Congestion Charging - Essay Example

The problem has been aggravated by absence of effective public transport systems in major cities of the world (Banister D, 2003). This has resulted to the need for people to acquire private means of transport, resulting in traffic congestions which are characteristic of almost all major cities. The major principle underlying congestion charging is to ease traffic. It has been found out that the amount of man hours spent on traffic jams impacts very negatively on the economy of any country (Litman T, 2006).

In many cities, people waste a third of a regular working day held up in traffic jams. Having too many cars in the city has also brought about the problem of parking. The parking space available is not enough to accommodate the rising number of cars in the cities. This has resulted to having many cars in the streets, not having anywhere to park People result in unlawful practices like double parking which exposes them to penalties. Noise pollution has also been blamed on too many cars in the cities.

Workers in the cities mostly find presence of many cars being much of a pollutant (Litman T, 2006). Over use of certain roads at particular times of a day also contributes to running down such roads. It has been established that during the peak hours, that is, morning and evenings during weekdays, the volume of cars is usually very high, thus occasioning the need to restrict movement. How it is supposed to workThe workability of such a project relies heavily on the available alternatives. Most city residents who would be affected by this will first be interested to know what options would be available.

This calls for building of a good public transport network. This system works within a given radius of the central business area of the city (Banister D, 2003). Motorists wishing to enter such areas are supposed to pay a premium. The London city congestion charging system, for example uses various ways of collecting money for those wishing to enter the restricted parts of the city such as: - Payment through credit or debit cards via a call centre, send cheques through the postal system or pay cash through retail outlets like petrol stations and grocery stores.

All these payments are connected to a central database that helps in tracking defaulters (Banister D, 2003). There could also be a system whereby prospective users of the charging area can buy electronic cards which they load with credit. At the entrance of the charging a