Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the level of awareness among drivers who do not normally use the Dartford Crossing that a charge is made for using that crossing.

Andrew Jones

In July 2014 Highways England undertook research to assess levels of public awareness of the introduction of Dart Charge. Following the Public Information Campaign that ran from October to December 2014, further research took place to assess how the campaign had increased public awareness.

Both surveys were based on samples of over one thousand drivers, consisted of a mix of online responses and face to face interviews, including both regular and infrequent users of the Crossing. Between July and December 2014 awareness rose from 43% to 80% for online respondents and 47% to 89% for those interviewed face to face.

The initial compliance rate is 92.6% since the launch of Dart Charge in November last year, which compares favourably with other similar schemes around the world and indicates strong awareness levels among drivers.