At the same time, London has given lots of road space to walking and cycling to facilitate social distancing.

All London road user charging schemes have been reinstated on Monday 18 May 2020.

London is also encouraging people to continue working from home wherever possible. However, given the impact of social distancing on the public transport network, we want to help Londoners walk and cycle as much as possible. 

• They are creating one of the largest low-traffic areas in the world: car-free streets will transform roads across the capital 

• New walking and cycling corridors planned for London Bridge to Shoreditch, Euston to Waterloo and Old Street to Holborn. These would be limited to buses, pedestrians and cyclists

• They have already added around 5,000 square metres of extra space on footpaths across London, giving people space to safely walk and queue for local shops while maintaining social distancing

As some Londoners return to work, it is essential that the central London road charging schemes are reinstated to deter unnecessary car use and help London to continue to be an active, green and healthy city. 

• Before lockdown, ULEZ transformed air quality in central London. As traffic returns to London's roads, we're reinstating the ULEZ on Monday 18 May along with the Londonwide Low Emission Zone to make sure we don’t replace one public health crisis with another.
• The Congestion Charge (CC) is being reinstated from Monday 18 May to prevent significant increases in pollution and congestion.
• To support the Mayor’s Streetspace plans and boost safety for people walking and cycling, we propose to implement a number of temporary changes to the CC. These include increasing the CC to £15 and extending its hours of operation from 22 June.
• Meanwhile to help to continue to support the vital role of NHS and care home staff, who are at the heart of the national effort in these unprecedented times, we will be extending the CC reimbursement scheme temporarily. We still encourage NHS and care home staff to travel by walking or cycling wherever possible, including our current offer of free Santander Cycles membership for NHS staff, but for those who do choose to drive at this time, the full reimbursement will cover journeys  by NHS staff and for care home employees who work in the zone.

The congestion charge, Ultra Low Emission Zone and Low Emission Zone are in place again to prevent London's roads from becoming unusably blocked.

For more information, see TfL's webpage.

For more information about the different charging schemes in London see our pages.

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