Congestion Charge fine 17:59

Scrapit

stator wrote: »

Not at all, since you advertise the cut off as 18:00, you just don't send people fines if they were within the grace period of say 3 minutes.


It works the same way with speeding limits. There's a small window above the speed limit where you don't get fined, but if you're caught over that you have to pay. Some people take their chances and drive at the speed slightly above the speed limit, but if they get caught above that, they get fined. They might whine as much as they like, but nothing changes.


It's all just common sense.

People can and do get done for being just over the speed limit.

[Deleted User]

Scrapit wrote: »

People can and do get done for being just over the speed limit.

Can't recall anyone being done for 31 mph in a 30 limit.

Herzlos

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

What's not fair about the OP's clock being accurate?

As to a "grace period" or similar, you can see where that leads.

"I've just been fined for entering the congestion zone at 18:03 when my clock and the car radio said it was 18:02....."

My car clock doesn't display seconds, and I adjust it twice a year. I suspect that's normal, but it could easily mean I'm 59 seconds slow or fast, or worse with drift.

It's not unreasonable to expect me average to think it's 18:00 when it's really 17:59.

Similar calibration issues are why speed cameras have a margin, and they have requirements for calibration that don't apply to car clocks.

[Deleted User]

Kentish_Dave wrote: »

Not really. Whenever I go in around the cut-off I give it a few minutes extra just to be sure.

It takes a special kind of entitlement to try to make TFL responsible for your own inability to make sure that you don’t get it wrong.

Further explanation needed from me: to take account of possible inaccuracies in the scrounger's time-keeping, as well as that of the suckers who have to drive into London, it's not unreasonable to expect the scroungers to apply a short grace period, if only to prevent ill feeling. Two minutes should do it. No one could complain about two minutes and one second over, because they'd have already been given two minutes. This high-handed, nasty, application of regulation has become par for the course in modern day Britain, especially where local 'authorities' are concerned.

Car_54

Herzlos wrote: »

Similar calibration issues are why speed cameras have a margin, and they have requirements for calibration that don't apply to car clocks.

AIUI cameras typically have a possible error of, at most, 1mph. The 110% plus 1 mph margin normally allowed is nothing to do with camera inaccuracy: it is a political decision by the police, who are aware that draconian application of the limit could be counter-productive in terms of police/public relations.

Kentish_Dave

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

Further explanation needed from me: to take account of possible inaccuracies in the scrounger's time-keeping, as well as that of the suckers who have to drive into London, it's not unreasonable to expect the scroungers to apply a short grace period, if only to prevent ill feeling. Two minutes should do it. No one could complain about two minutes and one second over, because they'd have already been given two minutes. This high-handed, nasty, application of regulation has become par for the course in modern day Britain, especially where local 'authorities' are concerned.

I still don’t agree. If your clock is not accurate then don’t try to drive in at 18:00:01.

I don’t think TFL is in the business of avoiding hurting the feelings of people with double-digit IQs who think that the rules don’t apply to them.

[Deleted User]

Kentish_Dave wrote: »

I still don’t agree. If your clock is not accurate then don’t try to drive in at 18:00:01.

I don’t think TFL is in the business of avoiding hurting the feelings of people with double-digit IQs who think that the rules don’t apply to them.

But their clock might not be accurate either. The only things that TfL are in the business of (not that they are a business, even though they think they are) is ripping people off and criminally wasting money.

Furthermore, it's a particularly stupid approach by TfL (only to be expected from a particularly stupid organisation) because it must lead on occasion to drivers hanging back, i.e. stopping, at close to the cut-off times, and maybe actually adding to the congestion as a result.

waamo

Apparently TfL synchronise their clocks from an atonic clock with millisecond accuracy https://www.galsys.co.uk/news/ibm-takes-over-london-congestion-charge-with-galleon-time-servers/

https://www.visordown.com/forum/general/london-congestion-charge-accuracy-of-their-timing

I think you might struggle to argue it wasn't accurate.