city and at Ferrytoll in Fife. The schemes consist of large surface car parks off the main roads into the city where buses take passengers from these peripheral facilities into the city centre via a number dedicated stops, thus cutting down on the number of cars making the journey into the congested city centre. The Park and Ride schemes at Hermiston and Ingliston have been widely regarded as successful, with each attracting more than 500 motorists per day, preventing more than 50,000 car journeys into the city. Edinburgh Congestion Charge Following on from the implementation of the London congestion charge in February 2003, City of Edinburgh Council announced plans to introduce a road tolls scheme to be put in place on main routes into the city. A postal referendum of Edinburgh residents was held between 7–21 February 2005, with 74.4% of those voting no, announced on 22 February 2005. The system would have operated in a broadly similar fashion to the one in London, with two cordons - an inner cordon and an outer cordon operating from Monday to Friday. A flat charge of £2 would have applied to vehicles entering the city boundary - by passing the outer cordon, or those entering the city centre by passing the inner cordon. This charge would have applied no matter how many times a vehicle crossed both cordons. Cameras with automatic number plate recognition technology would have been placed at the entry to both cordons, which would record the registration numbers of vehicles passing them. At the end of each day numbers would have been recorded against received payments. Paying would have been done electronically via the internet, text message or at specialised payment terminals in shops, where daily, weekly, monthly and yearly passes would have been available. The proposal faced strong opposition from city centre retailers who were concerned about the impact it would have on their trade as well as a number of political parties. Following the no vote, the City council abandoned plans to introduce road tolls in Edinburgh. Improvements to public transport In an attempt to discourage car use and increase patronage of public transport - Transport for Edinburgh, the integrated transport delivery authority of City of Edinburgh Council, has embarked upon an extensive drive to improve public transport in the city. These include new railway stations, improvements to roads, pavements and footways, easier ticketing arrangements on buses,