Last Thursday, voters in Manchester, England soundly trounced a proposal to charge a fee every time they entered the city and spend the tolls on some expensive transit projects. Under the proposal, planners drew two rings around the city. Crossing the outer ring inbound during morning rush hours or outbound during evening rush hours would cost 1 pound. Crossing the inner ring would cost 2 pounds inbound in the morning, and 1 pound outbound in the afternoon. Commuters would potentially pay as much as 5 pounds ($7.50) a day.
Flickr photo by Gene Hunt.
The money was all going to go towards transit. Almost half of it — 1.2 billion pounds (about $1.8 billion) — would have been spent on an 18-mile tram (light-rail) line. Meanwhile, a variety of other alternatives that would have done more to relieve congestion at a lower cost were left unfunded.
