Tuesday, February 12, 2008

London will charge gas-guzzling drivers $50!

According to this AP article just posted, starting in late October, people with gus-guzzling cars will be charged a hefty $50 daily fee to enter and drive in central London, while those with more environmentally-friendly cars will be admitted for free, and those in between will continue to pay $16 daily.

I wonder how well this will be received. I think it's a good idea in theory, but in reality, $50 a day is a bit extreme and I don't really know if it will actually have a positive impact and reduce the amount of CO2 emissions in the city. It seems to me that if people have the money for a huge and gas-inefficient car in the first place, they might not even be too bothered by the $50 fee. I think it is a good thing, though, that the mayor is giving about nine months notice on this change. Maybe people around London will keep this in mind when they're looking to buy new cars throughout this year...

2 comments:

Stephen Asay said...

I don't think it's going to be a big deal, in terms of public reception or reduced emissions.

The fee will probably match up with the cars that are charged gas guzzler taxes on purchase, and these are high-performance, generally expensive cars to begin with. I would imagine that anywhere in Europe, where most cars are smaller than those in the US, the majority of them won't be affected. Europe is also much better at public transportation, so the number of people driving into the city is also probably less than we would expect.

And if the people driving $200,000 Aston Martins really want to complain about a $50 fee to enter the city, I doubt they'll get any sympathy.

Anonymous said...

I think the $50 entrance fee to the city is a good idea. We gotto curb global warming somehow.

I would really like to see something like this take effect in the U.S. Excursions and Escalades are just ridiculous - I mean who really needs that?