Congestion Charges- Road Tolls

Tout Seul

Tout Seul

Senior Jockey
Joined
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Apparently there are plans to introduce these in many cities in the UK. Whilst I agree with the stated aim of reducing pollution and encouraging the use of public transport I find this tax,since that is what it is , totally unfair. Flat rate charges hurt the lower paid but are a business expense or minor irritant to the more wealthy who generally drive bigger and more petrol guzzling cars.
Lower wage families with kids living in or near to inner city areas often find they can only just afford a car and these tolls and charges could make car ownership a luxury they must do with out. However visiting family and friends has always been a cheap and often enjoyable break for kids and parents. Given the sorry state of much of our transport system-and the increasing cost-there is little joy in carting the kids around in all weathers.

The Government should find some other way to achieve its laudable aims.
 
Tolls are totally unjustified unless the public transport system is a viable alternative. We all know that is not the case.
 
Ban cars.

(I'm only half-joking - they're almost all incredibly inefficient, over-specified and over-sized)
 
Ban the wrinklies from driving.

Remove the testicles of all male children at the age of 17.
 
:lol: :lol: Well, it'd open up a historically acceptable career for them: singing as castrati in operas!

Gareth's points are spot on, to be honest. Why on earth we need hulking great 4x4s which never go anywhere but on m'ways, screaming wheels when the limit is 70, and every gadget known to Man on board, none of which prevent him from grinding to a total stop on the M25 almost any day, I don't know. I think nothing should be bigger than a Matiz if you're a single owner, the concessions being to haulage requirements. Kids should be towed behind in a caged trailer, anyway. That'll soon put paid to in-car disruptiveness, and they'll be SO grateful to fall into Granny's at the end of the trip, too.
 
I ride a motorcycle when going into the town centre. I can use bus lanes and park for free.
 
I agree with toll roads in theory - but not in the UK. They work grand across Europe where you can pay a small amount (it costs about €12-€14 high-season to do a return trip of around 240kms to Malaga) & drive on empty, fast roads, or you can go on the free roads which are often slower & more crowded. Either way you have a choice whereas that isn't possible in the UK due to the lack of landspace. Also, at least in the countries where toll roads are in place the car tax prices are far, far lower than the UK.

I agree about the 4x4s too - I was at a funeral alst week where most people turned up in Range Rovers yet you can be sure they had never seen morre mud than you'd find in central London. Ridiculous - if you are going to be driving down treacherous country lanes/live in an inaccessible area/have large dogs that are frequently in the car/have horses etc so are lugging around feed/straw/hay or will be using the vehicle to tow then fair enough. Using a 4x4 to drive around urban areas in order to show off is sheer stupidity and totally unnecesssary.

As for congestion charges - I agree with Tout Seul. Yet another tax which doesn't hit those that it should & makes life exceptionally difficult for the majority who can't afford it so are forced to pay extortionate amounts to use unreliable, inefficent, over-crowded public transport.
 
I would agree with congestion charges of some sort if public transport in this country worked better.

I'm not so sure about toll roads - again, I'd have no objection whatsoever to "encouraging" people to be more energy efficient in their transport arrangements if we had a better transport system but in the UK I think tolls are pretty much self-defeating - as SL points out, our roads are overcrowded and we don't have much room to build more!
 
Originally posted by Colin Phillips@Dec 1 2005, 06:25 AM
Suggestions please on how the fast approaching grid-lock is to be avoided.
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1) Build more roads
2) Congestion Charges which prevent poor people from driving
3) Scrap Bus lanes etc - in fact all road-going forms of public transport

That should give us some initial leeway.
 
Whip most of Salisbury Plain off the bloody Army and build all of Prescott's 2 million new homes THERE, as well as in the Highlands of Scotland and the valleys of Wales! Spread the construction wealth around a bit, stop choking even more the choked South East and metropolitan areas - in other words, create new small towns with more roads to take people AWAY from the spiders' webs of A and B roads all over the place, and, most of all - TAKE AWAY ALL SPEED LIMITS! It is impossible to drive beyond the conditions of the road and traffic, anyway. Speed doesn't kill, but stupidity does, and I'm pretty sure the same amount of people will be killed being stupid, as they are now.

Make the left lanes mandatory for all vehicles of a certain tonnage, so that you don't get, as I often find, two great leviathans growling up the left and middle lanes for miles in the middle of the morning rush hour.

Make the left lane for vehicles travelling up to 70 mph, the middle lane for vehicles travelling up to 90 mph, and the right lane for those who want to burn rubber. Three lanes all going at a chosen speed, with far less dodging the turnip who wants to hog the middle at only 69.5 mph, or the total arse (and yes, I've been behind one) who's doing 40mph in the right-hand lane of the M27! If I had a Dodge Viper, I'd use the right-hand lane the whole way with a far greater degree of safety at, say, 150mph, than with the prospect of some dork switching out in front of me, doing 75. Also, I'd like to see most HGVs travel at night, with lower taxes for companies who could prove that most of their trucks did that.

And - ding! Bring back, big time, what was a perfectly good transport system: the CANALS network! There is NO reason why goods that don't have to get from A to B (such as furniture, dry goods, white goods, clothes, etc.) in a hurry, shouldn't be sent by canals. Build more canals, and use them night and day.

Please vote for me as your next Transport Minister...
 
Toll roads @ £5 per mile should get the riff raff off the roads.

Fuel up by £1 a litre for private car users.

Toll free for HGVs and rich people like wot brian is.

Innit.
 
Originally posted by krizon@Dec 1 2005, 08:13 PM
Make the left lanes mandatory for all vehicles of a certain tonnage, so that you don't get, as I often find, two great leviathans growling up the left and middle lanes for miles in the middle of the morning rush hour.
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Absolutely, Aunty K - you're spot on there. The A34 is nowt but a joke nowadays; it's a two lane motorway in all but name & you are guaranteed to hit gridlock as one lorry is trying to outspeed another one at 43mph up a hill..... :angy: :angy: :angy:

Make the left lane for vehicles travelling up to 70 mph, the middle lane for vehicles travelling up to 90 mph, and the right lane for those who want to burn rubber. Three lanes all going at a chosen speed, with far less dodging the turnip who wants to hog the middle at only 69.5 mph, or the total arse (and yes, I've been behind one) who's doing 40mph in the right-hand lane of the M27!
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Damn good idea......me like!!!!! B)

Also, I'd like to see most HGVs travel at night, with lower taxes for companies who could prove that most of their trucks did that.
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Very good idea - unless you own a haulage company!! :lol: Actually, you're right - I'm sure that if offered the right incentives, a lot of haulage companies would seriously consider that.

Alonig similar lines - can we PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ban the following people from moving around during daylight hours :P - mothers in estates/4x4s who drive at 27mph & pay more attention to their kids sat in the back than on the road & who wander through supermarkets & town centres with their pushchairs/prams taking up loads of room, holding everyone up & expecting people to make way for them, & old people who do exactly the same but substituting attention to kids for attention to anything bar the sodding road???? Oh, & they do the same as mothers in supermarkets & town centres, dodder about holding people up believing the have the divine right to do so & everyone else should give way for them, just because they're old!!!! :angy: :angy: :angy: :angry:


& don't get me started on old people in those electrical scooter thingys - how I wish I had one of the police's stinger devices....
 
Originally posted by krizon@Dec 1 2005, 01:32 PM
And you don't sound the least bit smug, either, tetley! :lol:
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Only when I ride a motorcycle when going into the town centre. So I can use bus lanes and park for free.
 
Tolerance, Colin??? What the feck is that??? ;) :lol:

Talking of which, my tolerance levels regarding my next door neighbours are exceptionally low right now. I haven't so much as clapped eyes on them but I feel like I know them intimately - she is one hell of a screamer & they sound like they are at it day & night. Oh, & when she isn't screaming (oh, & when she is, too!) he is making the most revolting noises - I would say coughing or clearing his throat but it's worse than that - it sounds like he is either puking or coughing up a lung. Not great to listen to day-in, day out, really! Arseholes. :angry:
 
At least i shall sleep easy tonight,knowing that SL is having to listen to the sound of passion,from a distance. :D :D
 
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