Has scrapping the WEZ made any difference?
Post categories: Congestion Charge
|11:26 UK time, Monday, 17 January 2011
It has been just under a month since motorists stopped paying to drive into the Western Extension of the Congestion Charging Zone (WEZ). It was abolished on January 4th.
So far Transport for London don't have the data on what it's done to congestion and traffic but they say they will have it within the next few weeks.
However, there are a number of quirks of the system that have been turned up.
Firstly, if you mistakenly pay for congestion charge even though the WEZ has been abolished - you can't get a refund. One driver emailed me extremely annoyed by this.
TfL say:
"Unfortunately we are not able to refund daily Congestion Charge payments as, once a payment has been made for a vehicle, we do not keep any images relating to it that are generated by the Congestion Charge cameras.
It is therefore not possible to verify whether a vehicle has been driven in the zone. We understand customers frustration and it is one of the reasons why we have now introduced an automated payment system for the Congestion Charge.
"This allows motorists to register a debit or credit card with TfL that will be automatically billed, at a reduced rate, each time their vehicle is observed in the zone. It will ensure registered customers only pay the charge when they actually drive in the zone and go someway to eliminating this type of problem."
What I think this means is they can't check their records for photos of registration plates that don't exist.
When I asked, if the plates aren't there, doesn't that mean by deduction the car didn't enter the zone?
They pointed out that images are wiped of those that do pay and so they can't keep thousands of images just on the off chance someone makes a mistake. The bottom line is they don't allow it.
However the Autopay system has been a big success.
Initially there were a few teething problems. One driver told us his payments weren't taken and he was issued with a penalty notice.
Supposedly those problems have been sorted out and approximately 47,000 people have now signed up for CC Auto Pay accounts, with 60,000 vehicles registered. The big advantage being you don't get fined and it costs £9 a day and not £10.
Follow me on Twitter: @TomSEdwards
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