chris harrison wrote in message ...
Nick wrote:

In principle I've been agreeing with the congestion charge, but that
At what point, when it isn't deserted and you join a queue (thereby
contributing to that queue and hence the reason for the charge), should
you start paying?

Yep, I'd raise the same questions too if pushing the point you're
trying to make. A charge isn't the problem perse, but more that I
don't get my 5 pounds worth. 25 pence would be more reasonable. SE1.
Deverill street joins bartholomew street and you leave the zone. In
case it wasn't clear, it's not 100 yards into the zone (maybe 100 is
even an over estimate), but 100 yards on a side street that's not used
as a rabbit run or anything else and that leaves the zone and filters
into a free flowing dual lane road that leads out of town. Fairly soon
leave the main road to use some side streets that avoid New Cross
bottlenecks and within just a few minutes one is rapidly approaching
deptford and soon into Blackheath. It's opposite to the way of most
other cars. There is no congestion nor ever likely to be except in
exceptional cases. Give me PT that can do it so quickly as the car and
I'd take it but unless we take to the skies it's not an option. That
said our garden is more than big enough to take a helicopter without
taking out the trees and squirrels in the process and so if anyone
knows of a cheap helitaxi then maybe that's the solution.

At what distance should your current 100 yards become untenable as an
excuse? 200 yards? 400 yards? A mile? A free journey directly out from
any point in the zone if you start there when the charge kicks in?

Easiest answer: park your car outside of the zone overnight or, and this
is the nub, don't drive. It's the large numbers of cars on the roads
both within and without the zone that caused the charge in the first
place, just because you're skirting the edges doesn't mean you are not
part of the problem.

Sounds like a whinge if you ask me. Suck it up and pay.

hehe, sounds like a whinge about cars causing the problem in the first
place

I've been used to taking PT from SE3 into my office in CW and
previously an office opposite Cannon Street station. Generally PT was
OK. Of course trains were typically late or cancelled (although the
DLR was good) but with years of conditioning to have low expectations
of the rail service one could always say that the service met them.
The only car I'd ever take was someone elses if I hopped into one of
the private hire Mercs parked in Walbrook to get a comfy ride home if
it was late and I was shattered. Driving into town on a morning would
be madness.

The don't drive argument really wears a bit thin after a while, and
where should one stop? Would you advocate taking it to its logical
conclusion and banning cars inside the M25, returning side streets
where there's no public transport to parks, gardens and shelters for
the homeless. Opening up cycle lanes so that people can get on their
bikes and get a more healthy lifestyle and more of a sense of shared
community rather than being isolated in their mostly metal pods of a
morning? Damn, this actually starts to sound like a great idea. That
and concreting over the Thames and we could really be onto something
here. Of course the CC employees at TfL would be out of a job, but oh
well and never mind, any anyway maybe they could take up studying the
cycle lanes.

Unfortunately of course in the real world the don't drive argument
isn't practical, at least not yet and probably not for some
considerable time to come. Easy for people to say who don't need to
get from A to B not only within a reasonable timeframe but in good
shape and awake, but on the route in question getting up earlier,
which would be needed not just to avoid the charge but to take public
transport as it's comparatively sucky, and taking PT would be more
traumatic than the car, even with the cloud of having to pay the CC.

Ho hum, 5 quid a day isn't a killer but in this case I'd rather give
it to a cause where it might do some good.