Budapest mayor István Tarlós recently caused a stir by adding some concrete details to a long-running proposal to introduce a “congestion pricing” scheme for car traffic in the city, and claiming it would finally become a reality by next year. According to the now current plan, drivers who travel in a patch of central Budapest defined by the Hungária körút in Pest and the Margit körút in Buda (map below right, larger version here) will be charged a daily fee of HUF 500, with a likely option of paying a monthly HUF 10,000. Cameras would read the license plates of automobiles entering the controlled area, and motorists would have 24 hours to pay the fee at newspaper kiosks, gas stations and other retailers, or through electronic payment methods such as those currently used for downtown parking.
While announcing that the scheme would go ahead, Tarlós also said he had reservations about the whole idea, which the country apparently signed onto with the EU back in 2009. He said he would prefer for the city to instead charge tolls for car travel across its bridges, or to minimize the size of the congestion fee by having the central government clear the way for the city to impose other taxes on transport and local utility firms.
I would go farther, and argue that the entire business is a disaster in the making, and is likely to end up with one or more of the following scenarios taking place:
Scenario #1: It gets paid for, but never actually built. While the city has apparently budgeted HUF 15 billion for the project, it is all too easy to imagine that EUR 50 million plus getting pilfered and/or frittered away to the point that we’re left with a handful of cameras on a few streets leading into the downtown congestion zone that aren’t connected to anything. Just like all those swanky new Metro 4 station entrances that aren’t connected to, you know, any actual Metro 4 trains.
Scenario #2: It gets built and immediately breaks down. It’s so easy to picture this happening that the only question is whether the systems they put in place to notify everyone that it’s broken will also break down.
Scenario #3: It gets built and works, and everyone works overtime to get around or break it. While there doesn’t seem to be much gaming of the similar “E-Matrica” system used for collecting tolls on Hungary’s motorways, something tells me things will be a bit different when the same system is applied to drivers who have spent their lives crossing into and out of downtown Budapest without paying a toll. One problem is what to do about people who live within the controlled, or “cordon” area. In some congestion pricing schemes such people get a certain number of free entries, or a discounted rate. But such schemes tend to be put in places like Stockholm and London, where people won’t go to the trouble of re-registering their place of residence just to avoid paying a few euros a day to the government. Here they will! Either way, if people are as resistant as I think they may be, the city could end up spending more in enforcement and other counter-measures than it takes in from the toll, which would be a very silly situation indeed. Also note that this scenario has many synergies with Scenario #2, as in people breaking or disabling cameras and then everyone texting each other details of the “no-toll” routes into and out of the controlled, “cordon” area.
Scenario #4: It gets built and works, and everyone stays away. Generally speaking, congestion pricing schemes are introduced in cities that have problems with traffic congestion. Which, aside from a few places, Budapest doesn’t really have. Unfortunately, the flip side of that is that Budapest doesn’t really have any human congestion, either. One morning around noon earlier this year I was in an office looking out over Vörösmarty tér – the main pedestrian square in Pest – and counted exactly six people, and even on a nice day in the summer you can sometimes walk down a street in the middle of the city and have the entire block to yourself. So while cutting down on unnecessary driving and simultaneously raising some money for the city’s perpetually dry coffers may seem like a good idea, with the economy still in the doldrums and shops continuing to close up on every street, the main threat facing Budapest these days is it turning into a ghost town. We already have enough depressing, underutilized pedestrian zones without turning the whole center of the city into one. [Photo by Dávid Lukács/Flickr]
In summertime it’s too damn hot to be on the streets.
That aside, Vorosmarty ter and the entire vaci utca is generally not populated by Hungarians at all, except those selling something to the tourists. It’s really quite sad that the plazas is where most everyone local goes to shop. At a time when most similar cities have rejuvenated city centers, the heart has been well and truly sucked out of Budapest and it’s nothing to do with traffic.
a similar scheme has been enforced in london for years, with spectacular results, to the dismay of drivers and the (relative) relief of everyone else.
I know budapest is not london, but at the very worst all the bkv kontrollers who lost their jobs will be happily re-hired as congestion charge enforcers.
result!
Before you can introduce a congestion charge you need a reliable public transport system and park and ride infrastructure! It would also be nice that you repair the roads. As we are all well aware, money from the parking schemes goes into private pockets and a minute amount goes towards improving the City. This will be another private enterprise pocket liner for people. if the city is desperate for money I have an easy way for them to make billions overnight:
1. Fine all those jerk-off cyclists that ride on the pavements 250,000Ft
2. Fine people littering the streets 500,000Ft
3. Fine the graffiti animals 1,000,000
That alone should remove the need for a IMF loan
jerk-off cyclists and graffiti animals … really?
I trust you will also support large fines for
* jerk-off drivers who exceed the 50kph limit in the city
* driver animals who break red and orange lights
* jerk-off drivers who fail to stop at zebra crossings
* driver animals who take off their front plates
* jerk-off drivers who beep their horns at cyclists who are cycling in front of the car where there is no bike lane (ref inner körut)
* etc
and countless others I see every day.
I’ve always supported the congestion charge in the hope that it will reduce car traffic and therefore make the city more pleasant. It’s also a matter of fairness. People who drive downtown and contribute to air pollution, noise and congestion should have to compensate the rest of the population.
The scenarios of bungled implementation that you outline do sound familiar. However in this case, the system in question is a revenue generator rather than a subsidised public service. The city will have an incentive to do it right.
It’s a good question whether Budapest’s congestion problems are at a level that will make such a system acceptable. Three or four years ago, rush-hour traffic was clearly over that threshold. However, it has actually subsided in recent years, most probably due to the rise in petrol prices. Even so, I believe Budapest would be a much nicer city if fewer people drove and instead went by public transport, bike or foot.
I don’t agree that Budapest has a too many “depressing, underutilized pedestrian zones.” With the exception of the under-exploited car-free strip of Hajos utca in District VI, pedestrianised or just traffic calmed streets have generally been wonderful improvements to Budapest. Just look at the whole corridor from Ferenciek tere to Szabadsag ter — it’s magic. The same for Lovohaz utca and adjacent improvements near Mammut Shopping Centre and Millenaris Park.
So long as the city makes parallel investments in transport alternatives (such as the mentioned P&R facilities), congestion charging could help with improvements such as the above. It’s true that Budapest residents would not support a 10 euro a day charge like they have in London. But a 500 forint charge, which is not that much more than the price of a metro ticket, does not sound out of line to me.
cyclingsolution.blogspot.com
I’d like to know if this means that the Hungária körút itself will be part of the congestion zone, or just the area inside it. If it includes the ringroad itself, then that will be me 10,000ft a month worse off…
can’t wait for this
The average hungarian motorist is like an ape with a handgranade. It simply doesn’t fit.
Invest the money in BKV and leave the car for special things. Cleaner air, relaxed people and those who really need a car can actually DRIVE in budapest.