Traffic Congestion – Syd BY CRISTINA LYNN O


N RETURNING FROMA RECENT overseas trip, I came across an arti- cle in the (Sydney) magazine titled “I have a dream,” which explored four experts’ points of view regarding the


state of our city: where did we go wrong and where do we go from here?


This was quite timely as I was in the process of writing up


notes and observations collected during a visit toMilan. If you haven’t heard or read about the recent increases to the


NSWparking levy, you either must live on some other planet or don’t own a car (in either case, you can stop reading now). So far, all we have been able to determine is that the levy ismerely a tax grab on the part of a state government that is on the brink of dis- aster – a relatively easy way to collect a few more million, the destination of which nobody can tell. Several articles appeared Aug. 24 in the Sydney Morning


Herald heralding such headlines as “Access for all to public transport” and “Transport plan to put metropolis back on the rails”. Even more relevant was the article “Schemes to raise the $40b needed for improvements”. In this latter article, two points are raised relating to the plan put forward by Garry Glazebrook of the University of Technology in Sydney, which includes an extensive system of new, mostly underground, Metro trains: 1. Congestion pricing in Singapore, London, Stockholmand


Milan discourages residents frombringing cars into the city cen- tres, and themoney raised helps fund public transport. 2. Parking levies, such as the $44 million the NSWGovern-


ment collected in 2002 from parking in the CBD, Parramatta, Chatswood, Bondi Junction and St Leonards. That levy was raised in the mini-budget and could be further enhanced by extending it to other suburban centres as public transport in those areas improves. I therefore thought it timely to review the systems adopted


in two European cities and the benefits that have resulted from their introduction.


The London Experience London’s responses to traffic congestion have been many


and varied, including electronic parking fees, encouraging cyclists and special mini-buses. But the most innovative and important was the congestion charge, introduced in 2003, which operates as follows: The charge applies to certain vehicles entering the Central


London Congestion Charge Zone within the hours of 07:00 and 18:00 Monday to Friday. The charge does not apply in the evenings, on weekends, public holidays and designated non- charging days. Signs placed at or near all zone entry points indi- cate the hours of operation and when the actual zone is being entered/exited. There are a couple of free through-routes to allow vehicles to cross the city without incurring the charge. Every charge zone entrance and exit along the boundary


road is monitored by a network of camera sites (which also monitors journeys made within the charge zone). The cameras


24 NOVEMBER 2009 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


provide high-quality digital images of the vehicle to automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) software. When the cameras read a vehicle registration, it is checked


against the payment database. If this shows that the vehicle has either paid or is not liable to pay the charge, the image is delet- ed from the database. A further check is made at midnight on the following charging day to highlight any vehicle registrations that should have been paid for but have not been paid. The reg- istered owners of these vehicles are issued with a Penalty Charge Notice.


Howmuch is the charge? If paid on the day of travel, the charge is £8 (approx. $12);


whereas if paid on the first charging day after travel, it increas- es to £10 (approx. $15).The penalty charge if payment does not take place within this two-day period is £120 (approx. $180)!


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