Do you support the ULEZ expansion?

[icecream99]

Just curious as it is due to start at midnight tonight and could potentially cause a lot of chaos. I don't support it.

YANBU - I DON'T support ULEZ expansion

YABU - I DO support ULEZ expansion

To add a bit of context, my son can (and did) get the bus home. To a bus stop half a mile away, at the bottom of the hill (we live at the top). Or to the train station a mile away, also at the bottom of the hill.

Sure, for an able-bodied person this would be fine. For my son, not so much, so I would drive and pick him up from there. But now I can't drive to the bus stop or station without going through a camera!

So if that short journey is going to cost me £12.50, then I might as well drive him all the way back from school for the same charge. And save him 20-30mins journey time in the process. ULEZ in action, actually increasing the distance of my car journeys!

Yes and get value for money. Perhaps it will encourage people to use cars for more miles if they're having to pay £12.50

Well exactly.

And another example: I go into my central London office 2/3 days a week, by train. As the trains from my closest station are infrequent and would need me to change at E Croydon, I drive to a station a couple of miles away and park there, where I can get a direct train.

But now, as I would have to go through a camera to get there, I might as drive 5+ miles to East Croydon and park there instead - it's the same £12.50 charge, after all. It will be a win-win for me: the journey time will actually be about the same in the mornings; the train fare will be cheaper; and in the evening I can just get on the first E Croydon train instead of waiting maybe 15-20mins for my train.

Well done, TfL.

Do you think that someone who lives right next to the M40 (but midway between two junctions) benefits from the noise and land take?

Even then, I'd be a fan of doing away with short-haul connecting flights.

I believe that Deutsche Bahn have a codeshare agreement with several airlines to offer connecting trains for long-haul passengers.

Absolutely I do and I really respect Sadiq Khan for standing up for what’s right. We need people like him if we have any hope for a bright future for humanity.

So you live at the top of a steep hill. So do I. TfL are not going to run a bus up a residential hill to your door, any more than they are going to do that for me.

Accessiblity of properties is something of people take in to consideration when they buy or rent them. It get it seems unfair to you, but for too long the relatively low cost of driving and the fact the negative externalities of driving have been borne by everyone means car owenrs have been able to choose more awkwardly positioned properties. Why do ou think the outer suburba of London were so much cheaper than the inner suburbs for so long especially in the days before mass car ownership.

Well they definitely won't be able to now!

As the trains from my closest station are infrequent

How infrequent are we talking, exactly?

The hill I live on (or just off) is a busy A road, not a residential side road.

However, on the stretch of a road I live on, there are no buses. Feel free to disbelieve me, but this is what happens in Greater London.

Also forgive me for not forseeing that my son would be born with a rare genetic disorder, so rare that most consultants have never come across it. And for no-one being able to tell me that this was how the condition, once diagnosed, was going to progress.m

I also didn't expect 20 years ago when we bought the house for a £12.50 charge to be slapped on me just to take my car off the driveway. We do take buses and trains a lot, but often drive to the station to park, which I don't think is unreasonable.

As for the frequency of trains, they are every 30mins. It's just not comparable to the tube.

Every 30 minutes is not infrequent and a journey that involves one change is not an unusual hardship.

We at the top of a hill too - off an A road. We have 2 trains in to central London an hour. We do also have four Overground trains as well so we are much better served.

Is it so hard to get a compliant car - aren't something like 90% plus of cars already compliant?

c. 95%

So a good amount then? The amount of moaning you hear you'd think it was like all cars or something. I get that it is likely to be lower income people who have older cars and may struggle to afford to replace them - but there are grants etc..

But then again as a Londoner I have never been able to justify the cost of running car full stop.

Because then certain newspapers couldn’t shriek about it, worry their elderly readers about compliance and snark about Sadiq Khan’s Range Rover (which he was given by the Met due to death threats and which is compliant). It’s another facet of the culture war, with a sprinkling of conspiracy theorist who thinks we’re all going to be locked up within a 15 minute radius of our homes.

Ahh yes - the 15 min city nutters.

cars cause traffic jams, not bikes. If more people got out of their cars and cycled there would be no traffic jams.

As it happens, I'm a big fan of public transport but cycling isn't an option for me. Even after a recent hip replacement, it's too painful. It's also very hilly near where I live and frankly, cycling isn't going to take off amongst the population, particularly when there's heavy bags involved. And cycle lanes are undoubtedly adding to the air pollution from queuing traffic in central London.

Everyone seems happy to ignore the issue of increased air pollution for those areas bordering the ULEZ. As I said, our air quality currently fails EU standards due to the congestion on the M25. The extended ULEZ will simply drive more traffic and congestion onto the perimeter roads so those of us that live just outside it end up with a higher level air pollution. And probably those residents just inside it too.

But I guess that's ok?

As for the frequency of trains, they are every 30mins. It's just not comparable to the tube.

I thought that it might be half-hourly. That's frequent enough, I'm currently sat on a train that runs every three hours.

There was a demo today at Downing Street. They were slowing the traffic and they had parked old knackered vans in the centre of the road. I bet they were there for the anti vax demos and the pro brexit ones. I reckon about 150 people. The old vehicles looked like they needed towing away.

Imagine being pro pollution.

@grass321 Well the powers of the Mayor of London only extend to London. If areas that border London feel strongly about air pollution in their areas perhaps the councils there can introduce their own ULEZ schemes.

@Fifireee Hilarious - did the bellends also not realise that this isn't a national government scheme - they are protesting at the wrong place.

YABU

I support ULEZ, we live in SE London and my main concern is for the health of children (including my own) and others who are vulnerable to the impact of pollution on their lungs

Again, cars cause pollution, not bike lanes. If all of the people who could cycle/use public transport (which is most of them) did so, there would be no traffic jams and those of you who really need to drive will be able to move freely.

The M25 is a perfect example of how if you provide more roads you just get more cars and the widened road ends up just as congested as the old one was.

Again, cars cause pollution, not bike lanes. If all of the people who could cycle/use public transport (which is most of them) did so, there would be no traffic jams and those of you who really need to drive will be able to move freely

this is such a bad argument. You have to make policy in line with how people will behave, not how you’d like them to. This kind of comment is like saying let’s abolish the police because if everyone stopped committing crimes we wouldn’t need them.

Loads of people will continue to drive. A scheme has to bear this in mind if it is to be realistic.

I live in one of the southern boroughs that has no underground. My nearest A&E is a 14 minute drive away or, alternatively, 55-65 minutes on two buses.

Until 2020 I had free bus travel at any time, but Sadiq Khan withdrew that "temporarily" and it's now been made permanent that I don't get free travel until 09:00. If I have an appointment any time up until 10:00 I have to hope I can get onto buses that are full of school children (who do not pay to travel). How does this extra time and stress travelling by public transport help my health?