Hundreds of years before the revolutionary Transport Act of 2000 legislative powers were already working towards charging road users for the use of roads in Britain.

Almost 350 years ago the Highways Act was introduced in 1663. This allowed the use of turnpikes on parts of the road.

Wadesmill in Hertfordshire was the location of the world’s pioneering road user charging, and how ironic it is that congestion reduction was the aim of the turnpike.

Even more ironic however is the fact that this traffic was entering London, but Wadesmill will be thankful that there were no emissions to worry about! After all the technology was slightly limited, a single manned turnpike is a slight paradox from the capital’s current system of computers and cameras monitoring every car’s whereabouts for the majority of the day.

The road still exists to this very day, but the turnpike is no longer in service thanks to the introduction of railways in the early 19th century.

The next time the country was to see a road user charge was in 2002 when Durham launched their congestion charge. To read more about their £2 charge pay a visit to the “Charging Elsewhere” section of The Congestion Digest.