Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone says the controversial congestion charge he forced on his city's motorists was a winning strategy to beat gridlock, but one that might be difficult to replicate here.

Speaking to a gathering of business and civic leaders in Vancouver Thursday, Livingstone said the measure was widely opposed in advance, but embraced after it began to work.

"It's the only thing I've ever done in my life that worked better than I had hoped," he told the Metro Cities Conference. "It was just universally popular."

Traffic volume in the inner city fell more than 20 per cent after London began levying the charge on vehicles traveling in the defined zone in 2003.

It reversed crippling gridlock, boosted transit use, reduced pollution and improved the flow of traffic, which had slowed to average speeds of 15 kilometres per hour.

"We did it because we had to," Livingstone said, noting the average Londoner's life was being cut short eight months due to bad air quality and businesses were poised to flee because of congestion.

"We had horrific levels of asthma, particularly where children lived close to major roads."

He said the charge also "made people think about the sort of world that was coming" and reconsider whether they could use a car club or co-op for occasional trips instead of owning their own car.

Although "Red Ken" brought in the charge, his right-wing successor kept it.

Road pricing – most likely in the form of tolls on all Metro Vancouver bridges – has gained momentum in recent months as a possible way to control congestion while raising more money for cash-strapped TransLink.

TransLink's commissioner has argued tolls on the new Golden Ears Bridge and the future new Port Mann and Pattullo crossings will force the region into a coherent tolling system so motorists don't roam inefficiently to avoid paying.

Tolls that vary by the time of day offer an ability to charge lower rates at off-peak times to steer some trips, such as truck traffic, to evenings and nights.

Livingstone noted ideas like road pricing can be politically toxic, and said the congestion charge was only possible for London because he had sweeping powers to unilaterally push it through.

In Metro Vancouver, a near-consensus of 22 local municipalities plus the support of the province would be needed.

But Livingstone argued much more aggressive measures are needed to fight global warming, adding current projections of a four-degree temperature rise threaten to leave tens, perhaps hundreds of millions dead and make whole countries uninhabitable.

"We must be much more vigorous in how we tackle this," he said, urging B.C. politicians to take risks.

He said the Evergreen Line to Coquitlam "absolutely" should be built and that Metro Vancouver needs five to 10 similar lines planned and phased over the next 20 years, with design teams and builders flowing from one project to the next.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, chair of Metro's regional planning committee, said road pricing is a "crucial" tool needed here, but called it a distant prospect.

"There's a lot of talk about it," he said. "But I don't think we're close to being able to implement that kind of radical change to the way people operate in the Lower Mainland."

Outlying suburbs fear their citizens stand to get little benefit while paying the bulk of the costs, he said.

Part of the challenge is improving transit service first to then justify such measures.

"Without any alternatives it is simply punishment," Corrigan said.

Motorists are about to pay more here even ahead of new road pricing schemes.

Metro's gas tax will go up three cents a litre next year to fund TransLink and B.C.'s carbon tax is also slated to rise again.

And the transportation authority may re-table its proposal to impose an annual levy averaging $120 per vehicle to help fund transit expansion.

TransLink Commissioner Martin Crilly had suggested the levy should fluctuate not just based on carbon emissions – as TransLink had planned – but also based on how far motorists drive each year.