To think this is ridiculous and will mostly affect the poor of London?

[mothertruck3r]

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/new-emissions-zone-to-hit-drivers-with-1250-a-day-pollution-tax-a3858531.html

I understand he wants to reduce pollution but how is this going to help the hundreds of thousands of poor people who can't afford to buy a new car, pay the fee (£12.50 per day!) or pay the fine, especially after people were encouraged to buy diesel cars?

Great if you are rich and can easily buy a new car but there are loads of poor people in London who can't do this and rely on their old car for their jobs, taking kids to school, disabled getting about etc.

It's not very well thought through. I thought Labour was supposed to be the party to help the poor. Seems all this will do is help boost new car sales for big manufacturers whilst screwing a huge part of the electorate that voted for him !

@nutellalove - but he is. By freezing fares (or at least the ones he has control over), when inflation is still going up, that is trying to make it more affordable. Not to mention the new hopper bus fares (people on lower incomes often being the ones dependent on taking multi-bus trips), and also trying to make more of the bus fleet more environmentally friendly. This is definitely a coordinated policy.

@Stuckforthefourthtime we still have some of the highest public transport fares in the world. We also rank extremely low in terms of punctuality and comfort (e.g. recent Thameslink disasters)

@nutellalove yes, but a lot of this is out of London's control. Season tickets are usually with the train companies, and there has been a national decision not to subsidise public transport (or keep it in public ownership!) as has been done elsewhere. There is also a question of priorities - London has so many needs, not just transport, and also whether to subsidise and focus on train users when the poorest in London are overwhelmingly on buses due to costs. There's no perfect solution.
I think Sadiq Khan is doing a decent job but am not a blinkered fan - however I think that as other posters have said, there needs to be a national change in the attitude to public transport, the London Mayor doesn't own the solution to this.

I think I walked along either the North or the South (Geography not my strong point!) circular for the first time recently and, as someone who spends a lot of time in Central London, I was genuinely surprised by how 'main roady' it was. I didn't feel like I was only in Zone 3 (?) and it didn't feel overly 'London'. I'm not surprised more people use cars in those areas. In Central London itself I don't actually know anybody who owns a car as there's just no point.

I do think the tax is a good thing though. That doesn't mean there won't be losers. For people like the PP who owns a small van dependent business it sucks. But I think it's better that a few people suffer in a policy that will help so many more. Of course I'd hate it if I were one of those negatively affected and I'd probably struggle to see it as a positive change. But, if you look at it objectively, I think it is.

I grew up in central London and lived there until i was 30 and loads of people have cars, including me (SW1) and they were useful?

Thank you to a PP who pointed out the North / south circ would border the zone (the article didn’t say this) but in a way that makes it worse as it’s a much bigger, suburban area. As I say mixed feelings. I do get the aim but it’s a lot of money for individuals

Hope they increase the number of cars in car sharing schemes when this comes in. My pet hate is drivers sitting in their cars, illegally parked with their engines on. I cant wait for this to come in.

But we could do with free public transport really

If transport was free it would make the already horrendously busy system all but gridlocked. This would then hit the ones who really have no choice, including those mobility issues, the hardest.

It's not going to disproportionately affect the poor, because their rates of ownership are low. It will also arguably bring disproportionate benefit to them given that they suffer particularly because of air quality.

There is, however, a good point to be made about the impact of basing schemes like this on ability to pay. If you have enough money, as some people will, you can still do whatever you like. And the classic cars exemption is bullshit.

Is transport in London expensive? Could some if the money made from this tax go towards subsidising cost of buses and underground if it is?

Transport in London is very cheap. The tube can be fairly pricey but buses are probably the cheapest in the country

The tube is horribly expensive for one offs. If you use it a lot then the price per journey can be really low.

It’s less than £3. Expensive if you’re only going a very short distance I guess but not compared to train or bus fares outside of London

The tube is dear. A one month oyster is about £130 (I think). And the tubes are a nightmare at rush hour.

That’s £6.50 a day, £30 a week. A single busy journey just outside of London costs that!

The £130 a month is including zone 1 - central London. Cheaper if it does not include this zone.

Bus journey, not busy journey

And many people outside of London pay a lot more for public transport and do not have free journeys for kids either.

This will affect me as I live just south of the South Circular and go into the zone fairly regularly.

In my area people do drive a fair amount - it's a lot cheaper and quicker than public transport for short journeys and significantly more convenient. I only started driving again between DCs 2 and 3 and noticed how much more I could get done when I had the car rather than relying on public transport. Plus what quite often ends up happening is that the public transport links into and out of central London are good, but east/ west around where we are really rubbish.

This has been on the cards for a while though, so hopefully people are thinking about it when they need to get a new (to them) car.

As the poor are far less likely to have a car than the not poor and are also disproportionately adversely affected by air pollution I think it's fair enough really.

This wins the thread as far as I’m concerned.

White van guys should tack it onto their services, sort of like parking.

It’s not really about the poorest, I agree. It’s about the workers really- paying it daily would be £200 a month. How much do you have to earn to just be able to suck that up?

Anything that lowers pollution is a good thing. I don't care who it affects.

It's still cheaper than getting the train in for me!! £48 a day....

Funny how it's all about the pollution when it's motorists, but he's quite happy to push that third runway for Heathrow.....

As the poor are far less likely to have a car than the not poor and are also disproportionately adversely affected by air pollution I think it's fair enough really.
WHAT RUBBISH, define poor- people can run an old banger sometimes cheaper than public transport costs for a family of 4.
Im not poor but I cant afford to replace my 2009 diesel car....I HATE SADIQ KHAN

Anything that lowers pollution is a good thing. I don't care who it affects

Totally agree.