Sadiq Khan’s pay-per-mile plot: Mayors shutters plan to charge motorists depending on time of day, how many passengers are in their car and how far they drive in London
Sadiq Khan has again floated the idea of introducing a ‘pay-as-you-drive’ scheme in London – charging drivers based on the time of day, how many passengers are in their car and how far they drive.
The mayor is already facing major backlash from motorists over his decision to extend the ultra-low emission zone to suburbs, forcing thousands of Londoners to pay £12.50 a day from August to drive cars that don’t meet minimum standards.
And he risked even more anger today by voicing his hopes for an even more controversial initiative to make all drivers pay every time they use their vehicle.
“Tolling for road use is interesting,” he said the Financial Times. ‘If you abolish the congestion charge, abolish Ulez, abolish road tax and make people pay depending on how many kilometers they drive, how polluting their vehicle is, what time they drive, are there alternatives? related to public transport, how many people are in the car, that’s potentially quite exciting.
“The problem is that the technology is quite far away.”
Sadiq Khan has again raised the prospect of a kilometer charging system
The mayor is already facing major backlash from motorists over his decision to extend the ultra-low emission zone to suburbs
Meanwhile, Khan insisted Ulez’s extension from August is “not important to most people” – despite a series of protests against the move and anger from MPs, including some from his own party, Labour.
“It’s a big thing in the minds of a small number of people,” he said. “In the suburbs of London, 85 percent of vehicles are compliant and half of Londoners don’t even own a car.”
The mayor last talked about charging per mile in February, when he revealed to the London Assembly that Ulez cameras could be used to enforce the measure.
He told members of the Assembly: “ANPR cameras could be part of the possible operation of such a system, but no proposals have been developed.”
As part of the Ulez expansion, TfL plans to install around 2,750 additional cameras – 300 of which are already installed in some boroughs.
Khan has previously revealed that he wants to impose a network of ‘Singapore-esque’ toll roads across London as part of efforts to improve air quality in the capital.
He said the ‘closest comparator’ for its road user charging plans was Singapore, which has ‘electronic road pricing’, which uses sensors attached to gantries above major roads to capture license plates.
These sensors keep track of what time drivers use certain roads and charge tolls on that basis, for example that rush-hour traffic on a busy road is more expensive.
But this change is currently not possible in London because ‘the technology is not there’
However, cameras introduced as part of the Ulez expansion could be used to monitor the distances drivers travel, where they travel and the level of emissions from their vehicles – with fears that drivers will be charged per kilometre.
Mr Khan has come under increasing pressure to scrap plans to expand the Ulez on August 29.
Last month he said that “anti-vaxxers, Covid deniers, conspiracy theorists and Nazis” had joined “decent Tories” in opposing the Ulez’s expansion across the capital.
The expansion will force thousands of Londoners to pay £12.50 a day from August to drive cars that don’t meet minimum standards
Speaking at a Popular Question Time in Ealing, he said: ‘Let’s be honest. Some of those out there are part of the extreme right. Some are Covid deniers. Some are vaccine deniers. And some are Tories.”
This led to protests from angry audiences who said: ‘We are not the extreme right – normal people are not the extreme right.’
Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said the comments were reason enough to vote him out in the next election.
He said: ‘These are appalling comments from the Mayor of London, smeared anti-Ulez voices like this. I’m not surprised the public in Ealing pulled out. We have to vote Mayor Khan out in May.”
The comments stemmed from concerns that LTN schemes in the capital had caused 240 ambulances to be delayed in reaching potentially life-threatening calls since 2020.
