The London 'Toxicity Charge' / 'T-charge' / Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ)

Has the WEF been mentioned yet?

Every other post.

They call people who sabotage the cameras ‘blade runners’ and share tips on how to disguise number plates from auto recognition.

Lots of mentions of brexit, 15 minute cities and people talking about how their ‘parents fought in WW2 FFS’ 🤪

The coverage of this in the media has been completely lacking in context. The whole point of ULEZ is mentioned as a footnote, if it's mentioned at all. You'd think it was being introduced solely to inconvenience motorists, rather than because we're facing a massive health crisis.

You'd think it was being introduced solely to inconvenience motorists

Isn't this the standard UK press argument against any changes to anything to do with roads?

There are people saying stuff like, ‘I have to scrap my car because it’s too polluting but if I pay £12.50 it’s no longer too polluting, it’s obviously a con/money raiser’.
Completely ignoring the fact that a theoretical £12.50 has changed their behaviour and stopped a car journey.

Meanwhile, Iain Duncan-Smith is promoting vandalism… Something, something, party of law and order.

I shan't link the article, but you can guess where it is.

He claims that voters have been lied to. I think he's referring to the ULEZ introduction as self-awareness is not his strong point.

Or he's very much self-aware (this time) and is deliberately not being specific.

For the self-titled quiet man, he doesn't half talk a lot of loud, ignorant bullshit a lot of the time.

robbing low income families of having a mode of transportation and now having to depend on the abysmal services of public transportation

Sounds like a bot or a troll with the overlong phrasing, but I think it's a real person who lives locally. I get that it's not always convenient to take public transport but I find it difficult to get my head around that people genuinely believe what we have is 'abysmal'.

and its PTAL rated 3! https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/urban-planning-and-construction/planning-with-webcat/webcat

These people cant be engaged with with real data and science though, I only indulge myself for entertainment value

It's extraordinary isn't it. You can walk about 5min to a bus stop, 20min to 3 different train lines. I get there are various reasons for using a car (restricted mobility, lots of stuff, herding children etc) but public transport is so good here and in London generally.

Before ULEZ and LTNs I had no idea every single driver in London was a critical carer, going to an urgent doctors appointment or seeing a dying relative before they snuff it. Its astonishing

How on earth is a car a good option for a low income family?

Purchase cost ... MOT every year, VED, repairs, fuel, insurance. It's like people just forget about all the money they spend when it comes to cars. Whereas public transport you just pay per use - no startup costs at all.

But once you have a car the incremental cost is pretty low, often lower than public transport (particularly if more than one person is travelling).

It's not all about the cost though, with public transport there's also the convenience of being able to get shit faced after work and not worry about ploughing into a bus stop trying to drive home.

Yeah, its about the sunk cost and getting perceived value for money.

A car is a terrible investment particularly for low income families, but naturally once you have paid to get one, then you want to maximise value for it and use it lots. Choosing public transport is an 'extra cost'.

Cars used to be cheap. Really cheap to run, anyway, buy - not so much but most folks could get one. Think old school ford fiesta. You can imagine a sweet spot where stuff is cheap enough, reliable and roads are modern but quiet compared to now. Maybe late 70s until 1990. A Fiesta would shit on public transport for literally any journey at that point in time. And still be cheaper. Unless it was mid winter and the bastard thing wouldn’t start. Even if it didn’t the railway workers would be on strike anyway.

That is a lot of folks’ frame of reference, and they blame its loss on globalisation and the environment movement.

Similarly to this there was a quote in the T***graph from a Orpington resident saying it must have cost a fortune to erect all the infrastructure to enforce it but somehow it's also a cash cow for TFL.

I don't know the figures but I imagine it's going to take a lot of £12.50 payments to cover the cameras etc.

I've been looking at 40 yr old classic cars

Get a bike

Lots of emotional not practical stuff around Motor Car ownership, I believe it's still aspirational and seen as a status symbol, success hardware outside your home.

Bikes aren't perceved in the same way, at least by non cyclists even though I'm constantly being told that the poor drive and the Middle Classes ride.

As well as introducing ULEZ would be good to have a push to enforce idling laws, since it's the same issue.

Cars used to be cheap.

I'm pretty sure they still are - between 1980 and 2014 the cost of motoring fell by 14 per cent in real terms – but in the same period, bus fares went up by 58 per cent. Rail travel has also become dramatically more expensive, as well all know. But all the 'war on the motorist' types will try and convince you the cost of motoring has just been rising and rising.

I do think costs have gone up since the pandemic. Cars cost more (we bought ours for £2.5k in summer 2020 and now it seems to be worth about £3k despite added mileage and few minor scrapes).

It only needs to be expensive if you buy into this though

Lots of emotional not practical stuff around Motor Car ownership, I believe it's still aspirational and seen as a status symbol, success hardware outside your home.

Our neighbour had a ULEZ compliant small Hyundai thing which was in good condition and they didn't seem to be having any problems with it. They've just got a brand new VW Tiguan R hybrid which must have cost them close to the Tiguan 'ceiling price' of £50k. IIRC it emits about 65g of CO2 per mile, so that's OK then, funnily enough nobody talks about the massive amounts of CO2 and pollutants generated by new car manufacturer. Bonkers.

The thing that gets me about ULEZ is despite it supposedly being an 'Ultra Low' Emission Zone, you can be like our other neighbour and drive a massive Lexus SUV from 2005 with a 3 litre engine and you're still all good. People get so worked up about it, but you've already got licence to drive some highly polluting vehicles as it is.