Congestion charges have become very popular and successful in London—it's too bad Bloomberg's attempt to install them in New York failed.
Popular and successful with who, exactly? I don't know a single person that likes it. Traffic was reduced for a few years but now it's just as bad as ever. And the cost of public transport continually rises above inflation. At least they recently shrank the chargable area.
So what has it done, exactly, except raise income for the city and raise prices for businesses on the border and those who need vehicles to function?
Has the population changed?
If they did not enact it, things on the road would be worse. They just need to make it more.
The cost of public transport is ridiculous, London has to be the most expensive city to travel around.
You think £1.30 to get a bus as far as you like is expensive? and £4 to get as many buses as you like in a day is expensive?
It's definitely cheaper (though less flexible) than running a car on your own, but some of the costs of a car can be spread between more than one person, which isn't the case with public transport.
However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that teenagers now get free bus travel and discounted Tube fares. I could've done with that a few years ago!
(I suppose pun intended)
At any rate, if you take more than 2 buses per day then getting a monthly bus pass/travelcard is cheaper.
It costs around 12p per mile to run a bicycle including capital cost, maintenance, additional food etc (though until you hit around 10k miles the costs may be hidden from you). I commute around 1k miles a month and so it costs me around £6 per day to commute by bike, and it is £16 for a slower equivalent train journey. Cars really aren't an alternative as they're too slow.
The winners are the poor (who don't get around by car anyway) and the very rich (who think that five pounds a day is a small price to pay in order to have somewhat less traffic). The losers are everyone else.
The biggest winner is always the politicians, who get chauffered around in cars which are exempt from the charge, and find that they no longer have to wait in traffic. This is why such schemes are disturbingly popular among politicians.