The govt. is trying to make driving in London more difficult and it is a conspiracy so there!
At Vauxhall Bridge in London they are carrying out traffic calming measures including restricting the width of the junction by removing slip roads. This is one of the busiest bits of road in London. All of the bridges on the Thames are congested. The current roadworks are making the Embankment more congested causing longer traffic jams.
It makes me mad. I will not vote for Ken and his bearded cycling wierdo cronies next time!
Angry of Tooting
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>>I will not vote for Ken and his bearded cycling wierdo cronies next time!
But you voted for them last time ???? Serves you right.
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At the risk of getting party-political, next time vote for a Conservative mayor. They're dead against congestion charging and all the other anti-car nonsense.
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Once congestion charging comes in no-one will want to work or do business in London anyway, so the narrowed road will be more than adequate.
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I voted not to have a Mayor - London doesn't need it or the expense. Are we all aware "Red" Ken is building himself a multi-million pound set of offices and living quarters out of Londoners additional council tax?
He won by a massive landslide and everyone knew what his ideas or London were. If you don't like someone's policies then why vote for them? Noone remember the GLC which he was in charge of?
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Oh, yes, I remember the GLC, and there was much that was wrong-headed about the way it worked. But I also remember that a great many Londoners (a majority in fact) of all political hues were very sorry to see it go. Part of the reason why Thatcher did away with it was that it was so popular, and so ready to go against her policies. I suspect that's why Livingstone won with such a huge majority this time.
Chris
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The only thing that changed in London when the GLC was abolished was that the rates went down. As for it being popular, most Londoners regarded it as an embarrassing an expensive joke. I defy anyone to name any positive benifits London has received since electing a nutcase as mayor and giving him 3.3 billion of our money to spend. We need less polititians, not more.
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You may not be paranoid but that doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
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I don't believe for a moment that Ken will ever make a go of this congestion charging system. For a start, let's be honest, the public sector in the UK has repeatedly shown itself to be completely inept at managing ambitious IT projects. The Inland Revenue, DSS, passport and air traffic control systems all spring to mind as over-running, over-budget and/or just plain failed.
So, the implementation of a network of high-tech number plate recognition cameras, connected to a database of registered users and a billing and payment system, all overseen by a load of public servants who'd be earning n times as much in the private sector if they actually possessed the management skills and IT knowledge they think they have? I'll believe it when I see it.
And even if Ken does somehow get the thing off the ground, that's just the start of his problems. The system will very quickly hack the following groups of people off:
- Those whose job means they have to drive into central London every day (and let's face it, no-one does so for fun) and suddenly find themselves paying £5 a day, not to mention extortionate parking charges, for the privilege.
- Those who aren't registered users, but accidentally stray into the charging zone one day without realising it, and get a £40 fine dropping through
their letterbox. If they have the audacity to argue about it, it goes up to £80 and then £120.
- Those who live around the edges of the congestion charging zone, and find every road and sidestreet in their entire area totally gridlocked with vehicles trying to skirt round it.
And all this for a predicted measly 10-15% reduction in traffic in central London (Ken's own figures), meaning it will still be one big traffic jam! How long would it be before public pressure forced him to switch his cameras off?? Weeks maybe, a few months at most. I don't pretend to have a simple answer to the problem of London congestion, but I do know that binning yet more public money on another unworkable project ain't gonna get us nowhere.
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Maybe this has been covered before but is there a time when the charging zone will and will not apply?
I mention this as a few months ago I went to London, having worked out my route to the hotel car park, which is outside the zone, (Queensway car park) I wrong slotted and found myself on Oxford Street. Yes I know Billy Bob and Bubba go to town, but it happened. This was 8pm ish, would I have been hit with a fine, or would I have been OK? And will you have to prebook just to cover yourself in case of a wrong slot?
Also what if you have a route designed to avoid the zone, and you get diverted because of an accident, road works whatever? There will be tears, mark my words.
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FiF,
The charges will apply from 7.00am-6.30pm, Monday to Friday, so you'd have been OK. However, if you wander into the zone by mistake or due to a diversion during the above times and aren't registered, you have until 10pm that day to register and pay the fiver. If you don't realise you've done so (quite possible, since the cameras won't flash like Gatsos)...tough! £40 minimum fine, tedious appeal process, likelihood of a £120 fine at the end of it.
Piet.
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re. congestion charges -
I reckon that every gasman, electrician, carpet layer, brickie, etc. - one's quintessential white van man - should make a note of Ken Livingstone's Brighton address, any London pad he has (I think he used to live in a council flat) and his work place and either black-ball him or charge him three times the going rate for work needed as their version of a congestion charge.
Rita
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re. congestion charges -
I reckon that every gasman, electrician, carpet layer, brickie, etc. - one's quintessential white van man - should make a note of Ken Livingstone's Brighton address, any London pad he has (I think he used to live in a council flat) and his work place and either black-ball him or charge him three times the going rate for work needed as their version of a congestion charge.
Rita
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Piet Cass
If Ken ever got out onto the streets, he would know that the major congestion in London is NOT in the central area where the charges will apply, but in the five mile ring surrounding it.
The charges will actually force drivers to stay in that ring to avoid the central area and will therefore make the situation worse, especially with the proliferation of bus lanes which are bringing the major routes into and out of London down to one lane in each direction. As soon as you get a vehicle waiting to turn right (as happened tonight) the whole thing grinds to a halt.
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