Disgusted by Manchesters Congestion Charge Proposal

nearlyrich

So I will be paying to both Manchester and Leeds some days, that's great news LOL.

siamese0109

Looks like it! Keep saving those £2 coins you're gonna need them!

tr3mor

Good job I'm escaping Manchester then.

anewman

siamese0109 wrote: »

and I hate the 2+ lane into Leeds!

All you have to do is give someone a lift into leeds, got to be someone going that way very close to you doing the whole 9-5 thing and isn't a complete loser. I think the main thing about the 2+ lane is it p***es off those rich men in those high end mercedes, BMW's and jaguars (but I guess if they're that arrogant they'll drive in the 2+ lane anyway) by increasing their journey time. You just cannot do that with congestion charging as the rich people will just pay and not give a s**t. The people who it hurts most are closest to the minimum wage who will just be priced out.

Plus, why are they spending millions of tax payers money on congestion charging when there's supposedly going to be a dynamically priced per mile charging system implemented on all UK roads in the future regardless of these schemes?! Smacks of needless waste of tax payers money to me, similar to the whole planning of the leeds supertram which had a few hundred million spent on the planning, when approval wasn't given for the project and it was subsequently not given by Mr Alistair Darling. Why waste money on loads of individual congestion charging schemes when tolls are supposedly inevitable?! - and the purpose of the proposed tolls is to improve public transport. With all this money going to public transport I'd exect a chauffeured limousine direct door to door.

I suppose that the fact they suggest it is needed for investment in public transport is an admission of guilt that the transport system is not up to scratch. The real test of the congestion charging would be improvements in public transport. I would prefer to see improvements in public transport as an alternative to driving *before* congestion charging, then congestion charging can pay off the costs of these early improvements. But chances are the money will be siphoned off by council officials for "personal expenses".

Also I doubt they will listen to any comments given on the page and will just try and come up with some press statement which attempts to please everyone and go ahead with the charge anyway. They're only after the money so chances are the IRA or Taliban couldn't stop the congestion charge.

transit

Been on the road since 1957 and still at it.HGV"s down to TRANSIT"s.Congestion area"s wont solve anything.Get rid of the bus lanes and the school run,school holdays no traffic problems,back at school grid lock.Most of Kingsway A34 Manchester no bus lane traffic moves,Parrswood lane same area 7AM to 7PM bus lane, traffic in rush hour at standstill but no buses in bus lane. Start of bus lane is normally occupied by car with video camera on top filming anyone who goes in the bus lane.Just another way of taking a bit more out of the motorist pocket.

lapat

i moved out of manchester 7 years ago as i couldnt afford the type of house i wanted. and i chose to comute to manchester in what you call a company provided white van.
that was my choice to move as well as the house prices i wanted to get away from the way i saw the city start to decline outside of its cultural center.
now i travel to manchester every day taking me approx 30 minutes on the motorway. and guess what the cordon they are proposing is the total circumference of the m60 ring road corridor. now who can tell me if this is a fair tax when they are including the areas like stockport,bury,rochdale,oldham, swinton and all the surrounding areas where you have to exit/enter the m60 some of these areas are upto ten miles outside the city center but they will still have a charge levied on them.
is this to stop congestion into the city center afraid not. if they wanted to stop the congestion in the city center they could do it on the manchester inner ring round that is a maximum of 1/2 mile outside the center in either direction i.e regent rd/mancunian way/great ancoats street/bury new rd/oldham rd/rochdale road as this is where the congestion is.

yes the motorway is m60 is busy but if your one of the 1 million+ people that live within that cordon and choose to drive within the periods stated by mcc then you will levy some sort of charge now you tell me that is a fair congestion charge.

and as for me i join the m60 from the m62 and i dont even touch the m60 as my exit sliproad runs alongside the m60 but yes i will be charged every day to and fro for the priveledge of entering approximatley 1/4 of a mile into there exagerted congestion zone.

this is a load of old b*llocks and and a petition really needs starting on downing streets website

lapat

downing street also have a petition running on this topic
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Manccongestion/

floyd

Invariably the people who come up with these schemes don't live in the city in question and won't be affected by any changes. Liverpool is also supposedly introducing a congestion charge and the area would include the entire University and central hospital complex.

The University has also seen fit to introduce ridiculous parking charges for its staff and reduce the number of parking spaces available to encourage people to use public transport so we are getting it with both barrels. Tell you what would encourage me to use public transport, if they spent the money they get from the car parks on improving security so that its safe to leave the building without being faced with prostitutes conducting their business in broad daylight in full view of the entire complex!

Anyway, I digress, the idea of encouraging people to use public transport is in theory a good one but until the trains and buses are made safer, cleaner and more reliable people will not give up their cars.

anewman

floyd wrote: »

The University has also seen fit to introduce ridiculous parking charges for its staff and reduce the number of parking spaces available to encourage people to use public transport so we are getting it with both barrels.

There is a free bus for University Staff (and students too I think) in certain spots in manchester, albeit relatively close to the University anyway.

pault123

I really cant think of anything worse (sorry bus travellers) than a bus journey into work and back. The amount of trouble, fights, phones blaring out random MP3's, the smell, the nausea bus journies give me, having the correct change, standing up due to overcrowding, sitting next to someone who stinks, standing around in the rain waiting for it to turn up (if if does).

I choose to que in traffic and its far more enjoyable than the above!

I think a good point was raised about London. Manchester is nothing like London and I can't see how it ever could be in terms of transport - geographically its so very different. They'll be planning to dig up manchester and build an underground next!

I also like the point about workers on low wages. Having to work the first hour of the day to pay just to be in work sickens me. Having to give even a penny more of my hard earned wages to the state in a pointless "the motorist is the bane of all our problems" exercise sickens me.

When will the income stream from us grasping to our last bit of freedom end?

Day by day I see this country becoming George Orwells vision of 1984