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

i think emission based pricing is a mistake but hopefully its paving way for pay per mile

Politically I can't see how that will ever happen given people in the countryside have a genuine need to drive more than urban folk. Imagine the backlash.

I will counter that with the fact that you could sit behind that Lexus in traffic and not get choked by its fumes, unlike let’s say any VAG diesel up to about 2015. And even then when they get a few miles on the clock they start to utterly stink, even quite new ones.

I mean that can be tackled easily based on PTAL rating or something. The higher the rating the higher you pay.

Seems like that would be pretty complicated based on where you were setting off from and where you're going (and any interim stops).

@Fox I think countryside is overselling it. Plenty of urban areas with terrible public transport.

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.

Yeah, it's easier to project affluence with a car than other more sensible (and expensive) things like a nice house.

So if you don't have much money, you spend it on a nice car and a shit house. You see your friends with your car, outside the home you are represented by what car you have, people can't see that you have a rundown ex council house when you turn up to Tesco in your Range Rover Sport, despite the fact you're spending as much as your mortgage payment on it. The fact that owning an expensive car locks people into poverty is neither here nor there, it makes them feel good for a bit.

meh, let them figure it out

how will the gov make money to invest back into infrastructure with just emissions based model when every cunt has an electric car?

So if you don't have much money, you spend it on a nice frame and a shit groupset. You see your friends with your frame, outside the home you are represented by what bike you have, people can't see that you have a rundown ex council house when you turn up to Fortitude Bakehouse on your Tarmac SL7 Sport, despite the fact you're spending as much as your mortgage payment on it. The fact that owning an expensive bike locks people into poverty is neither here nor there, it makes them feel good for a bit.

ftfy ;)

I get you though, but its hard to tell people where and how they should spend their money

If you can pay for all those things that's not poverty.

Second hand cars in the UK were abnormally cheap compared to the rest of Europe for a long time. Not sure why exactly, but the increase in price just takes it more in line with the averages elsewhere.

15 minute cities

I love this conspiracy theory. Somehow the drive to try and have a GP surgery nearby is actually some Orwellian plot to stop you moving around. How on earth is anyone in London going to be able to work if they can’t travel more than 15 mins? And how on earth would this be practically enforceable?
It’s such a headache to even entertain as a joke!

But the more realistic thing is that people can’t aspire towards a big expensive house as it’s simply unattainable, but they can aspire towards and attain an expensive car.

People work hard and want what they perceive to be the rewards of their labour. I’m not saying I agree with it, but I do understand how it happens.

I'm pretty sure they still are

You seen the price of a set of tyres?!

You seen the price of a set of tyres?!

Fuck you, I'd only just got over the trauma of having to buy a new set last month...

.

Well I’ve been enjoying driving round on empty roads today as millions of motorists are persecuted out of their cars.
Or possibly there is no difference as I suspect most of the non compliant cars are only driven a few times a week.

Not sure why exactly

Anecdotal but it could have had something to do with the piss poor upkeep brought on by trade in options and maybe even extended warranties. I spent a lot of my youth being dragged around service shops that one by one folded through the 90s. A reoccurring comment when i asked them what was happening was that no one could or could be bothered to maintain there car anymore.

I suspect if you asked them today they'd say it was because of the forrins and tofu mob.

delusional mad cunts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnDOEnziY-s&ab_channel=TheGuardian

Jesus!

Anti-ULEZ morons have been cutting down traffic lights in and around south east London this morning. The lights on Keston Common were down when I was out on my bike earlier, and these lights in Beckenham were also targeted.

These are at a junction within a few hundred metres of three schools, one of which has to use this junction to cross from the school to their playing fields.

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There was this, too:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/blade-runners-ulez-sadiq-khan-accident-traffic-lights-cameras-orpington-b1133196.html

It's all the more astonishing as it's targeted at a mild, fairly ineffective measure that falls far short of what is required, but distorted beyond belief by a ridiculous media seeking to damage Khan.

domestic terrorism.

targeted at a mild, fairly ineffective measure

Isn't that part of the rub, though? Suspect if it worked it would be much harder to drum up the enthusiasm required to go smash stuff up.

Yep, we ran into lots of these on a Sunday club run all through Mottingham/Chiselhurst and down to the crossing with the A road at St Mary Cray.

I agree with @amey's epithet.

I doubt it's really much about the 'environmental' angle. It's stimulated the car industry a little by creating some demand, but other than that, everything is business as usual.

The main motive the opponents seem to cite is fear of surveillance (all the while using their mobile phones extensively, the most effective surveillance tool invented so far). I have no idea if that angle was part of the desired effect if there is a ¢0NssssP1ℜazzzz¥.

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if ULEZ was partly intended to distract people from the Silvertown Tunnel crap, or the lack of any progress on changing transport for the better quite generally, i.e. generate a lot of heat around something that doesn't actually do much to hurt your road-building agenda. I have no idea if there's any plan, though, it could just be genuine policy chaos.

Posted from my Silverfoil Tunnel.