Congestion-based road pricing

Roads are congested different amounts at different times. This indicates that the disincentive of sitting in traffic is insufficient to dissuade drivers from driving. So congestion charging makes sense.

But most schemes (at least those I've read about), are fairly static in nature: they don't take dynamic day-by-day (or minute-by-minute) congestion data into account when establishing zones or charges.

A system that did take account of dynamic data is not beyond our technological capabilities. A congestion fee per road, per direction on that road, per hour of the day, per day of the week and per time of the year could be established dynamically from traffic-monitoring data and applied to a driver's account. Drivers would be able to view their accounts and see the journeys that were contributing most to their congestion charge, and they may then choose to alter their journey habits. They could review available pricing data to identify cheaper periods. The market forces at work, operating at a micro level (per road, per minute) would allow for much more efficient use of our road network.

Such a system would also work in our driver-less car future. The fee for using a shared driver-less car fleet could incorporate a congestion component, again at a per road, per direction on that road, per hour of the day, per day of the week and per time of the year, level of detail. This would again use market forces to encourage behaviour that maximises the efficient use of our road network.