One reason for congestion is that quite a few roads have been artificillay narrowed by the creation of bus lanes and speed reduction measures thereby reducing their capacity. The problem is bus lanes are useful at certain times ie the times of peak congestion. I think the answer to reducing CO2 emisions by stop start driving is to try to stagger the times of the morning and evening rush. Also I think looking at communal school transport would be a positive thing as well. I'd only have bus lanes working when they are needed and an educational campaign focusing on obesity coupled with safe effective and efficient communal school transport. My own experience of driving in London tells me that at least 1/3rd of traffic on the 07.40 -09.30 slot is school run traffic. I don't think the air quality in London is that bad really. West London is where I've got a fair amount of anecotal evidence that air quality is bad due to Heathrow. Its a shame that so many of our goods railheads were sold off for yuppie housing etc as what London and th eUK needs is more long distance freight on the rails and local deliveries done in vehicles under 8 tonnes. Its not a blanket pence per mile scheme. The scheme I'm involved in is where I pay less for my car insurance because I sign a legal document guaranteeing that I will do 5000 miles a year or less. This makes me very concious of how much I drive and how I drive. This gives me a cheaper car insurance and means that I use the vehicle less. Its not rocket science and doesnt require an intrusive big brother system and the whole raft of staff to run it. If someone needs to travel more 25k+ per year then they would pay extra in the form of a higher insurance premium. The mechanisms are already there to administer this to a large extent without the intrusiveness that is causing resentment not just in the hard core petrol head community. If you want to see a situation where a traffic control system has made congestion worse just look at those roads where there is no need for speed cameras but they are put there just for revenue gathering purposes you have a road capable of 70mph traffic slowing down to 40 and bunching up.
You're still missing the point. There is no spare capacity in the congestion charge area - that's why it was congested. You don't know anything about air quality so save your breath (geddit?) Limited mileage is a blanket scheme: 5,000 miles = x pounds Still no response to the marginal social cost? No suprise there from someone who wants to IMPOSE themselves on others by driving an old rust bucket. There is no intrusiveness (which is at the heart of your wobbling and wibbling on a logical policy that addresses the real issues) by having ANPR cameras. You're clearly paranoid.
I'd have charged more myself. I hope the charge becomes commonplace in towns and cities across the Uk.
No not a hypocrite. I refused to work for arms promotion in favour of working for arms control. The goods are legally allowed to be exported from the UK and there is a lot of effort made to ensure that UK originated goods do not go to areas where they will increase conflict and adversely affect human rights. This is totally different from colluding in restricting your fellow citizens freedom of movement and assisiting in the creation of yet more uncessary surveillance.
Stop the smears. I didn't say guns equals freedom I said that the arms industry for good or ill is a legal industry but this industry needs to be overseen and controlled to make sure that they don't sell stuff to areas in confilct. I didn't say that either. I said there are better ways to reduce congestion (and gave examples) than assembling a whole oppressive surveillance and movement control system.
maybe we should just give the police guns eh KBJ? They could enforce NO TOLERANCE on school runs.. thanks for making my day
Theonly person wanking themselves into a lather on here over bringing in more control of the citizen is yourself. I said that there should be education and communal transport for school runs. Nothing about guns.
The citizens of Edinburgh chucked out the concept by 3 to 1. That was even though the Cooncilors invited the newt fancier to fly up to Edinburgh to give their plans a boost "don't bother with congestion charging if you're trying to generate revenue 'cause it doesn't" he said - the Cooncil's policy of "this'll generate loads of revenue to be ploughed into painting new bus lanes" dropped straight out of the sky. Ken flew home.
But adjusting a car's mileage is now (thanks to digital odometers and laptops) one of the easiest things to do. Can you imagine what a business there'll be near MOT time to take the odd 5-10 thousand miles off.
News just out: Porsche throw toys out of its pram: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7252092.stm Twats
Judicial Review is always interesting, imo. The timing of this is, of course, significant. It Ken wins the Mayoral election, he effectively has an electoral mandate to change the congestion charge into an emission charge and the courts . . well, you'd hope they would always take that fact very much into consideration.
It's about time someone had the cojones to curb the whisky guzzling newt fancier's attempts to shove his own prejudices down the throats of the populace.
Especially as we won our last JR Sadly though, they are hugely expensive and massively time-consuming.
I like it. I think it's "A Good Thing." Porsche aren't some kind of freedom fighters, their motives here are purely selfish.
I don't know why they're crying. 1. If you own a Porsche you can already afford £25 a day to drive it in town 2. Less cars means more chances to use the phenomenal acceleration on your toy 3. They can fuck right off.
What prejudices? Trying to cut down on emissions and journeys by vehicles that are ill designed for city use is prejudice, is it? And incidentally, the CC has always been the flagship policy of Livingstone, and Londoners have voted for him. So the only people trying to shove anything down the throats of the populace here are the makers of a luxury car brand, and a few out of towners moaning that they cannot drive their offroad monster trucks into town.
So how does a Cayenne generate more Congestion than a Prius or a Boxster then? It's not that much larger than a particulate spewing diesel taxi, Ken's favourite means of transport between drinks receptions.
How about the right for people of all income levels to travel freely. Especially sensible motorists like me.
