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This is really weird. I don’t know what to tell you. Very few people in England want to commute to Central London by car. The traffic is terrible, parking is ha

This is really weird. I don’t know what to tell you. Very few people in England want to commute to Central London by car. The traffic is terrible, parking is hard to find and expensive, and you lose all the time you spend driving. You’re fighting a war on behalf of someone who doesn’t really exist.

esotericn 8y ago
Pretty much. For the benefit of anyone else reading who doesn't know London: The North/South Circular restrictions are actually a thing that will hit many families, especially around the borders of the area, because it is actually a lot more convenient to drive around, there are some gaps in transport, it's more suburban, it's actually a more car-oriented part of the city, most streets will have cars lining both sides, etc. In 2021 this will happen and a non-negligible number of individuals will end up upgrading their cars (it probably won't cost them that much, a 500 quid car passes the bar). None of this stuff is really any sort of humanitarian disaster because it's all comfort/luxury stuff. It's nice to drive about there, useful, not essential though, and yeah, the 'barrier to entry' is basically not driving a shitbox. By contrast, "Central London" as defined by the inner ring road is an area that can be walked across in approximately an hour or cycled across in 20-30 mins, and has a bus stop on pretty much every street corner. It's plastered in traffic lights, it's difficult to even stop your car anywhere to pop into a corner shop without getting ticketed. At some point in the next few decades I can see a lot of it becoming "semi-pedestrianised" a bit like Krakow town center or something as attitudes change. This area will be covered in a few months time by the tax (it's already covered during business hours, it'll just be extended to 24/7). Realistically, in practice, it might mean the odd journey in on a Sunday will be replaced by parking just outside the zone and getting a bus in or something. The idea of it being a 'regressive tax' just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Barely anyone will actually end up paying it at all because it's cheaper to just get a better car. It's more like a soft-ban.

esotericn 8y ago

Pretty much. For the benefit of anyone else reading who doesn't know London: The North/South Circular restrictions are actually a thing that will hit many families, especially around the borders of the area, because it is actually a lot more convenient to drive around, there are some gaps in transport, it's more suburban, it's actually a more car-oriented part of the city, most streets will have cars lining both sides, etc. In 2021 this will happen and a non-negligible number of individuals will end up upgrading their cars (it probably won't cost them that much, a 500 quid car passes the bar). None of this stuff is really any sort of humanitarian disaster because it's all comfort/luxury stuff. It's nice to drive about there, useful, not essential though, and yeah, the 'barrier to entry' is basically not driving a shitbox. By contrast, "Central London" as defined by the inner ring road is an area that can be walked across in approximately an hour or cycled across in 20-30 mins, and has a bus stop on pretty much every street corner. It's plastered in traffic lights, it's difficult to even stop your car anywhere to pop into a corner shop without getting ticketed. At some point in the next few decades I can see a lot of it becoming "semi-pedestrianised" a bit like Krakow town center or something as attitudes change. This area will be covered in a few months time by the tax (it's already covered during business hours, it'll just be extended to 24/7). Realistically, in practice, it might mean the odd journey in on a Sunday will be replaced by parking just outside the zone and getting a bus in or something. The idea of it being a 'regressive tax' just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Barely anyone will actually end up paying it at all because it's cheaper to just get a better car. It's more like a soft-ban.