Dave Hill: Sadiq Khan is right to start smart road user charging conversation – OnLondon
Arguing that motorists should pay more for using roads is a sure way for politicians to seize attention. If that was Sadiq Khan’s aim when announcing publication of a report about pathways to net zero, he succeeded.
Much of Element Energy’s 84-page study concerns electrification of heat and transport, housing retrofits and complicated costs scenarios, but the prospect of impending road rage, perhaps dwarfing that inspired by the pandemic’s instant low traffic neighbourhoods, was catnip to the media herd.
Hence the Mayor all over the papers, all over the telly and maybe all over the world for advancing the idea that a more sophisticated and comprehensive kind of road user charging will be required if London is to stand a chance of reducing the amount of motor vehicle travel by more than a quarter by the end of this decade – the minimum requirement by 2030, the report says.
