| | Congestion charges hit London Marathon
13 Apr 2003
This morning's annual London Marathon was beset by problems after the introduction of congestion charging earlier this year. London's mayor, "Red" Ken Livingston, was said to be "furious" at the sight of hundreds of runners and thousands of spectators clogging up his previously traffic-free streets.
So annoyed was Mr Livingston that he reportedly turned the congestion charging system normally reserved for motorists on weekdays onto the participants in the race. Training the cameras onto the numbers worn by athletes, the mayor checked them against his database of car registration plates. How successful he was is questionable, however.
"So far as I am aware, there is no national database of runners in the London Marathon and their corresponding numbers," said transport expert Douglas Ramsbottom. "Owners of personalised number plates may be getting bills in the post next week, though."
Motoring organisations have criticised the maverick mayor for his actions. "This is yet another shameless attempt to extract money from the British motoring public," fumed the RAC's Gregory T Mullet. "Take it from me, the result will be the same as the normal congestion charges – complete, total and utter success. It's disgusting."
Meanwhile, an army of traffic wardens were paid overtime to crack down on illegally parked spectators. With a bounty of £2,000 at stake for the warden who could catch the highest number of people, the city quickly ran out of clamps and several wardens were spotted overheating. Thousands of pedestrians are now stuck in the city waiting to be towed away to a depot where their families will have to pay a fine to release them.
A special hotline has been set up for relatives to check on missing loved ones, but the full removal of stranded pedestrians is likely to take several days. A spokesman for Transport for London denied that this would cause additional traffic problems, adding that there were no longer any cars coming into London anyway.
Wow, look at this!
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