Road user charging in the UK can already be implemented at the right price, the components for an electronic road-pricing system are already here, and such a system could be implemented within a year. It is already evident from the first stage of the Trafficflow project that urban road user charging is feasible. Trafficflow is developing designs for schemes to be implemented in several British cities and has assessed the merits of such schemes there. A city first needs to work out its mobility and environment objectives; its decision on whether to apply a road user charge then depends on factors of local geography, economics, and politics. Trafficflow's results show that, even for the smallest city under consideration, with population about 400,000, a scheme could generate net profits of nearly #200M over ten years, for investment in local transport improvements, especially public transport. For the largest scheme assessed, Central London, the profits could exceed £700M over ten years. Several issues need to be addressed before urban road pricing can be implemented. For example, national legislation needs to be passed, and the local politics must be right. Some local authorities would like some public transport improvements in place first. A full DSRC (dedicated short-range communications) electronic scheme for London would cost over £110M to install, and over £30M per year to operate.
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