On Wed, 6 Jul 2005, londoncityslicker wrote:

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...

On Tue, 5 Jul 2005, Mrs Redboots wrote:

Well, at last Ken Livingstone and his minions have said that the
congestion charge isn't about reducing congestion at all, it's about
raising money.

So they introduce the congestion charge, which does exactly what it
was alleged to be supposed to do, and reduces the amount of private
cars using Central London on weekdays.... then, because it doesn't
raise enough money, they increase the charge by 60%. I can see it
coming that even fewer people will use private cars in the area.... so
it *still* won't raise enough money.....

Something wrong with this picture, no?

Well, the logical conclusion is that all cars will be priced out of the
whole of London.

So, no.

The current zone takes in the West End and The City. Mostly for business
and leisure activities.

The new zone takes in a huge swathe of residential areas, populated by
extremely rich people who can afford to pay the CC, but they all get the
CC discount.

That is definitely a problem. I'm not sure what the solution is; perhaps
to relate the level of the charge to the value of the car!

They are then free to go into the West End and The City.

Really? I thought they were planning more of a second zone than a simple
extension, so you'd still pay to cross from Chelsea into central London.

It'll put people off coming into the zone just like it has done in the
original zone.

I think there was a study done on the original zone that showed that this
wasn't the case. Certainly, studies done on things like pedestrianisation
in other cities, where similar fears about loss of car-based custom were
raised, have shown that reducing car density drives up trade.

I myself cross London on a regular basis and either travel just before
or after the congestion charge starts/finishes or travel round the zone
and sit in traffic for the extra half hour or so (probably paying an
additonal fiver in fuel.) But sometimes travelling round the zone
presents no problem at all.

If I travel on business then I pay up and the company pays me back. That
cost of course ends up being paid somewhere down the line by our poor
customer. So all the CC is doing is distributing money in different
ways. Either me paying a fiver more petrol to circumnavigate it or my
customers paying more for their service as my companies costs have
increased.

Or you take a train.

tom

--
Like Kurosawa i make mad films; okay, i don't make films, but if i did they'd have a samurai.