Well, not necesarily good news, but certainly no worse than previously. The proposed new TfL rules include a section for cars registered before March 2001 - engine sizes up to 3000cc will still be charged £8 a day, not the full whack £25. Over 3l will be £25.
We've just managed to creep in under the barrier!
(Not that I had any trips planned, but might be of interest)
I also read this. :?
Do the congestion charge cameras face the front of the car? If they do then I can get in for free in my D :wink:
Dan1986 Wrote:Do the congestion charge cameras face the front of the car? If they do then I can get in for free in my D :wink:
I like your thinking there! From pics I have found on google most cameras do seem to face the front of the car, but there could be exceptions...
They are planning to introduce a £5 C-charge in Cambridge soon, and the entrance to my workplace is 100 yards inside the proposed zone... :-(
What do we pay road tax for?! We pay silly amounts of tax on fuel too. When is it going to stop :evil:
When they spend money on a realistic alternative? eg decent public trains, buses etc etc
Yeah.... I believe it too...... :roll:
I dont think trains will ever be as conveniant as your own car. Unless they make them so cheap that people will put up with less conveniance to save money, people will just use their cars. They also don't seem to understand that some of us actualy like driving our cars :roll:
Sounds like you're going to be adding a 100yard dash to your daily exercise regime then Simon!
from an 'outsiders' perspective, London does seem to have a very good
public transport network, with the underground, buses and mainline train
links.
I can also fully understand the backlash at people using ridiculously large,
over engineered 4x4 "Chelsea Tractors" to drive children 1/4 mile to school.
However, this is a free country, and our forefathers sacrificed a hell of a lot
to give us the freedoms that we are supposed to have now, and I do object
strongly to people like Red Ken dictating to us what we can drive and where.
We pay enough ruddy "road tax" as it is, on top of fuel duty/VAT (nearly
80% of the cost of fuel), and I do worry when it is all going to end.
For someone like me, who lives in a 'semi rural' area, public transport to
my job in Derby each day is not a viable option. The nearest bus-stop
is about a mile away and the nearest train station about 4 miles away.
Even if I could get the bus or train to Derby, I've then got about a mile's
walk from the train/bus depot's to my work place. Whilst it is frustrating
spending 45 minutes commuting the 13 miles to work each day, unfortunately
I have no choice - except for looking for a job somewhere closer - which
wont pay as well as my job in Derby.... however, Derby City Council are
apparantly looking at Congestion Charging - however, they have actually
imposed various strangles on the road network over the last few years
which have actually increased jams and congestion! It makes you wonder
if the grand plan all along was to think up a way of charging people to
drive into the City..........
I agree, its all getting a bit much. About 2 hours ago I filled my van up at Tesco (which lets be honest, as with most supermarkets, is a bit cheaper than your usual forecourt) & it was £83.00.!!
I even commented to the guy behind the kiosk, £83.00 to fill a van with fuel, madness!
Once you start with the cngestion charging, the businesses will move out of the zone anyway to outside business parks.
I work all over the place and need a car for work regardless of where it is. I am not going to lug £4000 worth of equipment with me on the bus or train ta.
NickT
Question: How much do the govt get from road tax and road fuel tax? How much do they spend on the roads, road safety (and I don't mean frickin' speed cameras!) and public transport ?
There's a yawning chasm between the two figures, and if they -did- start succeeding in getting people out of their cars and into public transport, their tax revenue would fall, therefore it's in their interested to keep us in our cars and charge us as much as possible for the privelige.
"fuel tax is an environmental tax" my backside.... elementary economics says that we have a society where the car is a necessity. This puts road fuel into the "necessity commodity" corner and therefore has an inelastic demand - to the point that people will sacrifice other goods to spend on the fuel.
Result: a tax hike equals more money to the govt. FACT. They're about to put up fuel duty AGAIN despite the increased price of oil meaning they're already getting several pence more in VAT.