the car is a social symbol
in the middle east. the
challenge of getting people
vary from scheme to scheme, but when the
travelling public are asked: ‘are you in favour of
out of their car and onto
road pricing?’ typically the majority say ‘no’. but
public transport will be
when asked: ‘would you support road pricing
more difficult
if the revenues are used to develop a more
efficient and value-for-money public transport
system?’, most are supportive.”
unlike in singapore, stockholm’s motorists
are not required to install any special
equipment in their cars, although this was
initially offered as an option for motorists who
wanted to pay by direct debit. instead, like
london’s system, cameras automatically read
the number plates of any vehicle entering and
leaving the charging zone.
elsewhere in the world, road pricing
initiatives are also up and running. in germany
and austria, for example, schemes that charge
trucks and lorries on a per-kilometre basis have
been operating for more than three years.
bergen in norway implemented a congestion
charge in 1986, and oslo followed suit in
february this year. milan launched its own
congestion charge in January, while london’s
28 scheme celebrates its fifth anniversary this year.
the trend continues outside of europe.
dubai launched a congestion charge, known
as salik (arabic for “open” or “clear”), in July
2007, and has successfully reduced traffic on
the arterial sheikh Zayed road by an impressive
45 per cent. however, some claim that
congestion in other parts of dubai is worsening
as motorists seek alternative routes.
Taking to the track
dubai is also embarking on a far more
ambitious plan to reduce congestion. while it
currently has no rail system at all, things interactive passenger communications and commuters and tourists could be encouraged in the uK, says nick roberts, director of
are about to change – in the form of the city-wide smartcard ticketing. to travel to and from the airport on public atkins’ rail consultancy, investment in metros
dubai metro. trams and water taxis will one of the biggest challenges for anyone transport, rather than taking a taxi. is also increasing. “while there are success
follow to provide dubai with a fully integrated tackling congestion in the middle east is dubai is the latest in a procession of cities to stories, in general metros have struggled to
transport system. ending the region’s love affair with the car. deploy a new public transit system to take the get off the ground in the uK,” he says. “but i
work on the metro is now well advanced, the car has become a social symbol in this part pressure off their roads. bangkok, for example, anticipate that urban metros, of the sort that
with the first stage, the red line, due to open of the world, so getting people out of their car opened the skytrain, an elevated metro system, are exemplified by the dubai metro, would be
in september 2009 and another three lines and onto public transport will be more difficult in 1999. although initially only accounting for possible and would be backed in the uK.”
progressively coming on stream. managed by than it is in london or other european cities. 200,000 daily passenger journeys, this rose to cities in australia and the us, meanwhile,
dubai’s roads and transport authority (rta), however, many believe that public transit half a million by the end of 2005. are taking a different approach: car-pooling
the dubai metro will be the world’s longest systems could make a huge difference to in china, where car ownership is lanes. the idea is to devote one lane of
totally automated rail system, and could carry congestion, simply by proving to be the best skyrocketing, the last five years have seen heavily-used roads to vehicles containing more
1.2 million people a day – accounting for 12 transport option for specific groups of people, new public transit systems in five cities: dalian, than one person – providing an incentive
per cent of all journeys in the city. it will feature for specific types of journey. for example, shenzhen, wuhan, nanjing and chongqing. for drivers to take colleagues to work, for
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