"Dave Arquati" wrote the following in:


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).

Ah, here is one of my (no longer) secret reasons for not wanting a
Tower Hamlets congestion charge: if they implement one then I won't be
able to go shopping in the Watrose in Canary Wharf. And this does
extend to being a real concern: the only real reason I can think of for
people drive to Canary Wharf is to do shopping in the shopping centre
there. If you prevent them from doing that then it'll kill off a lot of
business for them while at the same time not really solving a
congestion problem because Canary Wharf has no congestion problem.

Canary Wharf has such good transport links and such little provision
for cars (apart from the shopping centre car park) that people don't
need or want to drive there, and really the only vehicles I see there
in large numbers are taxis and buses.

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