Ian Williams (visiting scholar at the Martin Centre, University of Cambridge)
Abstract The Central London congestion charging scheme is the only such policy that has actually been implemented in the UK. This talk explains some reasons why it was politically successful and why other schemes in London and elsewhere have failed to achieve public acceptance. It will outline the modelling tools used to forecast the impacts of the policy pior to implementation and the changes in travel patterns that have resulted from this policy - some of which are surprising. In conclusion some more general views on the potential for applications of road pricing will be presented.
Biography A mathematician and statistician by training, Ian has 40 years research, academic and consultancy experience in transport planning. After six years research at the Martin Centre, he helped found the transport and land-use planning consultancy firm ME&P in 1978 and was its Managing Director for the six years prior to its acquisition by WSP in 2001, where he continued until 2011 when he switched to become an independent consultant. His particular interests are integrating land-use and transport planning, and research and development of quantitative tools for economic, transport and land-use forecasting and planning.