What do u think of congestion charging?

What do u think of Congestion charging?

  • It's good

    Votes: 6 6.8%

  • Piggy bank?

    Votes: 82 93.2%
  • Total voters
    88
  • Poll closed .
Where does the extension cover out to? As far as I'm concerned, anyone that drives a car into London actually needed a car in London, so I doubt they reduced the quantity of traffic that much, they just made a bunch of money out of it.

I only hit the CC area once, and that was for 1/4 mile because I was diverted due to roadworks. I didn't get home until after midnight and you can't pay the charge the next day, so I had to wait for the fine to come through - when I called them they said "There are plenty of stores that you can pay in" But the whole of that area of London is a red route so you can't stop anywhere to pay it.

Just another money making excersise in my eyes. And yet again, law obiding motorists are easy targets.
 
I think its a ****** joke.. Especially with increased charges of train and bus passes. What do we pay council tax, road tax, all kind of ****** taxes for..
 
audi upgrades
Its just another excuse to fleece the motorist a con just like speed cameras
 
Legalised theft of tax paying motorists. Funny thing is, it's the ones with the dodgy (cloned?) number plates that get away with it!

I wouldn't mind but it's not like they plough the money gained back into the roads - they're ****** awful.

And obviously, now it's in place they can push through a rise in charges whenever they want.

The funniest thing about all of this is that when it was proposed, the local residents kicked up an almighty stink with petitions and demonstrations etc - and what do the governement do? Exactly what they wanted to... the didn't take a blind bit of notice.

Tea leaves.
 
It's not a scam to raise money, it's a scam to reduce the number of people on the road, which will result in less accidents, which will ultimately skew the figures enough to finally justify the use of speed cameras
 
AndyMac said:
It's not a scam to raise money, it's a scam to reduce the number of people on the road, which will result in less accidents, which will ultimately skew the figures enough to finally justify the use of speed cameras
Click to expand...

When you put it like that...... lol
 
I work in the new area but it'll be difficult to tell this week what effect it's having due to the kids being off school (Ken's not stupid). I do know that it'll cost a company with a fleet of 80 vehicles over £60k a year though.
 
I actually think it's a good idea. Of course it's a scam to raise money, but who's mad enough to want to drive into London (or any city centre) anyway? Train every time, unless you just want to sit in traffic slowly emptying your fuel tank.
 
well if it really did reduce traffic and accident numbers etc then ok, but I've lived in London my whole life, and have been commuting to central london for the past 10 years, now ever since the charge I NEVER visit the same areas while charging is active, and when I do enter the traffic is just as bad as it was before. I believe it's been a 4% reduction since two or three years ago, which was not the target. I believe next year they'll change the pricing schemes a lil to hit polluting motorists more than smaller polluting cars, which might start to make sense why they bothered setting this system up in the first place.
 
benw123 said:
I actually think it's a good idea..
Click to expand...

are you mad.
The hole thing is an utter joke. The zone extention is actually going to increase traffic not decrease it. If you live in the zone you get a 90% discount meaning it will only cost you (exculding petrol) about £4 a week to drive to work! The areas that the zone has extended to, Bayswater, Notting Hill, Pimlico etc are mostly residential areas so obviously if you live here and work in the city why would pay 3 times that to get the train :tocktock:
Even a monthly bus pass in london is about £50!
 
£5 took the ****, £8 is shaking every last drop.

I thought **** Turpin wore a mask????
 
We're all being conned - it's a bit like the current road charging debate - signed by something like 2 million people (is this higher than people who vote in the general election?!?!?!?!!!!!) and you KNOW that in a few years it will be introduced.... and people think we live in a democracy!
Ha ha!
 
I'd be happy to pay if there was a decent alternative - public transport is a joke in london as demonstrated by the "snow" the other week - quite how an "underground" line can be affected is beyond me.

I've worked in central london since the first charge was introduced and apart from the government getting richer from all of this I really don't see any improvement whatsoever

king bar stewards IMO
 
Congestion charging, used appropriately, is a good idea.

The first place in the country to introduce congestion charging was Durham City, about a year before the much publicised London (yes, contrary to what the BBC thinks, there is life outside the South East).

It was introduced to reduce traffic travelling through very narrow single carriageway streets up to the Cathedral and Castle world heritage site.

It is free to enter the zone, but in order to get out, you have to pass through a car park style barrier into which you have to place £2. The charging applies between 10am and 4pm. The money raised from the scheme was intended to pay for a number of 15 seater buses which now run up to the cathedral.

The scheme has been so successful in cutting traffic into the zone that the money raised from the £2 charge no longer covers the cost of providing the buses - leaving the council with a headache of how to pay for the buses. Residents no longer have to dodge traffic in the narrow streest.

OK, this is all very small scale, but it proves that when properly thought out (i.e. it is obvious you are entering the zone, and it is easy to pay - you have to to get out!) and the money raised by the charge is ploughed back into public transport, it can work.
 
My view

Well to begin with I am one of them who is resigned to the fact that something has to be done about congestion, but I believe the government as usual is all screwed up in the way it is handing it. It has come out with to many way in which it is going to charge.

Toll Roads
Chips in cars
CC zones
to name but a few

I live in Stockport and only go in the Manchester city centre driving a couple of times a month. At present it costs me about £5 to park and takes about half an hour.

Under the new rules I would have to pay per mile I drive, then as I have to go down the main A6 near me, which they are planning on charging to drive on theres that fee. Then when I get to the centre I will have to pay the CC zone fee. All in all I see this costing me about £25 plus fuel which is already over taxed.

Of the ideas the government has come up with the drive per mile one is one of the most stupid. I mean I could drive to my brothers near leeds at 2 in the morning at it would cost me a fortune. Use public transport they say, how on earth am I going to take all my bags, my nephew and 2 nieces on the bus then train then bus or taxi.

CC zones in my view are a good idea, but in moderation, Only charge in the day time say 8 till 7. Also allow small engined/ low emission cars to go in for free or reduced fee.

Toll roads will work but they need to be cheaper and to be honest, unrestricted oh and run by the germans as they seem to have it down to a T
 
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