£35.50 to take a car into London 😲

This.
Plus statistics show that the poorest households have a low level of car ownership.
Unless necessary because of disability, I don't understand why anyone would want to drive in central London.

I love a good debate about transport. Its a niche specialism in Economics, sometimes I wished I'd gone into it instead of teaching.
It's great to see so many ideas, obviously as a society we are going to have to find a way to adapt as we phase out petrol vehicles and reduce air pollution.
I'm always struck as a historian by how societies never have these discussions as the technology is introduced in the first place. Relatively recently children played in the streets and adults walked or set up stalls and other small businesses in them. Making roads the sole preserve of personal vehicles is really restrictive.
Also public transport between South East London and East London for me is a breeze thanks to the overground!.
And Beckton is not on the outskirts of London! It's all relative. This is why I love transport it is so democratic and all our lived experiences are valid.

Tigertigertigertiger
Here's a thing .

My millionaire brother in law loves all these charges because it makes the roads so much quieter for rich people 

Do you understand how big ULEZ is? Or how busy the CC zone still is?
Where are all these quiet roads acting as millionaire playgrounds

Yes I understand.
I posted this purely to indicate what a tosser my brother in law is and that the charges impact people differently

I live in zone 4, the last time I drove into central London was in lockdown to get to my office to check the post etc. There are very few people that need to drive into central London. In some ways I wonder why they didn't toll Blackwall before they built another tunnel and demand will reduce. I think it's a bit unfair if Blackwall, Silvertown and Dartford are tolls in the east and they spend loads on Hammersmith and don't charge in the west where people are generally much richer. ULEZ will raise very little in a year or two as it will speed up people upgrading their cars.

Surely from Essex you'd go round the M25 if you're driving?

@ACynicalDad I've got a vague memory from the dim and distant past that there are special laws/warrants/similar in place for the central London bridges that prevents them from having tolls added.

I think they didn't introduce tolls on the Blackwall tunnel before the Silvertown tunnel was built because there's been a huge amount of disruption caused by the construction. It'd be a tough sell to say "Hey, you're now going to have to pay to go through the Blackwall but at the same time traffic's going to be even worse than usual because we're digging up the road lol"

If you lived in Romford, why would you drive through Central London to get to Heathrow? Obviously bollocks.

Ok. This is fine for a office worker but what if your a labourer with tools and equipment.

A drummer with a set to set up
A freelance therapist with a table
A caterer with food to keep cool.

It's not just about mums going into London. For a day out.

If your going to Heathrow on the M4 come off at junction 4 then go along the spur to T2/3/4 your in the Ulez zone for 10 mins if you go T5 on M25 your in Ulez for 3

Can you give specific examples please? I live in a building of 110 flats and I've yet to meet a single tradesmen who cycles in 20+ years. Because they have tools / equipment / parts. They all have vans.

So people with a car that is 10 years old goes perfectly passes emissions and mots need to pay those with the same model that struggles to pass emissions and has to be blasted in a field first but is 9 years old doesn't. Then when they get there the fuel dump and shit from the planes goes harmlessly away

Yep put your ladder bucket paint and brushes over your arm. Carry your welder mask and metal in a ruck sack. That massive tool box will fit on the handle bar you know your van is empty ... ..and then as you can now only do one job after cycling and hour each way to get there instead of 3 let's all treble are call out rates

The most bonkers thing is that it won't actually cost them anything anyway, because no one in their right mind would drive through Central London in order to get to one of the long-haul airports. They'd go around the M25.

Lots of trades have cycle options

If you're going from south London to west London presumably you'd be missing both the congestion charging zone and the Blackwall/Silvertown tunnels? So all you'd have to worry about is the ULEZ charge and only that if you've got an old banger of a car?

Yeah I don't think that's a thing.

The CC zone is still exceptionally busy. Yes it can be quite at night and early in the morning on weekends, but the CC charge doesn't apply then anyway.

The ULEZ zone is vast, and as 90% of cars aren't impacted by the charge, it doesn't reduce traffic.

Lots of trades have cycle options

Here's a thing .

My millionaire brother in law loves all these charges because it makes the roads so much quieter for rich people

This already happens. I live in central London and the majority of tradesmen now add the FULL ULEZ charge to each customer's bill. So if they have more than one customer per day, they're actually profiting from it. Prices were already expensive but now it really is daylight robbery.

Here's a thing .

My millionaire brother in law loves all these charges because it makes the roads so much quieter for rich people

Because flights go from Heathrow and Gatwick? Tell me where else I should catch them then? I'm talking long haul not a hop to Europe

And I'd rather be able to get public transport than drive tbh. Airport parking costs a small fortune