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Congestion Charge - you're having a laff!!


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Wasnt the intention of the Congestion charge to put off people driving cars inside the zone?

 

I for one live in Zone 2 and can afford to pay £5 or even £8. However, if it were £20 - £25 I would tell them to stick two fingers up........

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Wasnt the intention of the Congestion charge to put off people driving cars inside the zone?

 

I for one live in Zone 2 and can afford to pay £5 or even £8. However, if it were £20 - £25 I would tell them to stick two fingers up........

 

£8 is a lot of money to a lot of people - £40 a week IE £160 a month!!! Then if you add up road tax, insurance, petrol etc etc it soon mounts up, we are being priced off of the roads.

 

If public transport was of a decent standard then I wouldn't complain, but so far the £5 has done nothing to improve congestion or public transport or whatever it is meant to be for, so how can he justify uping the charge by 60%??? It's pants! :cry:

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£8 is a lot of money to a lot of people - £40 a week IE £160 a month!!!

If public transport was of a decent standard then I wouldn't complain, but so far the £5 has done nothing to improve congestion or public transport or whatever it is meant to be for, so how can he justify uping the charge by 60%??? It's pants! :cry:

 

[rant]

 

I'm always entertained by the public transport jibes. So its not perfect and yes other countries have better systems, but for me its quicker than going by car to London, I get to have a kip to and from work, have a drink after work and no hassle of who drives home. Public transport costs me more than the congestion charge would, but I get full travel through all zones for my money.

 

Why people want to drive in London is beyond me, I do feel sorry for the people who need to drive into central London for their business , but with any luck it'll start to price out some of the idle people who can't possibly leave their luxury vehicle and mingle with the masses. London smells disgusting during the day, anything they can do to improve that works for me.

 

[/rant off]

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£8 is a lot of money to a lot of people - £40 a week IE £160 a month!!! Then if you add up road tax, insurance, petrol etc etc it soon mounts up, we are being priced off of the roads.

 

If public transport was of a decent standard then I wouldn't complain, but so far the £5 has done nothing to improve congestion or public transport or whatever it is meant to be for, so how can he justify uping the charge by 60%??? It's pants! :cry:

 

If you can pay £25 per week, £100 per month, and drive your car in central london, then i guess you should be able to afford the extra 60% hike.

 

My point was that the concept of the congestion charge was to reduce congestion and to deter people from driving their cars into central london. make it 20-25 and people will stop doing that. They know it, hence it is at a price where people will complain however will be willing to pay

 

Livingston is an idiot..... :devil: but we knew what he was like, and still voted the plonker in.....so whos to blame.

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the main problem i have with public transport is the little scally bastards that seem to be on every bus. we used to get the bus back from college etc in a group, the little 8 year olds would get on and start shoutin stuff at one of us (the usual "are you lot gay stuff etc etc :rolleyes: ), which after you've heard it everyday starts to piss you off. of course, they're only 8 so it's not like you can start on them :twak:

my ex used to get the bus a lot, she got sick of people hasslin her on there too. i like a laugh as much as anyone, but after leaving work and just wantin to get home, the last thing i could stomach is a bunch of tossers givin aggro.

at uni as well, when people tried to get the bus in, there was loads of times when the bus would drive past the stop because it was already full - which isn't good news if you do need to be somewhere! i know it's different in london as there'll be more buses, but i was at uni in birmingham and there was never enough of them. suppose that's also a good reason to increase charges for cars too though!

apart from that, i'd have no problem with using public transport!

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Why people want to drive in London is beyond me, I do feel sorry for the people who need to drive into central London for their business

 

[/rant off]

 

YES I AM FUCKING PISSED OFF WITH TODAYS ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

its so unfair to us business people, especially as mines only a small business, this is just daylight robbery. they already met their target with £5 so why the increase for? i give it to him, the cc worked but dont get greedy on it, ffs all our money road tax, cc etc, and yet i dont feel roads feeling any smoother, my supra probably starting to fall to bits with all them fecking pot holes and cracks everywhere. KEN LIVINGSTONE just cos you cant drive probably cos you're a retard and drive into the back of the first car you see, dont penalize us.

i have two vans, that MUST go into CC to stock up, i would have thought there would be some sort of lighter let off if not completely for us business but nope zilch nothing.

DICK HEAD, i swear one day a bus will crash you and make you paralised you prick.

 

am i over reacting? or do people agree?

 

secondly, who's has seen that advert for CC? whats the meaning of showing a car being towed, car being ticketed, car being penalized for going on bus lane etc etc, then ends it with a families car left at home with a sticker saying "my other car is a bus"

 

you fucking arseholes, what you trying to say then? that you know you deliberately adding loads of bus lanes everywhere to fine us, out there on the hunt to tow you away to generate more money having parking attendants that needs their face busted in to ticket people etc etc

 

thats feels good letting that out.

rant over

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YES I AM FUCKING PISSED OFF WITH TODAYS ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

its so unfair to us business people, especially as mines only a small business, this is just daylight robbery. they already met their target with £5 so why the increase for? i give it to him, the cc worked but dont get greedy on it, ffs all our money road tax, cc etc, and yet i dont feel roads feeling any smoother, my supra probably starting to fall to bits with all them fecking pot holes and cracks everywhere. KEN LIVINGSTONE just cos you cant drive probably cos you're a retard and drive into the back of the first car you see, dont penalize us.

i have two vans, that MUST go into CC to stock up, i would have thought there would be some sort of lighter let off if not completely for us business but nope zilch nothing.

DICK HEAD, i swear one day a bus will crash you and make you paralised you prick.

 

am i over reacting? or do people agree?

 

secondly, who's has seen that advert for CC? whats the meaning of showing a car being towed, car being ticketed, car being penalized for going on bus lane etc etc, then ends it with a families car left at home with a sticker saying "my other car is a bus"

 

you fucking arseholes, what you trying to say then? that you know you deliberately adding loads of bus lanes everywhere to fine us, out there on the hunt to tow you away to generate more money having parking attendants that needs their face busted in to ticket people etc etc

 

thats feels good letting that out.

rant over

 

 

Sorry mate, but your argument doesnt really work........If you run the buisness, then you can just offset the CC against your tax......

 

And, the parking wardens ARE just doing their job, of course, you get the over zealous ones, but most of them really are just doing their job. I am a copier engineer, I carry around a car stcok which means I CANT get publi transport, I have to have a car. I worked London for 10 years, and in that time, I probably got 1 or 2 parking tickets per month. ALL of them were my own fault, either not putting enough money in the meter for the job that I needed to do, or parking on yellow lines while running in to a customers and doing a a quick job. Some of them, I was able to get out of paying by saying I was loading etc. but most of them I had to pay.

 

What I am getting at is, its not the wardens that are A*seholes, its the people that illeagly park usually causing a hold up that are the A*seholes!!!

 

Also, with regards to the CC, as a small buisness, you should be glad of less traffic in london! It means you can get in to the center and out again in less time, which means you can get more done in the day, and earn more money!

 

I found after the CC was introduced, my travel times in between customers on average reduced by 15 mins!!!! By the end of the day, I could get at least 1 extra service call done per day, which for me equated to more bonus at the end of every month! If the charge going up to £8 means even less people in the city center, then I would be all for it! :thumbs:

 

The only thing I think they should change, is the ability to pay the charge up to 24 hours later. IE: I go in one day, and forget to pay the charge, but remember the next day, raher than getting charged £50 for a simple lapse of memory, let me back pay the £5 or £8 for the previous day!

 

Sorry for a bit of a longwinded rant back, but I felt quite strongly about it when I was living in london.......BUT, I am glad I'm a norhterner now! :tongue: :thumbs:

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well wasnt gonna mention the advert thing, thats besides the point i was mainly trying to say, so all that traffic warden thing fair point, i dont have problems with parking illegally anyway (touch wood)

 

but as for what you say. i dissagree with you about quick time more money as for my business, may not apply to you or other people.it makes no difference wether i get in or out of london faster, as i sell xyz product for a certain price anyway. as oppose to you reaching as many customers as you can.

 

to make it simple, all im saying is, they getting greedy. agree with you on the time you get to pay it. 10pm deadline is way to short to be up'ed £10, then midnight for the £60 fine? (forgot) should be at least 24hours.

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I live right in the centre of the zone, so I don't really have any options if I want to drive my car. So I don't drive it - cheaper to take the train to work anyway I reckon, or at least the same price. I can get a discount for the CC, though haven't got round to it yet, mainly as I don't use the car every day.

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[rant]

 

I'm always entertained by the public transport jibes. So its not perfect and yes other countries have better systems, but for me its quicker than going by car to London, I get to have a kip to and from work, have a drink after work and no hassle of who drives home. Public transport costs me more than the congestion charge would, but I get full travel through all zones for my money.

 

Why people want to drive in London is beyond me, I do feel sorry for the people who need to drive into central London for their business , but with any luck it'll start to price out some of the idle people who can't possibly leave their luxury vehicle and mingle with the masses. London smells disgusting during the day, anything they can do to improve that works for me.

 

[/rant off]

 

Well i do a 25 mile journey to work which is in Camden. I can either pay £16 a day and spend an hour and a quarter squashed on a packed tube or i can drive in which cost less and takes like 3 quarters of an hour. I don't have to wait for the tube/train to turn up, no worries about it breaking down half way, and no problems because there's a bomb scare or leaves on the track. I get to leave work when i want and i can have my own comforts for the journey home. I hate public transport with a passion. Eveen down to the night bus that always stops 10 stops too early and they don't tell you until you arrive. Not to mention people being sick and standing room only. I pity anyone who has to squeeze on to a tube at rush hour.

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I drive and deliver throughout London in a 18t truck on a regular basis and have done for years.

 

When the congestion charge was introduced there was a notable difference in the traffic which meant that I could get around a lot quicker. However I do remember about a year to year and half ago something on the radio about Ken Livingstone saying that the congestion charge was not making as much as was anticipated.

 

Now I might be just a simple lorry driver but if their not making as much as anticipated then surely there is less traffic on the roads than they anticipated. Therfore they have succeeded beyond their expectations.

 

By putting the price up, they are just admitting that the whole exercise was for revenue!

 

As for traffic wardens, if it wasn't for them people would park anywhere they wanted and could you imagine driving around London (or any other town) then.

 

:complain: :complain: :complain:

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What doesn't help is that good old Keneth decided on the more expensive option of collecting reg numbers for the charge. In many other countries they use a computer program that reads the plates. The one Ken went with is a Human sat infront of a screen collecting the numbers. Now you have to pay quite a few people an hourly wage and you also have the human error working as well. The computer program was cheaper overtime and was more acurate. It wouldn't surprise me that the increase is so that they can hire more staff to view the monitors so as to clamp down on people better.

 

I too John remember them saying it wasn't making as much as they thought. I've never thought of it before but your right about less traffic and increasing the price. Also a good reason why they'd never pedestrianise parts of London.

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Why people want to drive in London is beyond me

 

Unfortunately some people don't have a choice.... when I'm working evenings / nights I HAVE to drive to London because the trains don't run late enough for me to get home. £8 is a complete and utter p*ss take.

 

But this is from the man who was quoted as saying (before he became mayor);

 

"I hate cars... if I ever get any form of power again I'll ban the bloody lot"

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