London U.K. CarToll-again

Seems the (private car) $8.00 Toll Dave Larrington reported last month has turned out to be
successfull afterall...or at least so far. Traffic congestion in the entertainment and financiial
districts of London are down by 20%. 100,000 cars are paying the Toll (licence plates scanned) and
the City estimates the Toll will put $205.million new $ into Public Transit. Seems like not such a
bad idea afterall and IF other major cities are watching, I guess the plan will start popping up on
this side of the pond as well. Did find an interesting side note was that Mo-Peds and "Alternative
Fuel" vehicles are exempt from the toll...wonder if anyone has donned rollerblades and added an
e-motor to their Silver Cross Pram yet

 

"Wile E.Coyote" skrev...
> Seems the (private car) $8.00 Toll Dave Larrington reported last month has turned out to be
> successfull afterall...or at least so far. Traffic congestion in the entertainment and financiial
> districts of London are down by 20%. 100,000 cars are paying the Toll (licence plates scanned) and
> the City estimates the Toll will put $205.million new $ into Public Transit. Seems like not such a
> bad idea afterall and IF other major cities are watching, I guess the plan will start popping up
> on this side of the pond as well.

How I wish the pansies in city hall would duplicate this. They are always going on about roadpricing
to limit congestion but when its time to do something it always ends with a token sum to public
transport which doesn't help one bit. Oh well. At least I can laugh at the cardrivers each day from
8-9 and again 15.30-16-30 or so when they are crawling along bumper to bumper. (Breathing meanwhile
is not recommended though)

M.

 

Wile E.Coyote wrote:

> Did find an interesting side note was that Mo-Peds and "Alternative Fuel" vehicles are exempt from
> the toll...wonder if anyone has donned rollerblades and added an e-motor to their Silver Cross
> Pram yet

Not just mopeds - any variety of motorcycle is exempt. As, apparently, is Her Maj the Queen.

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================

 

> Not just mopeds - any variety of motorcycle is exempt. As, apparently, is Her Maj the Queen.

How's she get away with that? I thought they were paying full taxes these days. That was the
explanation I was given when I had to pay something like 15 quid to get into Windsor castle, when it
used to be free, so I had heard...

Seth (Not down on paying to get into museums, just down on paying WAY too much) J.

 

> Not just mopeds - any variety of motorcycle is exempt. As, apparently, is Her Maj the Queen.
' BTW, I thought the British were clever enough to know that mopeds are not exactly a great way of
uncongesting streets. (Rome is a hair-raising example of how moped anarchy can be just about as
bad as cars.

Nor are they necessarily good for breathing...The way popular two-cycles they had (I think outlawed
now) in Italy regrimed recently-cleaned monuments like the Duomo in Florence in a couple of short
years, despite the fact that cars were prohibited...

Still, I too wish that elected officials in this country had the guts to try something like this. I
go past several low-income high schools on my commute, and I cannot BELIEVE the number of cars.
Every kid has a car. Every available parking space for miles is full. (I'm on a bike, so I don't
care much.)

One expects that kind of thing in the rich 'burbs, but in the inner city? The car craze is not an
illness of those with too much dough. It's a symptom of a real problem in our thinking in the US.

 

"Mikael Seierup" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> How I wish the pansies in city hall would duplicate this. They are always going on about
> roadpricing to limit congestion but when its time to do something it always ends with a token sum
> to public transport which doesn't help one bit. Oh well. At least I can laugh at the cardrivers
> each day from 8-9 and again 15.30-16-30 or so when they are crawling along bumper to bumper.
> (Breathing meanwhile is not recommended though)
>
> M.

But they did remove allmost all af the the parking lots, so the cars has to keep moving. Smart eh?
Latest move is to forbid Motorbikes to park on the sidewalks, so now thay have to take up space in
the few remaining lots. Clever guys and gals..

 

Seth Jayson wrote:

>> Not just mopeds - any variety of motorcycle is exempt. As, apparently, is Her Maj the Queen.
>
> How's she get away with that? I thought they were paying full taxes these days.

Maybe it's just her official Roller which is exempt, as she's the only person in the country allowed
to use a car on what is, after all, the Queen's Highway, without a number plate. They are paying tax
these days, which possibly explains why Her Maj now has fewer folding self-portraits in the bank
than J.K. Rowling...

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================

 

Dave a question very O.T. from bents, but not O.T. in this thread...hmmm Does England celebrate
Queen Victoria's birthday with a National Holiday? May 19 in Canada was our day to celebrate. Every
year a clone of Queen Vic and Albert dress up and ride around in an open Landau with Palace guards
on white horses (totally confuses recent immigrants who think these people are still alive and a
running Canada). This year Albert was missing and the Queen was seen riding aound on a throne
mounted in the back of a Pick-up truck. The joke was: now that the Royal Family is paying taxes, the
white palace horses went to the glue factory and the Landau was used for firewood. Seems Queen
Victoria was NOT at all Amused by having to ride in the open back of the truck. LOL
----------------------------------------------------
"Dave Larrington" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Seth Jayson wrote:
>
> >> Not just mopeds - any variety of motorcycle is exempt. As, apparently, is Her Maj the Queen.
> >
> > How's she get away with that? I thought they were paying full taxes these days.
>
> Maybe it's just her official Roller which is exempt, as she's the only person in the country
> allowed to use a car on what is, after all, the Queen's Highway, without a number plate. They are
> paying tax these days, which possibly explains why Her Maj now has fewer folding self-portraits
in
> the bank than J.K. Rowling...
>
> Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
> ===========================================================
> Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
> http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
> ===========================================================

 

Wile E.Coyote wrote:
> Dave a question very O.T. from bents, but not O.T. in this thread...hmmm Does England celebrate
> Queen Victoria's birthday with a National Holiday?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: We are seriously short-changed in the Public Holidays department in comparison with
most developed nations, chiz. Eight. In comparison, Germany and the USA have 13. I'd write to my MP
if he weren't a time-wasting babbling idiot like all the rest of them :-(

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================

 

"Dave Larrington" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:

> Wile E.Coyote wrote:
>> Dave a question very O.T. from bents, but not O.T. in this thread...hmmm Does England celebrate
>> Queen Victoria's birthday with a National Holiday?
>
> Short answer: No.
>
> Longer answer: We are seriously short-changed in the Public Holidays department in comparison with
> most developed nations, chiz. Eight. In comparison, Germany and the USA have 13. I'd write to my
> MP if he weren't a time-wasting babbling idiot like all the rest of them :-(
>
> Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/

You just have to phrase it right. Make sure he knows it's a paid day off, and the next thing you
know you'll have more holidays than you can shake a stick at. How do you think we in the US ended up
with so many?

-Bill Hamilton