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Raft of measures to relieve congestion
Page 14
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This year's CV Show sizzled with hot topics, as debates on congestion charging, speed limiter tests and red diesel burned brightly. Emma Penny reports.
• Transport minister Alistair Darling says Ws "critically important" that truck operators "show they can go the extra mile" in order for night-time delivery curfews to be relaxed.
Darting says he would like to expand night-time deliveries as a way of trying to reduce peak-time congestion. "We're tryng this out with a project in Leeds, but it's early days. If the industry can show it can do it [night-time deliveries] without upsetting people, we could look at extending it." In fact the Leeds project has yet to conduct any deliveries as such; so far lt has been a purely hypothetical exercise. But he wouldn't be drawn on a start date for lorry road user charging—a measure he believes could also counter congestion—adding that the government would do its best to deliver it by the target date of 2006. However, he warns that the IT infrastructure involved would make the project a challenge: "Whenever anyone mentions IT, the lights turn to orange," he adds.
The government is also considering variable charging levels, aimed at persuading people to use roads at less congested times, "rather than at Barn on Monday", says Darling.
He admits that London's congestion charge "worked better than people had thought", but says it would be several months its effectiveness could be fully calculated. "I remain cautious about it until there has been a full evaluation, but in London you can now get from one side to the other in a way that was impossible in the past."
London's congestion charge, the M6 toll route, are the M42 active traffic management scheme are all operating, or imminent, and Darling believes these will ease congestion.