The imminent trial of a road pricing scheme in Manchester heralds the beginning of a new era in traffic management and the ICT systems that power it. Since the introduction of the Congestion Charge in central London in February 2003, something of a sea change has occurred in governmental thinking, and tackling Britain’s ever busier roads has become a political imperative. Some of the implications are clear, but many more are not.
In London, the motivation was that traffic speeds were similar to those of horse-drawn carriages in the Victorian era. The overarching organisation, Transport for London, drove the Congestion Charge initiative through, with backing from the high profile Mayor of London, as part of a wider initiative to improve transport within the city.
Manchester has recently responded to a central government initiative that encourages local authorities to bid for funding. Gaining funding is dependent on the introduction of road pricing trials. The Department of Transport’s Transport Innovation Fund was established after the White Paper, The Future of Transport, was published in July 2004. Manchester is represented by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (www.agma.gov.uk) comprising ten local authorities within the Greater Manchester area, which adds an extra layer of complication to negotiations.
Government funding
The Fund’s stated aim is to “give our delivery partners incentives to develop and deploy smarter, innovative, local and regional transport strategies. The Fund will:
- support the costs of smarter, innovative local transport packages that combine demand management measures such as road pricing with modal shift (migration from one mode of Communiqué transport to another, typically private, vehicle to public transport) and better bus services;
- support innovative mechanisms which raise new funds;
- support the funding of regional, inter-regional and local schemes that are beneficial to national productivity.”
The London road charging scheme is something of a blunt instrument in that its charges are based on time, designed to limit traffic during the day (7am to 6pm on weekdays), within a single zone. The Manchester scheme will have two zones; if drivers cross the outer ring to the inner one, they will pay more. The charging will also only apply during the busy periods, not all day as is the case in London.
It is proposed that drivers who enter the outer or both zones in Manchester regularly will have the option of having a tag device on their dashboards so that a payment will be withdrawn from their account each time they pass the beacon at the edge of the zone(s). Tag-and-beacon systems are proven, used on the M6 by thousands of drivers who choose the optional toll section of that motorway, as well as in anticongestion schemes in Stockholm and Singapore. Each driver has a unique ID and it is a simple backoffice function to reconcile the ID clocked by the beacon with the driver’s account, or an on-board smart card.
Clearly the Manchester scheme will use other charging mechanisms too, catering for occasional visitors to the city who do not have a tag on their dashboards. This will probably entail cameras and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems, similar to those used in the London scheme.
Crucial deployment
Much hinges on what happens in Manchester. Smaller towns and cities, such as Cambridge, are interested in deploying a road pricing scheme and are watching activity in the North West of England with great interest. There is no denying that many local councillors are nervous of incurring public wrath and losing their seats in the next local elections - with good reason. In 2007, an online petition against road pricing, started by Peter Roberts and hosted by the British government, attracted over 1.8 million signatures, equivalent to 6% of the entire driving population. Over 150,000 signatures were added during the last day before the petition closed on 20 February, 2007.
In repIn reply, former prime minister Tony Blair e-mailed the petitioners, outlining his rationale, denying that the proposals were to introduce a stealth tax or increase surveillance, and promising “debate” before a decision was made about introducing a national scheme. However, with a change of leadership in the British government, the emphasis now is on local road pricing and urban congestion schemes. National road pricing plans are not under active consideration.
Within a few years, the EU would like to see all new cars fitted with an embedded tracking device, ostensibly to help the prevention of car theft and provide automatic calls to the emergency services when the car is involved in an accident. In the short term, tag-and-beacon systems are simpler to run on a day-to-day basis than some of the other options, such as the use of GPS systems, which also give rise to heated debate on privacy and civil liberties. Even so, GPS systems are gradually being introduced; for instance, on sections of road in Germany heavy lorries are tracked by satellite and charged for their usage. tracking system is used, there is no denying that it could also be used to enable road pricing, as well as tracking how fast a vehicle is travelling, how often it travels to certain destinations and so on. Road pricing and safety cameras are far from popular, but there is much greater, as yet untapped potential to monitor and control drivers’ behaviour.