To wonder what all the fuss is about ULEZ

[Winterday1991]

Hardly anyone is affected, only if you have a very old car. No, you should not be free to pollute the air by driving around in a polluting vehicle and so should have to pay a penalty to do so.

It annoys me as everyone agrees we need to tackle climate change, but no one wants the hit on their life/ change their lifestyles.

I've never voted Labour except for Sadiq Kahn: I vote for him in mayoral elections because after decades of desperation living with pollution finally a politician seems to be doing something.

Personally I agree with you OP, albeit ULEZ is about air pollution rather than climate change. I don't really understand what all the fuss is about when people say 'yes I agree something needs to be done' but when that something actually affects them personally as opposed to someone else, they're against it.

I also think the Tories are playing party politics with it because London has a Labour mayor and they hate Kahn.

Jannier - so your daughter's car cost nothing and has no running costs?

Woodhall, not everyone on low income is affected
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2023/07/24/ulez-70-of-outer-londons-poorest-households-do-not-own-cars/

True

There is so much opposition to it in the borough where I live though

Why is writer referring to dollars though?

Add the buses slough ends of her journey and the one this end.

£30 a year tax, £800 insurance and £30 a month fuel. In addition to work we go out in it.

It's says 70% of households earning less than £10k don't own cars ....but I'm guessing Thor's earning less than £10k a year don't have enough to eat or heat homes. Low income includes households earning more than £10k because of the cost of housing....the average salary in London being £54k so 2 income families are on average higher income than £10k

Driving lessons cost a lot of money. You'd need at least £50 a week spare in order to afford them.

But how is that relating to the discussion

Do you mean they cannot afford to learn to drive in the first place?

What? Some people are going to be spending extortionate amounts on top of what they're already spending to do minimum wage jobs in a city that needs them to work there. Are you mad?!

@Indigotree one of the most ridiculous arguments I have heard on here. How many pensioners paid £50 per driving lesson?!

Because it's Forbes, a US website catering for US readers. So it would be easier to for them to understand that £12.50 is roughly $16.

Do you find this so hard to understand? British publications do the same as do other publications working all over the world. Do you expect readers to look up a currency conversion chart when reading something of interest to them?

Yes I get it but Tbh it's a bit rich coming from the USA anyway

Are they doing anything similar

Why?

Well according to that article 47% of Londoners who earn between £10,000 and £19,999 have a car. That’s still quite a lot! And as usual, like many posters on this thread, it also doesn’t address the fact that many people from outside London have to travel into outer London on a regular basis. There’s not some magical fence around London stopping people from going in or out!

@woodhill the US is a very big place. Maybe some of people there are thinking of doing similar things to ULEZ and the Congestion Zone and other traffic calming measures.

I would be surprised if they hadn't already done it. Would that bother you?

Increasing numbers of US cities are introducing free public transport
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/08/business/free-buses-us-public-transit/index.html

Great idea

But why do people who travel into the new ULEZ in outer London think they should be able to do it in non-compliant cars without paying a penalty?

It's polluting. To say it hurts people's lungs is an understatement. It makes a lot of them die an early death after a miserable life. It stunts children's lungs even before they're born. It doesn't matter where you live, that's what happens. Why would you want to do that to people?

Lots of people who live in and around those areas have compliant cars. I don't want to be personal , but you do too, don't you?

I'm currently talking to someone in Thurrock, Essex, which is one of the councils that have apparently vowed against putting up signs that will warn people against straying into ULEZ and incurring a £12.50 charge and a hefty penalty for not paying it in time.

He thinks this is a good idea because he refuses to go to Khan's London on principle. It's up to him, but I'd be a bit ticked off if I strayed into ULEZ without my local council putting up signs to warn me.

The crazy thing is that like you, he drives a ULEZ-compliant car, but won't drive over the border to visit friends in Havering on principle.

I don't drive a car and to be honest, I care more about my lungs and my right to breathe than other people's right to drive a car. I don't think that is selfish at all. That's my considered decision and it is just as good as any one else's.

Lots of other people in outer London don't have cars so the charge won't affect them.

Why are people in outer London boroughs and beyond not agitating for better public transport from their local authorities instead of sticking up for things like this?

I like cars. I used to drive them, but buses and trains are a good thing, aren't they? You could even drive to a station, couldn't you? You probably do, don't you? Sometimes.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/ulez-expansion-kent-buckinghamshire-surrey-signs-sadiq-khan-b1098441.html

Do you live in any of those US cities @ScribblingPixie?

Free public transport would be brilliant for everyone everywhere and not just over 60s. but forgive me, aren't people whining about paying their ULEZ and Congestion Charge and bitching about Khan's cash grab?

How do you propose we should fund this?

I used to live in a US city that had free transport, yes.

@limitedperiodonly well I’m not being personal either….but you don’t need to drive a car as you live in central London.

This is not about me, this is about people less fortunate than me.

As for people driving to a station, have you any idea how much station car parking costs?! It’s also in very short supply and difficult to get a space. Then there’s the fact that outside your little central London bubble, public transport is not 24 hours so people who work shifts cannot rely on it.

And it seems you change your tune to suit, much earlier in the thread you didn’t care who drove their cars in central London as long as they paid the charges if their car wasn’t compliant. Then you decided that you cared about people’s lungs.

At one point you were purposely misinterpretating what I said to suggest that I lived closed to a tube station … and then a few pages down you started attacking someone for doing the same to you. But didn’t you say you were a journalist, so why should I be suprised at that?!!!

That must have been good. Were you happy to pay for it? Do you now live in Britain? Are you happy to pay through your taxes for free public transport?