£35.50 to take a car into London 😲

[whatdoidonowffs]

Confirmed the Blackwall tunnel and the new Silvertown tunnel will become toll tunnels in 2025
£4 per crossing 😡😡 add that to the congestion and ULEZ charge hardly worth going to work !!

The standard for ULEZ diesel is Euro VI. If you are driving a HGV that isn't meeting this standard, it's the LEZ charge you would be most worried about not the ULEZ.

The LEZ charge is £100 a day for commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, which your HGV would be.

Anything that stops people from driving unnecessarily in London is a good thing IMO. The air quality is often appalling and the options for public transport are excellent. London is one of the few places in the country where you really don't need a car, but the charges need to high enough to deter the many people who'd just rather drive and clog up the roads.

I agree, cities need to change how they operate, free/cheaper public transport and more bike lanes

Not from where I live! Even at a sensible hour it’s 3 different trains a bus and a mile walk for me to get home from Gatwick. Great fun with luggage!

I used to drive from S London to W London (in my very small car). It was 16 miles to work and took 90 mins by car, sometimes less. It was 90 mins by public transport too IF everything went to plan, which was maybe one day a week. If it didn't go to plan it could be 3 hours, due to missed connections and infrequent train services. It was two trains and 13 stops on the rammed tube, or three trains, a bus and 40 minutes walk. I didn't have 5 hours a day to spend commuting. This is why people drive. Not all of 'London' is well connected by public transport yet drivers are being punished for this.

From where one of my friends lives it's a monstrous pain in the arse to get to Gatwick by public transport as she has to get a bus into Coventry, then a train train to Marylebone station, then a tube, then another train to Gatwick. Takes 3-4 hours.

But I'm not sure how it can be arranged so that anyone, anywhere in the British Isles, can get to Gatwick by public transport at any time of the day or night without having to change and in under 30min.

If you're going from south London to west London presumably you'd be missing both the congestion charging zone and the Blackwall/Silvertown tunnels? So all you'd have to worry about is the ULEZ charge and only that if you've got an old banger of a car?

I have driven to those airports from my home in a London suburb, but I've never driven through central London as that would be utter madness.

Yes, this.

I was an Area Sales Manager (aka rep) back in the late 70s and my area included anything south of the river in London. Even back then I thought it was nuts to try to drive and park in London, so I used to dump the car near an outer tube station (that was free and relatively easy back in those days) and catch the tube. Then to get about London itself, it was either tube or taxis. And, as far as I am concerned that is still a sane decision, with these days the added advantage of being less polluting.

This already happens. I live in central London and the majority of tradesmen now add the FULL ULEZ charge to each customer's bill. So if they have more than one customer per day, they're actually profiting from it. Prices were already expensive but now it really is daylight robbery.

Wait until she finds out that river crossings in the arse end of nowhere might charge a toll too!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penmaenpool

The most bonkers thing is that it won't actually cost them anything anyway, because no one in their right mind would drive through Central London in order to get to one of the long-haul airports. They'd go around the M25.

Here's a thing .

My millionaire brother in law loves all these charges because it makes the roads so much quieter for rich people

This is true. Just now I looked out at the South Circular and it is entirely empty apart from your brother in law, driving slowly down the middle of the road in his diamond encrusted Jag whilst we povvos stand at the bus stop bowing our heads in respect for his immense wealth.

Do you understand how big ULEZ is? Or how busy the CC zone still is?
Where are all these quiet roads acting as millionaire playgrounds? 🙄

Surely from Essex you'd go round the M25 if you're driving?

Yeah I don't think that's a thing.

The CC zone is still exceptionally busy. Yes it can be quite at night and early in the morning on weekends, but the CC charge doesn't apply then anyway.

The ULEZ zone is vast, and as 90% of cars aren't impacted by the charge, it doesn't reduce traffic.

Lots of trades have cycle options

Unless your bil lives in a gated community, he won't be the only one benefitting from quieter roads and cleaner air. London is very mixed socio-economicly.

Can you give specific examples please? I live in a building of 110 flats and I've yet to meet a single tradesmen who cycles in 20+ years. Because they have tools / equipment / parts. They all have vans.

Exactly! The roads where I live in London are still permanently gridlocked apart from early on weekend mornings.

So people with a car that is 10 years old goes perfectly passes emissions and mots need to pay those with the same model that struggles to pass emissions and has to be blasted in a field first but is 9 years old doesn't. Then when they get there the fuel dump and shit from the planes goes harmlessly away

Yep put your ladder bucket paint and brushes over your arm. Carry your welder mask and metal in a ruck sack. That massive tool box will fit on the handle bar you know your van is empty ... ..and then as you can now only do one job after cycling and hour each way to get there instead of 3 let's all treble are call out rates

If your going to Heathrow on the M4 come off at junction 4 then go along the spur to T2/3/4 your in the Ulez zone for 10 mins if you go T5 on M25 your in Ulez for 3