Congestion charge Hike - London

Starting from the 4th of July 2005, the Congestion charge in london is hiked to 8£.

What is this CC??

If any vehicle has to be driven inside central london mon-fri 7.30am-6.30pm, a penalty of 5£ a day has to be paid. This has been recently hiked to 8£ [approximately the cost of 10 lites of fuel].

Does it sound attrocious??? Wait a sec..

There were huge protests when this was introduced 2 yrs back, but later this has been found to be extremely effective. CC has served as a great deterent for using private transport within the city. [with the narrow victorian edwardian and georgian roads]. Statistics show that, the roads have been decongested heavily, the pollution levels dropped considerably, accidents reduced a lot, the number of people using the public transport increased, made all of the Tube,Train,Ferry,Tram,Bus run to capacity, making commuting safer, cleaner, faster and cheaper. The amount collected through the CC is again ploughed back into building the transport infrastructure of the city.

Now, what if this is put in place in Chennai/Trichy/xyz town in namma ooru??, where the astronomical surge of two-wheelers over the past decade has literally suffocated the city, a system like this would be a great thing.

But, before this, a strong public transport network needs to be in place providing an effective alternative to private transport.

Ada pongappa.. edhavadhu nadakkaradha pathi pesuvom.. hmm.. :(