Congestion Charge - Free

fubar_2

This makes a farce of the congestion charge, notice CONGESTION yet they relax the charges at a time when the most congestion is to be expected, if its a congestion charge then that is what it should be not setting double standards when they think it suits them.

anewman

Maybe it's time off work for the people sending out the fines etc?

daisy2002

Why do people think that everyone in london earns really good money cos they don't.
Most people i know earn between 10k-17k a year which isn't alot.
The average wage is higher cos they include city workers etc who do earn a shed load of cash. My brother in law used to work in the city & used to get bonus's of over 15k which was more than my husband earnt in a year.

Personally i hate the congestion charge, i didn't vote for ken & wouldn't vote for him in the future either. Just before the congestion charge started the traffic lights were a joke, used to be red for ages & not long on green so traffic built up. I know this as i used to travel into the now congestion charge.

I don't have much choice about living in london, i was born here & can't afford to buy a house anywhere. My housing association only have houses in London & i've tried looking for swaps out of London but no one is interested.... not that i blame them :rotfl:

Wings_of_Ambition

Congestion charge doesn't exactly cover a major part of London. On the rare occasions I do drive into London, its either outside CC hours, or it's really quite easy to get around it. If I need to go into the CC zone, the tube is so easy and a lot cheaper with an Oyster card.

Horace

My OH lives in London and I drive there mainly because he likes to use my car whilst I am there because a) it is smaller than his b) its easier to park and c) it is more fuel efficient.

Getting into London is a breeze - down the M40 - A40 turn off for Shepherds Bush, through Earls Court, along the Chelsea Embankment, across Vauxhall Bridge and I am there but coming back has turned into a right pain in the rs thanks to Mr Greedy Livingstone. Now, I have to get up extremely early in the morning - I get up at 5.30am, leave the flat at 6am to drive back to avoid the congestion charge.

Return trip, across Vauxhall Bridge, round Victoria, round Hyde Park Corner, up Park Lane to Marble Arch - then comes the interesting bit, I turn left towards Notting Hill (the bit of road that is now CC), just past the gate to Hyde Park I keep to the right lane and turn towards Paddington, along Gloucester Terrace etc and up onto the A40 on Ranelagh Bridge Road (outside the CC). I know I could go up the Edgeware Road but I don't know the way and don't fancy getting lost.

Red Ken is useless and travels everywhere by taxi - he can't ride a bike and never uses the tube - at least Boris jumps on his bike at every available opportunity. Wish I lived in London because then I could vote for Boris.:D

What's the point of the charge anyway? Its not in force at weekends and all those murdering bendy buses cause more traffic jams than anything else.

annapantscats

ts_aly2000 wrote: »

Our experience of London is that it's residents believe that if they travel beyond the perimeter of the M25 then they'll fall off of the edge of the earth.

In which case, your experience must be somewhat limited :rolleyes:

Sid_Harper

Real grabbit that. I'm going to drive into central London every day for a few days...

zombie_tennants

might treat myself

MissMoneypenny

Officer_Dibble wrote: »

The Congestion Charge was largely a tax imposed on Central and West London (where no one voted for Ken) by those in his East and Sarf London heartlands.

Red Ken got his fingers badly burned in the early 80s by those south of London. He decided that all those on the tube lines could get their fares reduced and be subsidised by those in the South, who didn't have tube lines. Those with season tickets on tubes got a nice rebate (which many then spent), but when Ken sent the additional council tax bill to those of us in the south to pay for these rebates, many of us (including myself) refused to pay it. Red Ken couldn't put us all in prison, so those people who spent their rebate on their tube season ticket, had to find the money to repay the rebate.

I don't know of any true born and bred Londoners (from generations of Londoners) who think Ken is a good person for London. It seems to be the families that have moved into London in the last 50 or so years, that favour Ken.

gromituk

fubar wrote: »

This makes a farce of the congestion charge, notice CONGESTION yet they relax the charges at a time when the most congestion is to be expected, if its a congestion charge then that is what it should be not setting double standards when they think it suits them.

Nope. My family drove right across London this morning in an hour or so. Traffic was minimal. We would never attempt that during a normal weekday, congestion charge or not.