Registered: Aug 2000
Location: In a Blue, Blue State
Posts: 12626

Have you Brits finally gone boinkers?
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10,000 face £80 congestion fine

JOHN INNES


UP TO 10,000 motorists are facing £80 fines for failing to pay to drive into central London on Monday - the first day of the congestion charges.

Penalty notices will be sent out by the end of the week, Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, warned yesterday. However, it remains unclear how many people deliberately tried to avoid the £5 charge and how many were unable to pay because the call centre and website were jammed.

A total of 190,000 vehicles crossed into the congestion zone, which covers eight square miles of central London.

This was a 25 per cent drop in traffic, but some of the fall was due to the school half-term holiday in London.

More than 100,000 paid the £5 for the day. The zone was also used by about 20,000 fleet vehicles and 45,000 vehicles that were exempt from the charge, such as buses, taxis, emergency vehicles and 100 per cent discount holders. A further 10,000 did not pay.

The vehicles that are unaccounted for are explained by the fact that the figures are approximate and the 700 cameras scattered around the zone capture about 90 per cent of vehicles and number plates. These are then checked against payment records.

Mr Livingstone described day one as "the best day in traffic flow we have had in living memory" and suggested it may have sparked government interest in a national traffic pricing schemes.

He vowed that non-payers would not force the scheme to be scrapped, saying: "We are not going to allow freeloaders to ride on the back of thousands of law-abiding Londoners."

Many of the non-payers had probably hoped that technical glitches would help them to evade the fee, he said.

The charge is doubled to £10 if motorists pay between 10pm and midnight of the day they entered the zone. The fine then goes up to £80 or £120 after 28 days. Three outstanding £120 fines may result in clamping and the car being towed away.

Rebecca Rees, of the AA motoring organisation, described the non-payment figure as "very high" and urged flexibility for those who could prove that they had tried to pay but could not get through.

She said: "People have faced long waits to get through to the call centre so they can pay and it seems that some have just given up and chosen to pay a fine.

"The organisers need to sharpen up their act so people have no difficulty in paying."

Transport for London [TfL], the mayor’s transport authority, admitted that arrangements for delivery firms had got off to "a shaky start" with only 450 of the 1,280 registered companies having successfully been set up with direct debit payments.

Day two of the charge saw "considerably heavier traffic" on the roads bordering the zone but the traffic was still flowing freely, according to the RAC motoring organisation.

It had been feared that drivers seeking to avoid the zone would use these areas as rat-runs.

Next week, when traffic returns to normal after the school holiday ends, is expected to be a further test of the scheme, which aims to cut congestion by 10-15 per cent and raise £130 million annually for public transport projects.

The positive feedback means that Mr Livingstone may now be able to move forward his Easter deadline to determine whether the charge is successful.

He also favours extending the boundary. Any extension to the boundary could only happen if he is re-elected next year. It would be part of his manifesto in contrast to the Conservatives, who have pledged to scrap the charge.

TfL claimed that the average waiting time for those who paid on Monday was 18 seconds.

In total, 40 per cent of drivers paid at garages, 30 per cent paid through the call centre, 20 per cent used the internet and 10 per cent paid by text message.

The City of Edinburgh Council’s transport convener, Andrew Burns, has admitted that if London’s experiment failed, it "would have an effect" on the introduction of tolls in the city.

The Edinburgh scheme will not be introduced in the city until 2006 at the earliest, after a referendum.

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

Try going into Central London during the day. We don't have a 'rush hour' we have a 'rush day'.

the vast majority of London voted for this because something had to be done about it.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: London
Posts: 3010

That cunt Ken is allready talking about widening the congestion charge zone to twice the size, that would probably encompass where I live.

Funny he launched the charge when all the kids are on half term, of course theres going to be less trafic, there's no mums and dads doing the school run.

And as for congestion being lighter?

I spent 2 hours getting into work today, and I had to stand all the way on the train and it was over half an hour delayed.

Start trying to improve the public transport system before you talk about increasing the zone Ken.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35572

He launched the congestion charge during half term because of fears (massively hyped by the anti-congestion charge camp) that the first few days would be chaotic around the edge of the congestion charge zone, so therefore it made sense to start it during half term when traffic is less.

Traffic in London had gotten so bad that something had to be done, even with only 20% of commuters coming in by car. And as Phil points out, Livingstone was voted in on this, even when the Labour party wouldn't select him as their official candidate and he had to win as an independent.

I catch a bus occasionally and they are much improved at the moment. But it will be interesting to see what happens as peole adapt to this. The underground and commuter lines (and Ken may not have much control over the BR lines anyway) can't really take many more passengers (if any) so the slack has to be taken up by the buses. Of course, until now, there was no point in catching a bus because the traffic was so bad that it was quicker to walk; if the congestion charge reduces traffic enough that the buses work better, then that is a good thing, I think. Although the rail network is close to a crisis in terms of capacity, the road network is in a worse state.

And there doesn't seem to be anything very strange about charging for road use to me; people who aren't from London might not realise how small an area of London this congestion charge covers at the moment (only a few miles in the centre). I'd be pretty pleased if it came as far as where I live; as a resident inside the zone, I would get a big reduction on the congestion charge anyway and traffic round here is fucking shit as a rule.

If there was a way to heavily discourage people from driving their kids to school, of course, there wouldn't be any need for a congestion charge and traffic all over the place would be much better. Whether or not this congestion charging scheme works, I think that it had to be tried.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: aggressivly happy
Posts: 9121

the exicution of a few million pople would sort it out

bobs ya uncle, mate

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Playa d'en London
Posts: 9788

quote:

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Originally posted by CzEcH rEcK

Start trying to improve the public transport system before you talk about increasing the zone Ken.

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Registered: Apr 2002
Location: At Home
Posts: 4084

I have to laugh at the whole exemption shit though, congestion is congestion, whether your car burns cleaner fuel or not. Nine seaters are allowed in for free but are slower, noisier and spew diesel fumes more than three regular cars driving in to the zone.

I am not affected by the charge because of my hightened status as a bike-rider, but fair is fair, charges should be applied to all forms of transport apart from public in order to make it a legitimate "congestion" charge.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 14960

What about foreign cars?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35572

They're all foreign cars.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 14960

What about foreign number plates?

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Playa d'en London
Posts: 9788

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
They're all foreign cars.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 14960

What about privately owned black cabs, what about vans converted into campers that are allowed to carry nine people, what about cars which have tape on the number plates changing the "9" to a "0", what about cars that have nail varnish painted on the number plates to reflect the flash of the camera's?

Do they have to pay the 5 quid as well?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: aggressivly happy
Posts: 9121

DIE KEN DIE

i hate that retarded fuck

fix the public transport befor you slam another million popel on it

central london didnt seem congested to me, no worse that anyother place WERE THEY DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD AND CAR

and were the roads are strate for 20 feet at a time befor they curve

and all thoes one lane roads come the fuck on

£5 quid wont fix anything

stratein out the god damn roads and tube first and traffic wont be bad anyhow

i dont see jefferson avenew backed up much at all

4 lanes both sides

fags

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

quote:

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Originally posted by CzEcH rEcK
That cunt Ken is allready talking about widening the congestion charge zone to twice the size, that would probably encompass where I live.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: China
Posts: 11771

I quite liked Manhattan on Sept. 12 when cars were banned south of 96th St.

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 9164

We should take a leaf outta the merkins books and have school buses.

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