In the next few weeks all the people of Manchester will have a vote on the proposed congestion charge. One wonders how much that alone will cost. Below is a copy of a letter I had published in our local paper recently. You may wish to spread my views: The Government is using bribery to bring in an unwanted, un-neccessary congestion charging scheme to Manchester. Congestion is only the result of the Government's lack of imagination and failure to run a proper infrastructure, and another Government inspired burden on the public just trying to get to work. It fails to use the billions gathered hand over fist from the motorist and allows very little back related to transport. Congestion, by definition, is the result of too many vehicles in one place at the same time. What happens during the schools summer holidays? Bliss on the roads, with little traffic or hold ups thus halving the time to get into Manchester. Solution ONE is to move school hours to a continental pattern starting at 7.00 or 7.30 and finish earlier in the afternoon, thereby avoiding the traffic going to offices, shops and other work places who do have a 9.00 am start. Solution TWO is to programme traffic lights sensibly. There are some junctions even in Manchester that work extremely well, whilst there are others where a vehicle can wait interminably at a red light whilst no other vehicle or pedestrian is in sight. Solution THREE is an extension of solution two where traffic lights into and out of the city holds up traffic thereby causing, you guessed it, congestion. The solution requires traffic to be allowed to pass through green lights i.e. on Princess Parkway, the main route from the airport, for an extra 20 to 30 seconds. In that time some 40 or more vehicles can be freed. The queue before the lights is reduced by an EXTRA 240 metres, and that’s EVERY complete sequence. Solution FOUR is to allow left turns on red if no pedestrian or other road user is inconvenienced as evidenced in USA (but they filter right). Solutions two, three and four costs nothing. What is needed is not an expensive, anxiety provoking, anger provoking, lots of money into some contractors bank account congestion charge, but intelligently sequenced and programmed traffic lights. Problem solved.