To think we need a congestion charge in every major city?

[impossiblecat]

The traffic is getting insane.

It's dangerous and bad for everyone's health.

With the exception of the disabled and people who live within the limits of said congestion zone, obviously.

I'd have all money raised ploughed into public transport.

Why shouldn’t we be allowed to drive into our capital City and enjoy it. Fuck me it’s getting like Animal Farm

No, the figures don't include taxis and other vehicles exempt.

The other thing to bear in mind is that even in London the mass transit systems are clogged to the point of failure; there is simply no more capacity. Even TFL acknowledge this.

Trains on the Victoria line run every minute. It is still normal to need to leave extra time for your journey because you will not get on the third or even fourth train which comes. During peak times stations are often closed because they become overcrowded.

The 20mph zones actually increase pollution because cars and lorries run less efficiently.

I'm also a bit tired of everything being a stick rather than a carrot.

I'd be more interested in (i) tax incentives for employers to move to home working. Most people whose jobs involve sitting on their bum at a desk could work from home most of the time and (ii) a proper planned look at the distribution of government offices and businesses around the UK to distribute jobs more evenly and allow people to avoid paying London house prices. Business movement could be managed through things like enterprise zones which were a good idea poorly administered.

impossiblecat are you for real live in the suburbs and pollute your home! Who died and made you in charge of everyone

It never ceases to amaze me how far people will go to argue against their own best interests. Pollution from cars is literally killing us. How brainwashed are you all by the oil companies & car manufacturers?

I think it’s a great idea OP. Charge the fuck out of all of them.

You can pay the charge or find an alternative. If there is none, campaign for it. campaigns invariably get ignored, typical middle class lefty who wants to virtue signal at the expense of working people

Exactly Citrus.
My dd lives on the outskirts and works in zone 1.
To use the transport system it can take her 2 hours each way.
She has a moped and the journey is 50 minutes max. Plus she isn't reliant on a service that often decides to cancel a train as passengers are standing on the platform.
The cost for her is also cheaper than paying for a shoddy service.

Op is comparing the UK to the Netherlands, totally ignoring the fact that millions more people live in the UK than the Netherlands.

Maybe relocate there if you like the way of life so much.

And UserX illustrates best why we are in this mess.

Yes, and you need all of the milk and apples, don't you @user1457017537

No, we're in this mess because government after government haven't invested in the infrastructures in some areas and because there's a hell of a lot of selfish drivers out there.

Looking forward to the Bath congestion charge going ahead.

If I can walk it in less than 50 minutes, I ‘ll leave the car at home now and walk when I can. I was partly motivated to start this by the gridlocked traffic in our city and the difficulty in getting parked, without paying huge charges, when you eventually got where you were going. My stress levels dropped appreciably just knowing that I’d get where I was going on time. The walk to town from my home is about half an hour and I often ‘beat’ cars caught up in the rush hour queues. Now the nights are getting dark though, it doesn’t feel safe after about 4pm.

Privatising buses all those years ago has led to stupidly high bus fares here, deplorable, sometimes non existent service after 7 at night and Sundays and disappearing bus routes the further out you live from town.

So my solution to congestion in towns in cities is to hand buses back to local authorities so they can be a service again rather than just a money making enterprise, fund local authorities to allow them to do this, keeping prices low to encourage people to use them. Fund local authorities to create more cycle lanes to encourage more cycling but keep cyclists off the pavements and generally make pavements a safer space. Perhaps more cctv, and better lighting on pavements to encourage more people to use the streets at night. On my way into town, most of it is along the main road so feels ok to walk at night but at one point, the cycle lane part of the pavement carries on along the side of the road while the pedestrian part goes through a little copse. Lovely in the height of summer but very unsafe these dark evenings. Planners. Please make our city streets safe to walk so we can leave our cars at home.

Agreed, @Littlepleasures

Walking or cycling does make you happier.

A CC could help pay for some of that.

What have milk and apples got to do with it? Are you on something?

Walking 13 miles isn’t an option for me.

Do you know Bath Southeast?Were you aware there aren’t alternative routes and others who live further out are worried about it being shunted further down?

Google not helping sweetheart?

It's a reference to Animal Farm. Thought you'd read it? Think you meant 1984 but can't imagine you've read that either.

@CitrusFruit9

There isn't capacity on the roads either nor should there be.

Working from home more would help

I love semi rurally and work in Manchester. I commute by train every day. We currently still have the Pacers that were built in the 1980s. That's if they turn up. They are often late if not cancelled altogether. Northern the company who have the franchise are a shower of shit. If the service ran well it would be great but they don't which makes it incredibly stressful to commute by train. It is, however, quicker than driving and cheaper at £1000 p.a. The tram takes a lot longer and is more expensive to use but is still at capacity.

Manchester has a large enough population within the M60 that nobody is commuting from say Rochdale or Oldham to work in the city centre shops and for the lower level jobs.

OK I know that not everyone buys a new car every 3 years. But you need to plan ahead. A second hand Toyota Prius is £2.5k at the moment. In 3 years' time, they'll be less than £1k. I'm sure we can build a strategy around that? Sadiq Khan (London Mayor) is giving plenty of notice of the Ultra Low Emissions (ULEZ) zone, so 'people can prepare' in his words. Having been forced to queue for 15 minutes in the pissing rain this evening just to get into Oxford Circus tube station, am thinking an eBike may be a good investment.

Yes it is or any bike!

True, but you breathe less heavily on an eBike. And considering the shit that's floating around in most of London, that's quite useful for self preservation.

The mess we are in involves 40,000 premature deaths linked to air pollution in the UK every year. UserX's fault, I presume

The poorest are most likely to live in areas where they can't get away from air pollution and the life expectancy gap between rich and poor is widening year on year, so you can spare me your Ayn Rand shite about 'working people', thanks.

impossiblecat pm me and we can get into it intellectually or otherwise “sweetheart” or are you just a lefty keyboard warrior

How old is this Prius and what size? No way are you getting a post 2006 7 seater Prius that could carry 6 adults comfortably at £2k😂 A hybrid older than 2006 would be charged, my newer diesel wouldn’t. We searched. Many hybrids are dirty,the mileage is often shite and they don’t always switch over in slow traffic and where is the proof that drivers do? The Volvo hybrid people carrier looked good but it was £60k.

Blimey LeafyHouse - please tell me where you are buying your cars, as I can't get deals like that anywhere I've looked.

Unless you live rurally, it is possible to do the school run and get to work on public transport- if you live in a very big city which is what I'm talking about.
What a ridiculous generalisation. Can't begin to believe you actually think this is a fact for everybody - you can't be that ignorant, surely?

You keep cracking on about people not needing to drive in to City Centres, and mentioning Birmingham.
Let me tell you about one building in Birmingham City Centre. It is Birmingham Children's Hospital. Now, personally, I have taken my otherwise fit and well ds there, on the bus, for an audiology appointment. Many, many parents aren't so fortunate as to have such mobile dc. Children going in to BCH have - as it might be expected - all sorts of illnesses and disabilities. There are dc with wheelchairs, that need to be on oxygen, that are immune deficient, etc., etc. There are hundreds of families from all over the Midlands, the East of the country, the North East, Wales, and potentially a lot of other places that have to travel for specialist care at BCH. Putting aside those thousands of people, then let's look at the staff.

Cleaners, maintenance staff, laundry staff, kitchen staff, porters etc - all will be on low wages. Nursing staff and many, many other medical staff will be working all kinds of shift patterns that mean they have to be there before public transport starts or after it stops. Therapists, social workers, play workers, outreach nursing teams etc etc all have to work in different parts of the City / do home visit / attend Child protection conferences / attend EHCP meetings / planning meetings, etc etc, etc, - you can't do that sort of job and make all your appts without driving.
There's probably dozens of other people who need cars and work at BCH - JUST ONE BUILDING, in just one of the Cities you mention. It's so ludicrous to just throw out a wild statement about how EVERYBODY can use buses to get to work.