The council’s deputy leader Stephanie Cryan has said introducing a toll on Rotherhithe Tunnel could help ease the traffic congestion that blights the area every rush hour.
This may not be an idea everyone likes, but most would agree with Cllr Cryan on one thing, that ‘something radical has got to change’.
Ms Cryan’s suggestion came in response to TfL’s proposal last week to create a segregated cycle lane – Cycle Superhighway 4 (CS4) – along Tooley Street, Jamaica Road, through to Greenwich.
TfL’s plan provoked quite a reaction, with many drivers claiming that the lane will make the current traffic problems worse.
So, as Ms Cryan, who is a Rotherhithe councillor, said, something radical needs to be done to address the daily traffic jams. “The biggest issue is they [TfL] aren’t addressing the traffic congestion and the majority is commuter traffic,” she told this paper.
So the deputy leader has put forward two suggestions herself. Extending the congestion zone is one, but is not her first choice. Next is the tunnel toll. Tolls are rarely a popular suggestion, no one wants to pay for something that’s currently free; but what else can be done to ease the traffic? Would charging drivers to use the tunnel make them seek alternate routes?