Why I welcome congestion charging for Cambridge
Opinion | John Hipkin, retired city and county councillor
I have long argued that the best solution to Cambridge’s traffic problems is a congestion charge with its proceeds contributing to an affordable, more frequent and greatly extended network of public transport.
Well now we have it – in the shape of proposals in Making Connections, a consultation document from the Greater Cambridge Partnership. The reception of this excellent document has, however, been somewhat equivocal in some quarters because of the intrinsic tension over this issue between the city and South Cambridgeshire.
No one would disagree that we need a better system of public transport but ways part over how it is to be financed. Most city residents want protection from the harmful effects of daily incoming traffic; most South Cambridgeshire residents fear measures designed to discourage car-borne commuters entering the city.
That is why the Lib Dem councillors who run South Cambridgeshire and Anthony Browne, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, have been somewhat reluctant to welcome congestion charging as a solution. Anthony Browne’s apparent misgiving is that it is a form of regressive taxation, in that many city workers on low incomes and living outside the city (such as carers) need their cars as an essential part of what they do.
The benefits of congestion charging (let it be stressed - as a way of financing better public transport) are huge: fewer private vehicles clogging and polluting the city, more workers and visitors, particularly those from towns and villages in rural Cambridgeshire, using trains and buses to access the city and, above all, the substantial contribution to climate change reduction that less reliance on private vehicles will make locally.
I would highlight six important features of any public transport scheme financed by congestion charging.
First, the charge must include city residents heading to the city centre by car at peak times (not those driving to work outside the city). Not only would this be fair and seen to be fair, it would add substantially to the revenues needed to finance a modern system of public transport.
Second, smart technology and subsidies should allow less well-off drivers who cannot do their work in the city without their cars to access the charge zone free or at a reduced cost.
Third, charge periods should be scheduled to allow shoppers and visitors freely to enter the city at off-peak times.
Fourth, taxis should no longer enjoy the benefits afforded to public transport since essentially they are vehicles in private use. Such a measure would increase taxi charges but only by the same degree as to the cost of using any other private vehicle to enter the city.
Fifth, a workplace levy should be added to the congestion charge to further discourage employees from getting to work by car.
Sixth, if Cambridge is not to be plagued by a growing number of large and cumbersome double-decker buses, the early introduction of a fleet of electric hopper buses located at a number of transit hubs around the city will be essential.
Finally, consider how our lives have been improved by selective road closures and residents’ parking, both thought unacceptable only a few years ago. Now is the time to make similarly bold decisions to tackle Cambridge’s multiple traffic problems. Let one of those decisions be to introduce a fair system of congestion charging at the earliest opportunity.
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