed
down Piccadilly only to come to a grinding halt at Scotch House.
However, depending on where they extend the zone to, it might or might not
upset some of my lecturers...


--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7