Electric cars.

[Northern_Brewer]

Yep, get that. I suppose the point I was trying to make was that the introduction of a congestion charging zone has not solved the issue of congestion and the ULEZ zone has not solved the issue of polluted air. They were clearly never designed to do so, they were designed to raise revenue only.

What do you mean by "solve" in this case? The congestion charge reduced traffic by 15% per the link above - what level of traffic would you regard as "solving" "congestion"? Reducing traffic by 30%? 50%? Because you can do that, just by increasing the charge. Heck, make it £1000/day and you'd have almost no traffic at all, just Ferraris and Rolls Royces bombing up and down the streets of central London.

You seem to be saying the problem with the congestion charge is that it isn't high enough to reduce traffic by the amount you want.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

You seem to be saying the problem with the congestion charge is that it isn't high enough to reduce traffic by the amount you want.

Not at all. Charging for road use doesn’t deter the richest and they tend to be the ones with the most polluting cars.

Regardless of the stats, I can guarantee I can’t drive from one side of the congestion charge zone to the other any quicker now that I could before the charge was introduced so I question whether there is any real reduction in traffic and I still sit in solid traffic (breathing in the same traffic fumes) for the same one and a quarter hours on my way to work in London twice a week as I did before the ULEZ was introduced.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Not at all. Charging for road use doesn’t deter the richest and they tend to be the ones with the most polluting cars.

Regardless of the stats, I can guarantee I can’t drive from one side of the congestion charge zone any quicker now that I could before the charge was introduced so I question whether there is any real reduction in traffic and I still sit in solid traffic (breathing in the same traffic fumes) for the same one and a quarter hours on my way to work in London twice a week as I did before the ULEZ was introduced.

It's all about the money, Mr Kahn is a c--t who does not give a flying f--k how many people die

 

[starseeker]

How can you take seriously somebody like Khan ,when they say they want to clean up the air in London ,and introduce charges to so called do so , but get driven around themselves, in a five litre armour plated Range Rover ,the bloke is a total prick ,

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Not at all. Charging for road use doesn’t deter the richest and they tend to be the ones with the most polluting cars.

Two separate things. Charging for road use is about reducing the number of cars on the road. It succeeds in that goal. Being rich allows you to do all sorts of things that poor people can't do - like own a car in the first place, or stay at the Ritz. There are other ways of reducing traffic, like banning cars with certain letters/numbers on their plates on certain days.

But the congestion charge is not primarily about pollution, whereas ULEZ is. And the idea of that is to remove from the road the oldest vehicles that produce the most pollutants, in particular NOx (which forms smog) and particulates, which can kill people directly. Yes rich people tend to drive bigger vehicles which (if they are ICE) produce most CO2, but they also tend to drive more modern cars which produce a lot less NOx and particulates - and increasingly rich people drive EVs.

Regardless of the stats, I can guarantee I can’t drive from one side of the congestion charge zone to the other any quicker now that I could before the charge was introduced so I question whether there is any real reduction in traffic and I still sit in solid traffic (breathing in the same traffic fumes) for the same one and a quarter hours on my way to work in London twice a week as I did before the ULEZ was introduced.

I'd question - are you in a position to assess a 15% reduction in traffic? And obviously traffic has grown since 2003 - but it would be even worse if the CCZ hadn't been introduced - a big increase in delivery vehicles for one. But it was always mad to drive in the CCZ - we're talking inside the Circle line roughly - during CCZ times, 7am to 6pm weekdays plus noon-6pm weekends.