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Another important policy compliment for congestion charges are smart measures. In the UK for instance, the Transport Innovation fund (TIF) made £18 million available between 2005–06 and 2007–08 for local authorities to support planning for local demand management schemes where road pricing is a major component. From 2008–09, the fund is forecast to grow from £290 million to over £2 billion by 2014–15 (DfT, 2006 in CfIT, 2007). This funding is aimed to support and compliment road pricing schemes with large-scale Smart Choice programmes. Smart choice initiatives can support the implementation of demand management schemes, by increasing travel choices and information about mode switching which could potentially accelerate implementation of harder fiscal measures such as congestion charging by influencing public acceptance of these measures (CfIT, 2007). Smarter choices are a direct complement to congestion charging because they encourage the use of less carbon-intensive alternatives to the car for passenger travel including: 1) destination-based measures to reduce car use, e.g. workplace or school travel plans; 2) changing access to cars, e.g. car clubs and car-sharing schemes; 3) action to increase individual awareness of alternatives to the car, e.g. public transport information and marketing, travel awareness campaigns and personalised marketing; and, 4) measures to reduce the need to travel, e.g. teleworking or home shopping (Cairns et al., 2004; CfIT, 2007). Moreover, Cairns et al. (2004) indicates that smarter choices within 10 years have the potential to reduce national traffic levels by 11% with reductions of up to 21% in peak urban traffic. The implies direct synergies with congestion charging due to a targeting shift in mode transport from the car towards other forms of transport.
