According to the blog grapevine in Bristol (i.e. Chris Hutt), our fearless leader (of Council) Cllr Helen Holland has announced at the Labour Party Conference that Bristol will be bidding for congestion charge money. Over at the Bristol Traffic blog, Steve L is facing the dilemma of a scheme that will punish drivers (goodthink) but also increase the reach of the police state (double plus ungood). Even Bristol Indymedia have broken ranks and published an article critical of congestion charging, which makes a change from their long running and exclusive "Document Not Available" story.
The trade press (specifically Builder & Engineer Online) have this to say:
Bristol City Council has become the latest to confirm that it is to submit a bid for Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) money to ease congestion in the city.
It is said to be preparing a joint bid with Bath. As part of the package both cities will introduce a congestion charge.
The news comes as Manchester's bid heads towards a referendum in which the congestion charge element of the proposal is likely to be rejected. This would ensure the TIF money would be withdrawn.
News of Bristol's bid was confirmed to the magazine NCE by the leader of Bristol City Council (BCC) Helen Holland at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester.
The bid would be for up to £1.4bn in government money to improve public transport, and BCC to impose a congestion charging scheme.
Now this is not news in the strict sense of being "new", as Congestion Charging has been an aspiration of many local political groups for some time. And I have a horrible feeling the Conservatives may have inadvertently contributed by proposing a Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Alliance. [It sound like a good idea in principle, but in practice I worry that it would be an extra layer of unaccountable bureaucracy between the people earning the money (taxpayers) and the people spending money (politicians).]
Two years ago, the Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study had this to say:
[T]he most effective additional form of demand management is likely to be some type of road user charging. The study has identified a number of potential charging mechanisms, including bridge tolls, cordon charging, motorway tolls, supplementary licences, congestion charging and distanced-based charging. In the longer-term, the study believes that the most effective form of demand management would be an area-wide charge. However, it is unlikely that such an approach would be feasible until later in the study’s horizon and hence it is important to explore charging systems that provide the opportunity for more immediate implementation. A cordon-based charge would be the most appropriate technique and the initiative by unitary authorities within the Transport Innovation Fund should be taken forward as quickly as possible.
Around July of 2007, this is what I had to say:
Road Pricing is not intrinsically a bad idea - markets are the best way to allocate demand for scarce resources, and nothing is more scarce in Bristol than road space.
But there are two principal arguments against a London-style congestion charge. The marginal level of taxation and the costs of implementing the system.
Have a look at the full, old post for my old thoughts, which are largely unchanged.
