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

AND 90% of cars are exempt!

And if you are a service provider with an out of date van you can add the £12.50 to your jobs. If you do 6 jobs a day it's about £2 extra a job.

I really can't see what all the fuss is about. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to have a transition period for blue badge holders.

and I would have included SUVs of whatever age

I had to pay for a parking permit when I drove a car. That's just the way it was. No one has a drive round here and it's on-street parking only.

It's not even that expensive in the scheme of all the the things you have to pay for in owning a car. It not a money-maker, just a way of making sure that every resident who has a car can get a space because the area I live in is really attractive to commuters or people like you who want to dodge parking charges and sneak in.

We had a thing from about 2010 and austerity was all the rage where people would drive up from Surrey and dump their rubbish in the communal bins at the end of my street which is on a busy road because their councils charged them and they didn't want to pay so thought it was okay to dump it on us.

Cameras identifying their registrations put a stop to their anti social behaviour. It was quite funny to see them scurrying across with bin bags while their cars were stopped in traffic and holding other drivers up. But that was anti-social to dump on other people, wasn't it?

I'm guessing the people who live in the road half a mile away from where you live will soon be clamouring for a residents-only area because they are fed up with you.

It not a money-maker, just a way of making sure that every resident who has a car can get a space because the area I live in is really attractive to commuters or people like you who want to dodge parking charges and sneak in

It's a money maker if they charge more than the administrative cost of issuing the residents parking permit.

You’re forgetting the costs of the parking wardens who enforce it.

But they don't so that would be all right with me if I still had a car, which I don't.

But you should protest about things if you think they are unfair,

The problem is the 10% tend to be squeezed into the grim areas like I posted above. Take an area like that and see if it’s 10%. Then look at the area and the transport links. You’ll find major roads and common routes without even bus options, 5 min drives turned into an hour in buses. Add that to a shift job and already being squeezed accessing childcare. The people hit are often the poorer working families, who haven’t replaced cars and were forced into car use by poor transport links. I could t work now and get kids to school. It would be 50min to school, an hour to work in traffic on buses. Maybe 10-2pm able to work. If I used after school clubs still not realistic- whereas you could scrape it with a car.
The 10% are angry because they are both disadvantaged and in the areas like I post above. With incinerator fumes, mixing with a coke factory mixed with more distribution centres than you can count. With more lorries than cars anyway. Still breathing the pollution of the rest of London burning their rubbish on the doorstep and hiding the shit bits in a cluster.
Why would the 10% be happy that potentially, but maybe not, pollution may be better in areas that are already better.
Before you say ‘move’, even if I manage then another family will be housed here or find it’s all they can rent. Someone will always live here, partly because it’s an area the councils use to house families in as the industrial edge keeps it super cheap.

Such parking schemes aren't allowed to be profitable. They can only cover their own costs.

AND 90% of cars are exempt

If that's true, I can't understand why they've gone to so much trouble to catch a small number of drivers. These cars will be off the road naturally in the next few years anyway so it does seem like a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The difference to air quality is negligible and any truly poluting vehicles are already being kep off the roads thanks to the MOT emissions test. The reality is that this is causing a great deal of stress and worry to a lot of people in the midst of a cost of living crisis, it's appalling frankly. Aound 700,000 vehicles in the expanded ULEZ zone are non compliant, many of the areas affected are leafy suburbs or semi rural and certainly not "grim" as suggested (how rude!). It's a money making scheme pure and simple and it's not surprising there's so much opposition to it. I do feel a lot of people on this thread do not live in Greater London and are merely repeating what they've read in the media or heard come out of Mr Khan's mouth.

100% this! 👏👏

The reality is that all the traffic choking up our streets is causing great deal of stress and worry to more people, no wonder there's so much support for it

Well traffic in my area would be greatly reduced if they moved the sodding plant pots blocking so many roads

I can refer to my own bit as grim, I did add pictures to show. Good for you if it’s a leafy suburb bit with compliant cars, but not all of us are in the same boat. Those of us in the not so nice or affluent bits feel shafted.

COmedycook, ah that old illogical chestnut, fewer cars on the road means less traffic, not more road space

I’m near a huge coca-cola plant with its chimneys, a huge incinerator, massive warehouses and distribution centres spewing out pollution. Nothing is being done, the incinerator is actually being made bigger and will burn most of north londons waste with a plume over some of the most deprived areas in London. Lorries will still trundle on, the sewage pipe will still overflow often into the most polluted stretch of canal in the UK with boaters leaking fuel and discharging shit into the water. No one will sweep the built up on human shit, piss bottles and broken glass up so it can be cycled without puncturing the tyres constantly. No one is agreeing to a bus service for the road

@WildAlphabet fair enough but where did I say I live in a leafy suburb/semi rural? If you re-read my post you'll see that I'm very much against ULEZ. Thousands of people living in the new expanded zone feel shafted, regardless of whether they live in a nice area or somewhere that's a bit "grim".

Thousands of people feel shafted that road traffic has been allowed to double to 41million in 30 years in the UK, that's no way to live

limited period - do you not get it. I have a drive way, ergo do not need a parking permit.
If I park on the street in my road or any in the immediate vicinity- I need a parking permit.

I reverse off my drive two houses from the T junction , where I turn right into a non ULEZ road. So for the privilege of driving those 10 metres - you think I should pay £12.5 . That must be one of the most expensive tolls on record.

Surely that is to do with the rise in population

Greentree, sure, that and multiple car ownership, and it's still the same amount of space, choked with traffic

Of course that won't get sorted as it wouldn't make any money. Instead they are seen to be "doing their bit" for the environment by shafting people who can afford it least by taxing them to drive "polluting" vehicles. Unfortunately, there are mugs who will lap it up without question.

Yes isn't it just

Of course I get it. You feel aggrieved that you are tantalisingly on the edge but still within the Ulez boundary. But like catchment areas for schools or people living on one side of the street paying a different level of council tax to the people across the road, the line has to be drawn somewhere. Like Frozen, you have to let it go.

But to get round the charge you are planning to park in a street outside it. I think you said it's half a mile away and if you don't mind the walk, then I can see why you might do it.

All I'm saying is that you won't be the only driver just inside the Ulez with that idea and the residents in the streets you choose to park in might get fed up if they can't easily find a space and may lobby their local authority to bring in parking restrictions solely for local residents with a few meters for visitors.

That's what exists here because it is a very tempting place for people to park and continue their journey by bus, tube or national rail. The excellent public transport was a factor in my decision to live here and after a while I realised I didn't need the expense of a car at all.

It works. Today I ordered a new fridge from John Lewis and it will be delivered and installed (plugged in, which even I could do) on the date and time of my choosing and the old one will be taken away for (free) recycling. I didn't ask how they would get here or tell them where to park. John Lewis undoubtedly has compliable vans and drivers who know where to park, but if they don't and I was being charged for that, the price was still reasonable and this was one of their cheapest fridges.

It is a Bosch one though. I've never had anything as posh as a Bosch. I am looking forward to it.

But when I did have a car it was very annoying, on the rare occasions I used it, to have to park it three streets away after circling for ages because my road and the one round the corner were parked up by people who didn't live here. We had a residents' parking scheme but car-less locals were making extra cash by flogging off their parking permits until the council tightened the system. Again, I get why they would do that, but when it was stopped almost overnight I could find a parking space if not outside my house - I never needed that - but definitely in the same street or just round the corner.

I don't understand why the majority of my neighbours have cars but as long as they pay Ulez if their car is non-compliant, and their portion of the Congestion Charge and stick to the 20mph speed limit and other costs of driving like insurance and not doing a runner after paying for petrol, then I can ask no more.

There is one man who has a designated disabled spot outside his house. He needs a car and I wouldn't want his condition. You wouldn't believe the cheeky bastards who encroach on his space or even take it because: "I'm only going to be here for five minutes, mate." Or perhaps you would. Personally, I think it's never good look to say that to a small man in a wheelchair.

All in all I wouldn't be surprised if one day you needed a retinal scan to park round here and do you know what? I wouldn't care.

But enjoy sneaking over the border while it lasts.

Today I went in person to get my Bosch fridge from John Lewis on Oxford Street. I tried to order online but wanted to pay by the many gift vouchers I have - the biggest one was £150 - and a credit card payment but computer said no.

So I went there by walking and bus. After a bit of a kerfuffle where computer said no in the shop for which the sales assistant Martin apologised and shouldn't have needed to, my payment went through and the balance I had to pay was £39.

I think that was a bit of a result, not just because I got a fridge for £39 courtesy of people who kindly gave me John Lewis vouchers, but it got me out in the open air today by public transport and walking.

You don't have to do that but you could think about it. Oxford Street was very busy.

I’d actually support it if it was part of a greater change. If it meant stretching my legs on a decent walk, an actual change in air quality and cycle routes. Why not? I’d love a good bus network or a closer station. Why drive if I have that? I’d trade my car for a European style city with cheap trams, buses and a respect of cyclists. It would be an nice area.
All I’m getting is the same air whilst a bit of a mark up to cover any trade visits or a price mark on goods to cover hgvs doing the same thing.
They are showboating a few cars, that may just pay, and ignoring the actual biggest pollution issues. And building MORE in the areas worse affected

And building MORE in the areas worse affected.

Well, as mentioned upthread, people object to building wherever you build. It has to be built somewhere.

If you're going to gradually make it harder and harder for people to drive cars into urban areas, that needs to go hand in hand with a policy of developing lots of dense housing in those areas, because those are the people who will staff local services and provide custom at local shops and businesses (rather than outsiders driving in).