Two different philosophies in combating road congestion

Posted on February 19, 2007
Filed Under Cars |

There is a large difference between Europe and the U.S. when it comes to fighting road congestion.

Ken Livingstone, London’s mayor, is extending the road congestion charging scheme, a special program that charges drivers nearly $20 dollars for using specific roads at peek times. The public sure does not like the idea and 1.3 million people have already signed an online petition against it but that has not stopped Livingston from extending the program’s effective zone by almost double its previous size. The program has already reduced traffic from 10 to 15 percent and it is estimated that it will reduce if even further with the new extension. If you charge people lots of money to drive, they will prefer to carpool or use public transportation reducing congestion in city streets and reducing pollution.

In the meantime, across the Atlantic, U.S. scientists are considering a different method for combating the same problem. Their idea is to develop robot cars to drive us around utilizing the available roads much more efficiently. Professor Sebastian Thrun from Stanford University recently has said that, “By 2030, roughly, we should be able to deploy this technology on highways, where we would improve human reliability by orders of magnitude.” The robotic cars can definitely improve road safety and efficiency but are not likely to help curb pollution levels in North America. It won’t be long before people are signing online petitions to get back into the drivers seat!

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