The world's biggest congestion charge scheme swung into action in central London today with cyclists celebrating and motorists fuming.
The eyes of the world are fixed on the London scheme which dwarfs those in Oslo, Singapore and Mexico City as clogged city roads and pollution become hot political topics.
"If the congestion charge works here, it will spread around the world before the end of the decade," London's mayor Mr Ken Livingstone told reporters.
"My guess is there will be some problems today, especially if there are protesters, and over the next few days too, but we will bear down on the problems and by Easter we should make an assessment," he said.
The AA reported quiet roads on the scheme's first morning peak but said it was more likely a result of the mid-term school holiday than the congestion charge, which aims to cut traffic by up to 15 per cent and congestion by up to 30 per cent.
"It has been very quiet so far today. Even the boundary routes have been very quiet," an AA spokesman said.
"There has been no evidence of people trying to get in early or of trying to find rat runs. It is a normal half-term day as far as traffic is concerned," he added.
Transport for London, which manages the scheme, hailed it a major success and said it was an historic day for the city. There were sporadic protests around the streets of the city centre ranging from workers at the Smithfield meat market who say the scheme hits them hard to a horse and cart ridden by the organisers of a protest web site.
In a huge urban surveillance scheme, 800 cameras at 400 points in and around an eight-square-mile (21 square km) chunk of the city centre will monitor the licence plates of the 250,000 motorists who drive in the area every day.
Between 7 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. from Monday to Friday, motorists in the area, which runs from landmarks such as Hyde Park in the west to Tower Bridge in the east and St Pancras in the north to Vauxhall in the south, will pay a fee of five pounds (€8) a day.
Transport for London says the combination of fees and fines will raise £180 million a year to be used on road schemes.