The Ulez expansion cut the number of older, more polluting vehicles being driven in Greater London by 45 per cent but has cost drivers about £26m in levies and fines in its first month, it has been revealed.
An average of 95.2 per cent of vehicles now comply with the exhaust emission rules – resulting in 77,000 fewer non-compliant petrol and diesel vehicles being driven in the capital each day, down from 170,000 to 93,000.
But about 57,200 drivers a day have been paying the £12.50 levy, generating £23,595,000 for Transport for London by the end of September – and more than 13,000 have been sent £180 fines, generating up to a further £2.4m.
TfL on Tuesday published figures for the first month of the Londonwide Ulez, which Mayor Sadiq Khan expanded across all 33 boroughs on August 29 in a bid to cut traffic pollution, making it the largest such scheme in the world.
The report reveals that, by the end of September, average compliance rates had increased to 95.3 per cent – up from 91.6 per cent in June.
This was higher for cars – 96.4 per cent of which are now not liable for the Ulez levy – but lower for vans at 86.2 per cent, though this was up from 80.2 per cent in June.
TfL says the compliance rate for cars in outer London is now virtually on a par with that in inner London, where 96.9 per cent meet the rules.
Of the 1,974,000 vehicles seen driving in London on an average day, only 2.9 per cent (57,200) paid the £12.50 levy.
Mr Khan said: “I’ve always said that the decision to expand the Ulez was very difficult, but a month on from the expansion we can already see that it is working.
TfL’s target is for 91 per cent of vans to comply with the emission rules by the end of the year.
However it will not be known until the six-month report whether the concentration of pollutants in the air has fallen.