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Mike Rutherford rightly gets out of shape in this week's DT motoring regarding this subject. He mentions London as being the only major city in the world which will levy a charge to enter its centre. I may be out of shape myself on this in case the nature of the beast is different, but surely Singapore is one major city which certainly charges traffic to enter its CBD, and has done for years.
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Growler,
The Association of British Drivers has come up with a solution to congestion on all forms of transport. see below.
ABD SOLVES TUBE OVERCROWDING PROBLEM!
The Association of British Drivers today announced that it has found a solution to the tricky problem of overcrowding on London's creaking tube network: charge each passenger a £5 congestion fee for each journey made.
"We must give full credit for this solution to Ken Livingstone," said ABD spokesman April Fule. "After all, if the answer to over-crowded roads is to charge drivers £5 more for using them, the solution to over-crowded tubes must be to charge passengers £5 more for using those."
The ABD praised Mr Livingstone's keen analytical mind and efficient approach to the problem. "Most people would have thought that you need to solve over-crowding by increasing capacity and by removing bottlenecks from the system. It takes a special kind of insight to realise that you can avoid all that tiresome investment and instead simply punish commuters for daring to travel to work."
The ABD believes that the potential for a truly integrated transport strategy has barely been tapped. To further integrate tube travel with road transport, the ABD suggests:
- Tube ticket duty, tripling the cost of tickets
- A Tube Tax Disk, costing commuters £155 a year
- Speed cameras on underground platforms, issuing £60 fines to commuters who walk faster than the council-set speed limit
- Electronic tags to track commuters and charge them for each metre of underground passageway they use
Greenhouse gas detectors have also revealed that there is a high concentration of CO2 on the underground system. Commuters will be warned to reduce their CO2 emissions by breathing out less. Those who fail to comply will be banned from using the tube system.
"The advice to tube commuters must be to travel outside of peak hours, and to avoid congested routes," said April Fule. "We suggest that people on the Northern Line take up shift work, and travel at times when the tube is closed, thus significantly reducing overcrowding. People using the Central Line should move to less crowded cities like Nottingham and Bristol. This is the kind of innovative thinking which is currently only being applied to British roads, when it could be equally usefully applied to all forms of transport."
(Ends)
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Alwyn I am cringing already since I shall be using the Tube myself this coming week. Paying Lon Trans large sums of money to stare at posters for long periods of time while waiting, I suppose. Dammit they don't even have the lingerie ads on the escalators any more.
But isn't there something missing? Like a commuter's MOT, a requirement of fitness to travel? Charges for this could help the NHS.
Whatever they say about Singapore three cheers for a beautiful MRT.
Growlette is perusing the menus by the way. Says she hopes they deliver the promise.....
For my part I hope the weather supports travel by Hog London-Newcastle.
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Growler,
Take care on your bike. Weather forcast is not too bad, so far.
Hog site here. www.bridgwaterhog.co.uk/home.htm
I presume a Hog is a tri-cycle and not Harley Owners Group?
Springtail, soft-tail, which is best? All would terrify me to ride.
I recall having a car breakdown after a year off bikes and I borrowed my fathers BSA Silver Star to go to work. Scared me to death until I got used to it.
Safe journey,
Via con Dios.
Alwyn
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Growler,
The weather up until Wed/Thu next week looks like it's gonna be pretty good. A bit cloudy at times but a reasonable 15 to 18C mid afternoon. Showers now and again but that's the UK.
If you're on a hog and you have the time, seriously consider heading along the M4 to Swindon and then going up through Stowe on the Wold, Stratford, Warwick etc. it's a beautiful ride on fairly traffic free A roads.
Enjoy, Kevin....
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vaya ?
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Mark,
Gracias. But the thought was there.
Via? by way of?
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In addition there should be annual checks on gastric systems to ensure that "other emissions" are within permitted levels.
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Vaya = go
As in "Go with God"
"via" is Latin, not other meaning than in English usage that I can think of in Spanish.
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Thank you Kevin. I may take you up on that. Despite popular conception Hogs go round corners extremely well. All that weight and a low centre of gravity. My footboards have the bevelled edges to prove it. 15-18 is a bit brrrr!! to this thin expat tropicalised blood, but the countryside should be worth it. Motorcycles are a waste of time on m'ways anyway.
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15 to 18 a bit brrrr ???
It's a bit better than anything we've had recently !
Oh, BTW, there are some lovely places to grab lunch on that route as well.
Have a good trip, Kevin...
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