ULEZ

[Alan Drover]

It's England, what do you expect. If you're looking for common sense forget it!

[diffwhine]

Its a bit like when I ordered two rolls of bubble wrap off Amazon. I received two boxes... Each box contained one roll of bubble wrap... wrapped in bubble wrap!

2 rolls of bubble wrap would easily fit in one of those boxes.

Is it me?

Mind you - at least I got some extra bubble wrap.

[GlenAnderson]

I'm going to go out on a limb here...

Personally, I think ULEZ, LTNs and their variants are a good idea, overall.

We should be driving less. Massive cars each with one person in, clogging up the roads, could never really be justified, even without the environmental consequences.

I don't necessarily agree with the way things are being implemented, because as usual it seems that the little people are the ones bearing the brunt of the cost, but I do think that it's the way things should be going.

And I say this as someone who's a total petrol head.

[diffwhine]

I agree, but in order to do this, we need to change mentality. That means improving public transport and subsidising it properly.
Unfortunately owning a car is something we pretty much take for granted and as our right.

As some people above have said, getting round many parts of London - especially the suburbs without a car is almost more difficult than it is here in Wiltshire. Just because its a big city doesn't mean that public transport is good. In many parts of London I don't feel comfortable traveling on buses. I speak as somebody who has lived and worked in multiple war zones and travelled throughout Africa - often on public transport. I know where I feel safer and its not on a bus in South East London...

[Alan Drover]

How about buses having free VED in return for reducing fares and taxing all EV's at the equivalent rate to a petrol or diesel variant.  After all, they're no less "green!"

[Wittsend]

Here's one way to get round the ULEZ and the congestion charges ...



As seen on Wheeler Dealers 

[Alan Drover]

It broke down in mid stream.

[DogDave]

Sadly the easy answer is drive less but that doesn't suit an economy that's massively reliant on new car sales and unnecessary purchases in urban centres. Take away those two sources of revenue and the government is skint.

I and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of others can do my job 100% effectively from home and have for many years but all large businesses are being persuaded by the government to return staff to offices. Gongs for the execs are at stake in order to prop up the large chains that sell coffee, sandwiches and newspapers and generate tax revenues so they force staff to drive in several days a week.

If we could cut out the unnecessary commuting there would be next to no congestion and massive reduced air pollution - but none of that benefits the people that make the decisions

[109+1]

I have to go to outer London about once a month from next month that will be in a 60 year old 3.9 v8 swb tax exempt mot exempt congestion charge exempt 

[Alan Drover]

There's a fire in Tower Hamlets with huge amounts of black smoke. That makes a mockery of ULEZ.

[Theshed]

Sadly the easy answer is drive less but that doesn't suit an economy that's massively reliant on new car sales and unnecessary purchases in urban centres. Take away those two sources of revenue and the government is skint.

I and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of others can do my job 100% effectively from home and have for many years but all large businesses are being persuaded by the government to return staff to offices. Gongs for the execs are at stake in order to prop up the large chains that sell coffee, sandwiches and newspapers and generate tax revenues so they force staff to drive in several days a week.

If we could cut out the unnecessary commuting there would be next to no congestion and massive reduced air pollution - but none of that benefits the people that make the decisions

Unfortunately not all 'answers' suit all people.
I am one of the millions who cannot work from home and in many areas whole infrastructure can often depend on industry/office workers.
All those places you mention along with garages, supermarkets, clothes stores and a whole lot more can all depend on people travelling to a work place.
And each of those places provide profit, hopefully, and importantly they provide employment.
That was one of those things that really wound me up during lockdown. Folk on Radio talk shows. 'I'm working from home, like we all are'. No ! The world does not revolve around your kitchen table.

[Dopey]

I live just outside it, but have to drive into it now and then, but the 2 cars I have don't apply

[MarkBanks555]

Here's one way to get round the ULEZ and the congestion charges ...

As seen on Wheeler Dealers 

On that note, what about all of the diesel powered river boats going along the Thames, do they have to pay a ULEZ fee?

And don't get me started on the Aeroplanes going in and out of Heathrow....

As usual, the motorists are easy targets.

[DogDave]

Sadly the easy answer is drive less but that doesn't suit an economy that's massively reliant on new car sales and unnecessary purchases in urban centres. Take away those two sources of revenue and the government is skint.

I and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of others can do my job 100% effectively from home and have for many years but all large businesses are being persuaded by the government to return staff to offices. Gongs for the execs are at stake in order to prop up the large chains that sell coffee, sandwiches and newspapers and generate tax revenues so they force staff to drive in several days a week.

If we could cut out the unnecessary commuting there would be next to no congestion and massive reduced air pollution - but none of that benefits the people that make the decisions

Unfortunately not all 'answers' suit all people.
I am one of the millions who cannot work from home and in many areas whole infrastructure can often depend on industry/office workers.
All those places you mention along with garages, supermarkets, clothes stores and a whole lot more can all depend on people travelling to a work place.
And each of those places provide profit, hopefully, and importantly they provide employment.
That was one of those things that really wound me up during lockdown. Folk on Radio talk shows. 'I'm working from home, like we all are'. No ! The world does not revolve around your kitchen table.

Some things will need to be on site still, but aside from that people will need food, clothes etc whether they work from home or not - and most will spend the same amount as they spend what they have available every month, it's just they will spend it near home rather than driving for miles to then spend it on their lunch break. All it means is we can go from funding the greggs and costas of this world to supporting independent local businesses in smaller towns and having actual high streets rather than dormitory villages. A lot of the people working in the chain shops in inner cities will be commuting in as well so having actual local employment for them should be another bonus.

Also removing the unnecessary commutes benefits the necessary commutes as their journey is faster and less stressful- I did some
On site work in centre of London during lockdown for my previous job and it was great you could drive in and park without hassle, cross the road safely etc. Wouldn't even try normally.

[Peter Holden]

It is all a bit crazy, we live just outside (half a mile) the proposed Manchester clean air zone.  Car and land rover are exempt, our 2007 camper isn't.  To get onto the motorway system the nearest junctions are just in the zone, when the zone starts when we want to go anywhere in the camper we can either pay 12.50 to get to the nearest junction or drive more than 10 miles north to a junction.  Guess which we will be doing.

Peter