Are you saying fines from ULEZ go into some fund that Khan and no-one else can access and it is used for his election campaign?
No - but he IS mayor, so he can use the funds as he sees fit, and he knows that most people who drive into London would unlikely be voting for him anyway.
The ULEZ and CC are tied to TfL and not for Mayors of any/either persuasion to spend as they see fit. Recent changes are to backfill for loss of fare income on buses and Under/Overground.
He can surely say how the money is spent on TfL - after all, he did freeze fares for a while, so he does have significant latitude on what they do. My point was that it doesn't go into government coffers, but those he (or any other candidate would) controls as mayor.
It just means then if he gets enough to run TfL, he then has money to spend in other areas of policy, which is what any incumbent would want in an election year.
Anyway - I think the COVID impact will mean more cities trying to rake in funds from anywhere they see fit (whether worthy or not) so their funding can keep flowing. Unfortunately for them, soaking everyone for cash will likely encourage people to move away or work outside of these areas, making the problem worse, especially of a vaccine is either not forthcoming, is not as effective as touted / has significant short and especially long term side effects.
Living/working in more rural areas or smaller towns will be far more lucrative as they've been shown to be far less susceptible to the issues surrounding COVID and are more amenable to use of private transport or walking/cycling to work, as housing is more affordable than in nearby cities.
I think there will inevitably be 'mission creep' as regards ULEZs, much more so than originally envisaged. The daft thing is that all it will do is ruin cities.
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