ULEZ

[hughnique]

My Son. like a lot of other people, lives in the outer suburbs of London, in the borough of Bexley, and again, like a lot of other people, is now in a position where he is being forced to shell out thousands of pounds, to replace, what until now, has been a perfectly satisfactory vehicle, or face being charged £12:50p per day, which enables him to continue to use his vehicle in the proposed expanded ULEZ zone. We are told that this is necessary to combat the rise in pollution related illness and deaths in the greater London area, but for £12:50p a day you can circumvent, this life saving exercise, surely that smacks of hypocrisy and yet another money making scheme for TFL or whoever is administrating this matter.
Something else that is somewhat bizarre having looked at autotrader, and the like, adverts for cars is that when I was somewhat younger the average mileage per annum was somewhere between 10-12K miles, now according to autotrader it falls at about just under 7K, so not so much travelling, which must lead to a reduction in pollution overall.
What with the cost of living in the UK, increases in the mortgages and rents, what a untimely event, increasing debt yet again, do they really give a toss about the general voting public, or just interested in making money out of the motorist yet again.

[rabbit]

It is more about cutting down pollution and encouraging more use of public transport, which is perfectly adequate in areas like Bexley. Kids to adults can get very ill from the particulates. It is going to be hard for some but is for the greater good

[Loup-garou]

I don't disagree with your post.

Two things - I used to live in Buckhurst Hill in Epping Forest, about a mile outside Greater London. However, if I wanted a supermarket, brico, Ikea, rubbish tip, fish and chip shop, etc every trip had to be into what will now be a ULEZ. My point being that millions living around London will also need to have complying vehicles to continue their daily life.

On the point of reduced miles, I think this may be due to homes having multiple vehicles these days - especially as offspring remain at home for longer.

From my point of view, it's the people who own gas guzzling vehicles to do shopping or the school run that should somehow be addressed. It seems that, these days, the precious little darlings can't be expected to walk a mile to school and need to be delivered in a Chelsea Tractor.

[hughnique]

It is more about cutting down pollution and encouraging more use of public transport, which is perfectly adequate in areas like Bexley. Kids to adults can get very ill from the particulates. It is going to be hard for some but is for the greater good

That is the veil being used to implement this exercise, and what most people are being fed to believe, how comes money speaks when it is possible to pay the daily charge, does all this mass annihilation suddenly disappear. As for public transport, that is a shambles they are always on strike of late, and most of the buses I have been behind are chucking crap out of their exhausts all day.

[niemeyjt]

Well for occasional visits to my daughter I just cough up - it will take a lot of £12.50 to add up to being worth trading in my current diesel Volvo - and if I did it might actually be for a petrol model of similar age. I have found recent trips to be good - obviously driving some onto public transport reduces traffic for me. All a bit regressive though.

Actually from Folkestone to home via my daughter it is actually £10 as I save £2.50 on the tunnel.

But it is just revenue raising - if they were really concerned about air quality they would follow the Glasgow example and ban polluting vehicles entirely.

Remember, ULEZ was invented by the then mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson in March 2015.

[Yonner]

It was "invented" by him, you're right, but to be fair back then it was small, mainly non residential ( city of london, city of westminster etc) and had overwhelming support after its consultation process.
The issue with the new scheme is its size and residential inclusivity - its around 20 time the size of the original

[Hotrodder]

It occurs to me that people living there have to decide whether the cost of living in or near London is really worth it. Do they earn enough to change to an electric car? If so, fine. If not they will need to move away. The higher London area property prices will work to their advantage when they sell. Renters have a dilemma. There is a shortage of rental properties pretty much everywhere regardless of price. Personally I wouldn't want to live in any city for numerous reasons. I spent my first 23 years in the suburbs of LA. That was enough for a lifetime.

[beejay]

Wait until the ULEZ zone becomes the Congestion Charge zone,

[niemeyjt]

More likely the cameras are repurposed for pay-per-mile calculations.

[hughnique]

More likely the cameras are repurposed for pay-per-mile calculations.

That's if there are any left, evidently vigilantes are ripping them down as fast as they are put up