BMJ 2003;326:884 ( 19 April )

Letters

Congestion charging

    Walking classes also need road space reallocation
    Political polemics are masquerading as science

Walking classes also need road space reallocation

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---We welcome Roberts's editorial, making the health case for the London congestion charge,1 particularly as the revenue is required to be spent on transport. We agree that physically active transport such as walking and cycling is likely to increase. This must be monitored adequately, with attention given to changes in activity levels2 and broken down by sociodemographic groups, to assess the impacts on health and inequalities.

Other potential effects of congestion charging include improvement in access for emergency vehicles. However, not all are positive: the impact of the policy will depend on which complementary measures are introduced at the same time.

Firstly, we disagree that less car travel will result in fewer crashes; this impact is difficult to predict.3 It depends whether journey times are shorter because of less time queuing at junctions or because of higher speeds. If traffic reduction is greater than was predicted, travel speeds . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Congestion charging and the walking classes
Ian Roberts
BMJ 2003 326: 345-346. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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