Following the publication of the UK Government's White Paper on Integrated Transport in July 1998 and a shift in emphasis by Local Authorities away from road building to demand management techniques, the current trend is to a balanced approach, where the use of road-space may be charged to vehicle drivers, i.e. road users pay to use (at least some) roads, just as public transport passengers pay each time they travel. Key to this is the introduction of some form of system to support road-user charging or vehicle access control. In urban areas this may be achieved using paper licenses (as in Singapore, 1975-1998), electronic (microwave) tags and transponders (as in Trondheim and Oslo, Norway, and in Singapore since 1998) or by the use of automatic video-based number-plate recognition (ANPR) as being implemented in London in 2003. Indeed the Transport Act 2000 empowered local authorities to introduce either road-user charging schemes of workplace parking schemes and significantly allowed the local authority to retain the raised revenue to invest in the local transport network, infrastructure and most importantly provision of high quality public transport. This carrot and stick approach to transport has led to at least 20 UK Cities and regions to seriously consider the implementation of some form of Road User Charging, with the first scheme in Durham going live in the summer of 2002.
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