Traffic congestion is increasingly threatening the quality of life in many metropolitan areas. More space is dedicated to roadways, more cars are infesting the core, and air pollution is choking the city. As more roads are built to meet the demand for travel, induced demand causes the need for more space on the roads. Many policymakers have realized that this cycle of supply and demand is not sustainable or regionally equitable. In an effort to pause and turn around this trend, London has developed a system of congestion pricing. This system emulates an effective way of transferring the costs of transportation to the user, and controlling the demand for travel by car.
Congestion pricing is a hot topic for public policy debate in today’s world of crowded highways and high infrastructure costs. Few metropolitan areas have chosen to implement congestion pricing to mitigate the negative effects of a growing region. However, within the last year, London has taken the lead in employing this controversial strategy. Through a process of painting pavement and inserting cameras, London has significantly reduced their congestion problem in the inner ring of downtown.

History and Implementation
Ken Livingston, a far-left mayoral candidate in the 2003 election in London, decided to put an end to the attack of the car. His plan to charge every automobile a fee to use the roads in the core would reduce the number of automobiles using the streets. Livingston campaigned vigorously on the issue of congestion pricing and the program was initiated shortly thereafter.
The rules to the system are easy to learn and obey. Before entering the inner ring of London, denoted by crossing Inner Ring Road (also by crossing the painted “C” on the street), drivers must buy a pass to drive within the area. The cost is about 8 dollars a day during the peak hours between 7:00am and 6:30pm on weekdays. The price does not fluctuate with the level of congestion or personal use. If drivers do not pay ahead of time, they are subject to a ticket and/or a tow. Taxis, buses, and motorcycles are exempt from the fee. All cars are monitored by cameras that record license plate numbers and compare them with paid license numbers.

Results
Though the congestion pricing has only been applied in London for less than one year, Transport for London, the mayor’s transportation department, has released a series of reports. In their six-month milestone report, a set of indicators were tracked to determine the effect of pricing on congestion. These indicators and the results are following:
1. Amount of traffic entering during peak hours
The amount of traffic entering the ring was significantly lower after implementing the congestion pricing. The average number of automobiles on a weekday pre-pricing was 120,000 to 130,000 vehicles per day. After the pricing, the average dropped to between 100,000 to 110,000 vehicles per day.
2. Average speeds and waiting times within the zone
There is much less time spent in the zone at speeds of zero to ten kilometers per hour.
3. Journey-to-work times
The time spent to get to work decreased by 14 percent. A trip that used to take 80 minutes round-trip would now take 70 minutes.
4. Mode Choice
While the number of chargeable vehicles entering the zone has decreased by over 25%, the number of buses, taxis, motorcycles, and bicycles has increased. Taxis and bicycles show the biggest increase among exempt modes, increasing by 20 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

Implications
Because London’s congestion pricing experiment appears to reduce congestion and raise revenue, a handful of city officials in Europe and the United States have started exploring the option. However, many political forces stand tall against the prospect of any U.S. city implementing this program. The majority of London’s residents do not rely on cars for commuting. Congestion pricing does not affect their pocketbooks. It is easier to gain political support for a program that does not have out-of-pocket expenses for the majority of voters. In the United States, the vast majority of voters commute to work by car. A congestion pricing system would raise the out-of-pocket expenses of residents in any city, which is precisely the goal of users-pay systems of transportation funding. This likely lacks enough support in the existing political climate, but may be a subject for another time.
London’s congestion pricing does not apply to many cities. London has no highways leading into downtown. All roads subject to the fee are relatively narrow and small roads. This fact complicates the idea of congestion pricing in other, highway dependent areas. It would be difficult to monitor violators by recording license plates when highway speeds are much higher. Also, highway tolling would require much more infrastructure or technology than the relatively simple tolling of small roads.
User-pays systems of transportation funding receive more attention in public policy debates than in the past. However, most cities are still a long way from gaining enough political support to implement these policies.