congestion charging
Feb. 17th, 2003 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ajvaFrom the BBC website's Talking Point.
"At the end of my road is a big red 'C' marking the start of the congestion charge area. I own both a car and a bicycle. I know that this five pound a day will stop me driving. I will become healthier, wealthier and will get to places twice as fast by cycling. I just needed the push as like most motorists, I am a lazy git."
Jamie, Elephant and Castle, London
My own journey into work today (two buses - the recently introduced 476 route [Stef's house - Euston], then route 18 [Euston - Paddington]) was noticeably quieter. In fact, it seemed as if the whole thing is going to be an absolutely gigantic success. Hurrah!
"At the end of my road is a big red 'C' marking the start of the congestion charge area. I own both a car and a bicycle. I know that this five pound a day will stop me driving. I will become healthier, wealthier and will get to places twice as fast by cycling. I just needed the push as like most motorists, I am a lazy git."
Jamie, Elephant and Castle, London
My own journey into work today (two buses - the recently introduced 476 route [Stef's house - Euston], then route 18 [Euston - Paddington]) was noticeably quieter. In fact, it seemed as if the whole thing is going to be an absolutely gigantic success. Hurrah!
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excellent!
Date: 2003-02-17 06:12 am (UTC)Apart from some minor niggles (early morning market workers being charged despite going away from the traffic when leaving work, the issue of low paid workers who do need cars, and the fact that I have yet to see a shop where you can pay the charge), I think on the whole it's a damn good idea.
If it means buses in the centre of town can move faster than walking pace, I'm all for it. And let's face it, the zone is *tiny* - it doesn't even include King's Cross or Euston or Hyde Park, and it stops at 6.30 pm so people can drive into town to go out for the evening.
And the more complaints I hear the less convincing any of them are. The Standard devoted a page to a 'low paid' woman living in Marylebone, complaining she wouldn't be able to nip to the shops at lunchtime to buy her daughter new socks,and it wasn't her fault that her nearest shops were Oxford St. For crying out lound woman - there's all the shops of Marylebone High St, and more to the point the zone stops just where you'd be going to Oxford St, at Marble Arch. And I can't believe it's ever quicker to drive a mile or two to Oxford St and to park than to walk. Except maybe at 3am when the shops are shut.
Still, it's half term this week, when traffic is supposed to drop by 17%. Here's hoping we don't get gridlock on Park Lane and Euston Road and the other boundaries next week...