On 14/12/2018 17:55, tim... wrote:


"Robin" wrote in message
...
On 14/12/2018 16:10, tim... wrote:


wrote in message
news On Fri, 14 Dec 2018 13:13:53 -0000
"tim..." wrote:
wrote in message
news On Mon, 10 Dec 2018 14:57:35 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
14:33:09 on
Mon, 10 Dec 2018, Billy No Mates Billy No
remarked:

Going back to one of your earlier suggestions, it might be more
tolerable if the system was smart enough to allow a small number of
free visits by any vehicle to the zone (say, two per month), and
only
imposed a charge after that was exceeded. It would ensure that
people
regularly driving in the zone invested in clean vehicles, but rare
visitors weren't impeded.

The authorities seem wedded to the idea of nickel-and-diming
everyone
whenever they can. It'd also be great to get half a dozen free
trips at
the Dartford Crossing a year, or maybe half a dozen peak-time
rail fares
at the off-peak rate.

The new dart charge was designed to make it a PITA to pay in order to
extract
fines from those who don't.

ITYF that's Cock-up, not Conspiracy

I'm not sure it is in this case. A significant proportion of the
traffic
will be ad hoc trips of cars trucks and vans just passing through or
heading to
the ports who they know will probably forget (regular users will
simply have an
account). There was no reason not to retain a few pay by cash or
contactless
kiosks and its not as it its made a huge difference to the queues
anyway
especially on the northbound through the tunnel which is is the real
bottleneck.

I think you underestimate the chaos which "a few kiosks" would cause.

Northbound there's enough zig-zagging of traffic trying to get into
the correct lane of a tunnel already, plus the problem of the
junction joining only a few 100 yards before the tunnel

I agree that something along the lines of pay stations at service
areas on the M2/20/25 would be a useful feature.

You can pay by phone so would this be for those who don't have a
mobile phone or those who want to pay in cash?

It'll be for those who don't know the number to phone because they
didn't have time to take it down as they drove past (if it's even there
- I forget)


I would be very surprised if anyone who was ignorant of the toll in
advance but asked politely for the number at any of the services on the
M25/M2/M20 - or at the ferry/Eurotunnel terminal - would fail to get it,
if only from a passing member of the public.

And the phone and postal services for the Dart Charge seem quaint and
indulgent compared with the toll roads in eg Sydney where it's
electronic or else - including for visitors in hire cars.

https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/sydney-mo...ges/index.html


https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/sydney-mo...ges/index.html


--
Robin
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