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Well you only pay the charge when you're using it right? Why does living in the city make it cheaper per use? It'd be like having a cheaper subway ticket if y

by rtpg 9y ago

Well you only pay the charge when you're using it right? Why does living in the city make it cheaper per use? It'd be like having a cheaper subway ticket if your house was closer to the station. Maybe one thing affects usage of the other, but that shouldn't change per-use. Slight detail here though: if you suddenly can't use your car anymore because you happened to live in an area with heavy traffic that's not great

rahimnathwani 9y ago
"Slight detail here though: if you suddenly can't use your car anymore because you happened to live in an area with heavy traffic that's not great" Right, but if you can lobby the government to extend the boundary of the zone a bit so that you live inside it, then suddenly (i) there's a reduction in traffic near you, (ii) you get the resident 90% discount on the scheme. People who live within the zone get the traffic reduction for almost free. Everyone else pays for it directly (having to pay full price for the congestion charge) or indirectly (due to increased traffic elsewhere).
geezerjay 9y ago
> Why does living in the city make it cheaper per use? Because people living in the city pay all kinds of city taxes, none of which is paid by those who move out of the city to avoid paying them. Then, those who move out of the city end up creating all kinds of traffic problems commuting back and forth between their city-tax-avoiding homes and their city-paying jobs, or requiring local and central governments to waste huge sums of money in public transportation systems to serve them. > It'd be like having a cheaper subway ticket if your house was closer to the station. Only if your ticket was cheap to go around the corner from your home in a trip you don't need to take nor need a full blown regional-wide public transportation system to do.
- Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
  In practice, though, non-Londoners subsidise London transport. "IPPR North annual analysis shows Yorkshire and the Humber will get £190 per head, North East £220, North West £680 and London £1,940 per head for transport from 2016/17 onwards." (From https://www.ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/new-transport-figures-reveal-london-gets-1-500-per-head-more-than-the-north-but-north-west-powerhouse-catching-up https://www.ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/new-trans...)
  - beojan 9y ago
    That doesn't mean non-Londoners subsidise London transport. You also have to look at the taxes paid by London.
    - Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
      Yes, and still London gets more than it pays: "London pays almost a third of UK tax"[1] "More than half UK investment in transport is in London"[2] 1: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/07/london-top-taxpaying-city-uk-report https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/07/london-top-tax... 2: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/20/more-than-half-uk-investment-in-transport-is-in-london-says-study https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/20/more-than-ha...

by rtpg 9y ago

rahimnathwani 9y ago

"Slight detail here though: if you suddenly can't use your car anymore because you happened to live in an area with heavy traffic that's not great" Right, but if you can lobby the government to extend the boundary of the zone a bit so that you live inside it, then suddenly (i) there's a reduction in traffic near you, (ii) you get the resident 90% discount on the scheme. People who live within the zone get the traffic reduction for almost free. Everyone else pays for it directly (having to pay full price for the congestion charge) or indirectly (due to increased traffic elsewhere).

geezerjay 9y ago

> Why does living in the city make it cheaper per use? Because people living in the city pay all kinds of city taxes, none of which is paid by those who move out of the city to avoid paying them. Then, those who move out of the city end up creating all kinds of traffic problems commuting back and forth between their city-tax-avoiding homes and their city-paying jobs, or requiring local and central governments to waste huge sums of money in public transportation systems to serve them. > It'd be like having a cheaper subway ticket if your house was closer to the station. Only if your ticket was cheap to go around the corner from your home in a trip you don't need to take nor need a full blown regional-wide public transportation system to do.

Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
In practice, though, non-Londoners subsidise London transport. "IPPR North annual analysis shows Yorkshire and the Humber will get £190 per head, North East £220, North West £680 and London £1,940 per head for transport from 2016/17 onwards." (From https://www.ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/new-transport-figures-reveal-london-gets-1-500-per-head-more-than-the-north-but-north-west-powerhouse-catching-up https://www.ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/new-trans...)
- beojan 9y ago
  That doesn't mean non-Londoners subsidise London transport. You also have to look at the taxes paid by London.
  - Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
    Yes, and still London gets more than it pays: "London pays almost a third of UK tax"[1] "More than half UK investment in transport is in London"[2] 1: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/07/london-top-taxpaying-city-uk-report https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/07/london-top-tax... 2: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/20/more-than-half-uk-investment-in-transport-is-in-london-says-study https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/20/more-than-ha...