London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that owners of cars from outside London could be charged for driving on the streets of the capital under new plans being considered by its mayor.
Under these proposals, non-resident drivers can be charged up to £3.50 per day for using city roads.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Transport for London (TFL) was looking into the scheme to address the funding shortfall, as he saw it as an unequal distribution of vehicle excise duty (VED) imposed on motorists in the city.
According to Khan, the London authorities should be allowed to put 500 million in the VED collected on motorists every year for future funding of the capital’s transportation network and road infrastructure.
Also read: California allows Organizations to Charge for Autonomous Car Rides
Khan said the money is currently being spent “almost outside the capital”, leaving the TFL out of its budget to pay for major road maintenance, which is largely funded by public transportation.
The mayor’s office has instructed TFL to investigate the possibility of a new Greater London Boundary Charge, which will be driven to the city on vehicles registered outside London. TFL data show that there are 1.3 million daily vehicle trips into the city from outside London, meaning that drivers are benefiting from maintenance on London roads rather than contributing to their maintenance.
TFL said the 50 3.50 charge levied on cars traveling across the Greater London border on weekdays could fetch $ 500 million a year and reduce pollution levels in London by 10-15% of the total number of trips.
To promote the growth of low-emission vehicles and reduce pollution, the mayor’s office said higher charges could be levied on high-pollution vehicles.
Motorists in London are already subject to congestion charges in addition to fares for high pollution vehicles.
The mayor of London has the authority to introduce road charging schemes, but says public consultation and economic, environmental and equitable impact assessment are required before any change can be introduced.
Any scheme will take at least two years to implement.
Khan said: “Ministers have failed to play a fair role in helping Londoners finance our world-renowned transportation system.
“Londoners pay m 500 million worth of vehicle excise duty every year, which is then spent on maintaining roads outside the capital. It is not fair in London for our drivers to subsidize the rest of the country’s roads and receive nothing in return. The government should allow London to support the system. “
He said: “If ministers are not ready to play a fair game, we will have to consider other options to address this injustice, such as asking people living outside London and traveling in a car in Greater London to pay a modest fare. As re-invested in London’s transport network. We can not expect people to pay for public transportation to subsidize road maintenance costs. “
There has been a long-running dispute between the mayor and the UK government over funding the capital, and in particular, the TFL has risen due to a significant drop in revenue from fares due to the declining number of passengers during the Kovid-19 epidemic.
Meanwhile, London authorities are installing more than 100 air sensors across the capital to monitor air pollution levels. The sensors are located in hospitals, schools and other ‘priority locations’ and are used to generate data on the spread of air pollution in the city.
