Owners of polluting cars to face £20+ daily charge to drive in London

Johnmcl7

PasturesNew wrote: »

What IS a polluting car anyway?

A diesel that does 100 miles/week, or a petrol Ferrari that does 1000 miles/week?

For now, London have defined a polluting car as one that doesn't meet the EU4 standard which is fairly lax - Euro IV cars came in around 2005 and there's no distinction to restrict diesels, the ones of that era were much worse than petrols for nitrous oxides and particulate matter. The expectation was that the cars would have to meet the much stricter EU6 limits which only came in relatively recently but forces diesels to be much cleaner although even then, the testing system used allows manufacturers to produce EU6 certified cars that never actually comply with those limits in the real world.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/06/diesel-cars-are-10-times-more-toxic-than-trucks-and-buses-data-shows

London and other major cities are in breach of pollution limits and diesel vehicles are significant contributors:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/06/diesel-cars-are-10-times-more-toxic-than-trucks-and-buses-data-shows

The difficulty is the government for years has encouraged people to purchase diesel cars with much cheaper VED and even now the new VED system which comes into place is still based on CO2 which favours diesel despite the problems with NO2.

John

Johnmcl7

Tarambor wrote: »

Diesel cars have to conform to certain Euro standards. Current diesel standard is Euro 6. Each standard had a date that it came into force and all new cars had to comply with it. So say that London has decided that all cars not meeting Euro 4 will be subject to the extra charge then by reading the numberplate and checking the date of first registration with DVLA they can check whether a car meets a minimum of Euro 4 or not.

I think the point the person you quoted was making was that why they can look up the EU certification from ANPR but not detect electric or hybrid vehicles which have to be separately registered.

John

Pincher

Robisere wrote: »

And I drive a diesel, which is parked up at the Guest House until I leave for home.

They need to create usable Park and Ride setups.

Luton Airport Parkway makes it easy to leave the car in the multi-story car park and take the train, but it ain't cheap, when you add it all up: parking, return train ticket to London, and then tube and bus.

boatman

Should make it £50.

The rest of the country don't care, and would benefit from a few more quid from London.

Johno100

boatman wrote: »

Should make it £50.

The rest of the country don't care, and would benefit from a few more quid from London.

You don't think the money goes to the Treasury do you? No it is spent in London alone on 'transport improvements'.

minislim

its quite simple! just avoid the capital! when they introduced the congestion charge years ago i vowed never to visit the city unless it was absolutely necessary!

managed up to now. even when i've had projects in London.

this telephone conferencing really is great!

what really is annoying is the government pushed diesel a few years back and now they're trying to make a U turn. if they start penalising us diesel users we should group together and sue the previous labour government who were totally responsible for getting us into this mess!

rtho782

So, in order for me to find out if I need to pay I need to upload a copy of my V5C?!

That's crazy. What if I just assume I don't need to pay, do they then not charge me? (as apparently they don't know unless I give them my V5C).

[Deleted User]

PasturesNew wrote: »

What IS a polluting car anyway?

A diesel that does 100 miles/week, or a petrol Ferrari that does 1000 miles/week?

As a cyclist in a capital city who can barely breathe at rush hour...


It's the usual nose to tail traffic, mostly diesels belching out fumes crawling through our city centres. So much for stop/start, tuning off engines when stationary or using public transport...


Hope their DPFs and EGRs fail ;-)


Cheers

marvinandroid

While London leads it's unlikely to be unique. Clean air limits and legislation means similar schemes in other polluted cities such as Leeds, Southampton and Glasgow are inevitable. This is about health.

takman

I don't see any problem with a congestion charge for people who choose to drive through central London. When i visit London (which isn't very often) i have always avoided central London solely due to the congestion charge, so it does work!. If there was no congestion charge i would have driven through central London.