Manchester Congestion charge -money saving ideas wanted

poppysarah

http://www.gmfuturetransport.co.uk/consultation/response/

Just looking at ways in the future people could save money on the Manchester congestion charge - having a say now could influence the decision.

Should people on low wages (tax credits etc) be given a free bus pass? They're currently suggesting that people get a reduced congestion charge but I think it'd make more sense to encourage people to not go in the car at all.

Day saver is about £4 - but weekly bus ticket works out a lot cheaper so would be equivalent of them giving a reduction on congestion charge.

If they got a lot of feedback saying that a free bus pass was a good idea then they would have to seriously look at it.
I think if the congestion charge is to be about reducing the number of cars going into Manchester and not just being about revenue raising (or the company that runs it getting lots of profits) then this sort of thing needs to be pushed.

What other money saving ideas could be put forward?

(I'd love for people to give their thoughts on the feedback link above)

Cheers

savemoney

Well it wont bother footballers who openly abuse the parking system and park where they are not allowed to because a £50 fine is small change.

poppysarah

They could increase parking fines and parking charges - as if you are taking the car in you've got to leave it somewhere...
However I used to live about 15 mins walk from the centre and we had tons of people parking on our road going to the Uni.

I'm all for tougher penalties on anyone in the public eye though. Something needs to be done to ensure that the role models young people have act responsibly.

Smit1970

There is also a site GM Congestion Charge outlining some reasons why Manchester people need to vote no to the congestion charge.

A postal referendum that closes on 11 December, will give everyone in Greater Manchester the opportunity to vote on current Congestion Charge proposals. Postal ballot papers will be issued in November, look out for your paper and remember to post your No! vote early.

It is a travesty they are planning to bring this scheme to Manchester. There are no guarantees on charging times, pricing or zone boundaries. In London after just two years, the zone's size doubled and charges rose by 60%. Our councils' own documents refer to possible future charging schemes in Bolton, Bury, Wigan, Rochdale, Oldham, Ashton, Stockport and Altrincham.

Edinburgh, Birmingham, Norwich and Cambridge have already said No to congestion charging, current proposals will make Greater Manchester a uniquely expensive place to live and work. We live here and for us it will be so expensive we will look at moving away!

It would cost our family around £10 a day. That is £300 a month! Manchester people - please vote no when you get your vote in the mail this month.

geordie_joe

poppysarah wrote: »

Day saver is about £4 - but weekly bus ticket works out a lot cheaper so would be equivalent of them giving a reduction on congestion charge.

In my experience cheap bus travel doesn't work. This is because the bus companies give cheap travel to those who don't need to travel, and shaft those who do.

Example, here you can't buy a return ticket before 9.00 am. This is because if you are on the bus before 9.00 am you are going to work, therefore you have to pay whatever the bus company charges you. If you are on the bus after 9.00 am you are probably going shopping, or somewhere you don't NEED to be. Therefore you can choose not to get on the bus and pay the fare.

It'll be the same when they introduce pay per drive. Who will get charged the most. the woman who drives down the road at 8.30 am because she has to get her kids to school, or get to work, or the little old lady who drives down the road at 10.30am because she fancies going to Tesco for a packet of biscuits.

One can't afford NOT to drive down the road, the other can do without biscuits today.

ceridwen

Fingers crossed that this congestion scheme works well. Sounds like a good idea to think in terms of free bus travel for low income people - rather than reduced congestion charges.

Congestion charges ARE a very necessary idea - left to themselves loads of people get into their cars at the drop of a hat and drive distances of less than 2 miles - even when they are perfectly fit enough to walk and/or buses are available covering that distance. Thank goodness Councils are now seeing fit to bring these charges in. I think anyone who doesn't agree with them should try having to live in an urban area for a while - and see how much they like the constant traffic/traffic noise and pollution.

So - please don't be selfish and vote no as Smit1970 suggests. Please think in terms of the suffering inflicted by other peoples cars on those in urban areas and vote in accordance with your conscience. For anyone who says "I cant afford to vote as my conscience dictates" - then ask yourself how much money you are still spending on luxuries or wasting on paying over the odds for food (much of which you might still be throwing away) and think again. Please don't choke others with your car fumes. Please don't take away other peoples peace and quiet with your car noise.

Smit1970

edit - double post.

Smit1970

ceridwen wrote: »

So - please don't be selfish and vote no as Smit1970 suggests.

Wow, you cannot be serious?

You want to give grasping Gordon even more of your cash? :rotfl:

You want to charge people even more than fuel duty, road tax, insurance tax, VAT on parts & servicing, etc. for the necessity of using their own vehicles?

Did you read any of the sites linked to above at all?

Any

ceridwen wrote: »

Fingers crossed that this congestion scheme works well. Sounds like a good idea to think in terms of free bus travel for low income people - rather than reduced congestion charges.

Congestion charges ARE a very necessary idea - left to themselves loads of people get into their cars at the drop of a hat and drive distances of less than 2 miles - even when they are perfectly fit enough to walk and/or buses are available covering that distance. Thank goodness Councils are now seeing fit to bring these charges in. I think anyone who doesn't agree with them should try having to live in an urban area for a while - and see how much they like the constant traffic/traffic noise and pollution.

I completely disagree.

If you actually look at their proposal of "improvement" to public transport, for example for our area it's huge fat 0! They will put one more wagon on the train that goes to Manchester in the morning - which will only stop people standing on other's people toes - and that is on the existing clientele. Should more people start using train to get to Manchester, they would have to start getting to the train station at 6 am and fight all morning to get on the trains because the trains cannot take all of the people on the platform.

It will cost SMALL business extra £50k a year. That will drive them out of towns into small villages where ALL of the employes will have to own a car to be able to get to work. It's either that or no payrises (even the regular small inflation payrises many companies do every year) for all the employees for the next at least 2 years.

To add it all up, in current financial climate we cannot afford to introduce congestion charging because the only people who will pay dearly for it are workers and small businesses. The business giants will not give a damn because they will only charge other big giants more money for their services (one of those being for example our dear government-in which case we will pay twice for it as the government will take this out of our taxes).

This is only my opinion.

Oh yes, and by the way, I live in urban area and I am certainly not willing to go to work on a bus that I would have to change 4x to get to work and spend 2 hours in the morning and evening on it when I can spend that time with my children and husband.

poppysarah

They're now saying local people#s short journeys won't be charged ie: school runs.
Which IMO is wrong. People shouldn't drive the kids to school. There are buses or they can walk!

There's massively less traffic during school holidays!

Any

poppysarah wrote: »

They're now saying local people#s short journeys won't be charged ie: school runs.
Which IMO is wrong. People shouldn't drive the kids to school. There are buses or they can walk!

This part I agree with. There is no reason (for most of people, not all) to drive kids to school as most schools has either special buses or council provides direct school bus (stopping right near the school).
I also believe that this helps develop kids independence and view of the world. Kids who are constantly overprotected by their parents will never be able to get proper job, girlfriend or family.

Again, only my opinion.