伦敦交通拥堵费London congestion

The London Congestion Charge

Beijing isn't the only city with traffic problems. You can get stuck in a traffic jam anywhere in the world. The worst problems occur in cities which are growing fast, such as Sao Paolo in Brazil and Lagos in Nigeria. But even cities in developed countries such as the US suffer. Los Angeles, which was built with the motor car in mind, and is famous for its six-lane highways, is now the USA's most congested city.

In Europe most capital cities were planned and built before cars, and city centre traffic jams have been part of daily life for a long time. The situation in central London，where drivers spent 50percent of their time in queues, became so bad that the local government decided to do something about it。In February 2003 the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, introduced a "congestion charge"-a tax for cars entering the centre of the city.

The idea is simple: every car coming into the centre has to pay ￡5 a day. Drivers can pay the charge at any of 10,000 pay points in the capital before 10 pm. As the cars come into the centre, video cameras record their registration numbers, and these are checked with a list of drivers who have paid the charge for that day. People who do not pay the charge will face a fine of ￡80. Most Londoners are not happy with the idea. They agree that London has a traffic problem, but the congestion charge is expensive, and limits their freedom...

But does the congestion charge work A survey carried out at the end of 2003 suggestions it does. After only six months, traffic coming into central London was reduced by about 30 percent, and journey times by 15 percent. More people used public transport to get to work, and bicycles were suddenly very popular. What's more, central London shops did not lose business even though there were fewer cars.

But there are a few people who think the charge should be much higher, for example rich businessmen who work in the city centre and can easily afford it. This would keep even more cars out of central London, and the roads would be nearly empty. However, there are no plans to increase the charge.

伦敦交通拥堵费

北京并不是唯一存在交通堵塞问题的城市。在世界上任何地方你都可能遇到交通堵塞。发展快的城市问题最为严重，如巴西的圣保罗和尼日利亚的拉各斯。然而，甚至在一些像美国这样的发达国家的城市里也存在这样的问题。洛杉矶，一座在建市时就考虑了机动车辆问题的城市，以其六车道闻名，现在却是美国交通最堵塞的城市。大多数欧洲首都城市在汽车大量涌入之前就已规划建造好了，可是，市中心堵车长久以来已成为人们日常生活的一部分了。在伦敦市中心，司机花掉50%的时间排队，交通状况变得糟糕透了，于是当地政府决定就此采取一些措施。2003年2月，伦敦市长KL推出了“交通拥堵费”--- 进入市中心的车辆交纳的税费。

这个想法很简单:每辆进入市中心的车辆必须每天交纳5英傍。在晚上10点前，司机可以在首都10,000个收费点中的任意一个缴费。当汽车进入市中心，摄像机会拍下他们的车牌号，用来检查司机是否在当天缴费。不缴费的司机将面临80英镑的罚款。

大多数伦敦人对这个想法不满意。他们认同伦敦有交通问题，但交通拥堵费太高，限制了他们的自由。。。

但是拥堵费起作用吗2003年底的一份调查表明的确起作用了。仅在6个月之后，进入伦敦中心的车辆减少了30%，出行次数减少了15%。更多的人乘公交车上班，自行车突然很受欢迎，此外，尽管车辆少了，但是伦敦市中心的商店没有失去生意。

然而，有一些人认为费用应该更很高，例如，在市中心工作的富有商人能够轻易地支付。这可阻止更多的车辆驶入伦敦市中心，道路几乎会是空荡荡的。然而，还没有提高拥堵费的计划。