Safe Speed Forums

Channel 4

London mayor Ken Livingstone has given the go-ahead to extend the current congestion charge zone, reports the Evening Standard. The £5-a-day charge will now be applied to much of the Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster boroughs in an area bounded by the West Cross Route, the Earl's Court one-way system and Chelsea Embankment. A further north-west section within the Harrow Road and Scrubs Lane is also under consideration. The A40 Westway and Park Lane, however, which cut through the new part of the charging zone, will remain free to drivers passing through, as will Edgware Road, Grosvenor Place and Vauxhall Bridge road, all important north-south routes. A buffer zone of a mile westwards of Earl's Court Road will also be created, giving residents there a 90 percent discount to travel into the zone itself.

Livingstone also confirmed that the charging period throughout the zone is to end from 6pm instead of the current 6.30pm, addressing concerns from restaurateurs and theatres that the charge was deterring people from coming into the city centre. The changes will come into effect in late 2006, subject to a consultation period which starts shortly. Livingstone claims that although traffic within the existing zone could increase by one or two percent, congestion within the new areas would decrease by 10-20 percent. Although the scheme could take ten years to break even - longer if too many drivers are deterred from entering the new zone - it could ultimately make £15m a year to reinvest in public transport.

_________________
www.beterveilig.nl

The current CC area is not a major residential area - but Kensington and Chelsea are. So lots more people will be able to get the residents' discount (I think it's £125 a year) and then be able to drive freely within the enlarged CC area.

Sounds to me like a blow for businesses in Kensington and Chelsea, but a major benefit for the generally well-heeled residents of those areas.

Somehow I don't think that's what Ken intends.

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Ah, yet another reason I'm glad I live nowhere near London. Although in a few months I shall be studying just a short hour away - or at least, that's the plan! (Will know for sure on Thursday..)

_________________
-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

Thought you got into Oxford Mike? Haven't been there for a few years, but didn't strike me as the most car friendly city in the world. Parking spaces? Hens teeth.

_________________
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

I got an offer, still need to get the right A level grades though. Should I get in, I won't be taking my car, as (as far as I'm aware) first year students can' take them. I'd only end up being used as a taxi service, anyway. I might drive down to drop my stuff off, then drive home, then get the train.

_________________
-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

The reason why I'm interested in this story is, that it is a "positive" example for our country Holland. Still, I'm waiting for the figures where this regulation blows business away..

_________________
www.beterveilig.nl

In Central London it doesn't, as most customers travel by PT anyway. Even so, the John Lewis Partnership have seen a fall in sales in their department store on Oxford Street (inside the CC zone) but a healthy rise for the one on Knightsbridge (outside the current zone, but inside the proposed extension).

For areas that are less prosperous than London, with a higher proportion of car usage for shopping trips, I can see a CC-type scheme being disastrous.

Cities like Bristol or Nottingham would be very foolish to adopt it.

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Oxford an hour away from central London? bah! maybe if the Government give Chiltern railways the money to reopen (and build bits) of the Oxford-Princes Risborough line then maybe.

Anyway good luck on Thursday (help it's this week) and I hope you join all my sheep-like friends heading to Oxford. (I ruled it out for being too close and Cambridge for not having a good course)

Simon. heading to Soton-maybe!

PS. What's funny is that, though Soton is the closest of the 6 unis i put down it's the pig to get to by train-all the others can be done with a relatively short car journey and then a train, but Soton is twice as far to get to a station with direct trains!

On a recent trip to London I took a lot of taxis. I asked each taxi driver if the Congestion charge had reduced congestion. 8 out of 10 said it had made no difference - or that it was worse. Three mentioned INCREASED congestion on the edges of the zone. One of the two that thought there had been an improvement said he only worked in the evenings after the charge was over for the day.

These guys should know, and they should be more than happy to praise the congestion charge because they don't pay it and should benefit from it.

It is shameful that the CC scheme has been put in place with no genuine independent audit of figures and results.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Ken filled all the freed up road space in London with buses, which hold each other up!

I think the LibDem mayoral candidate's plan to close Oxford St to traffic and to run trams along it is a hundred times better than Kens plan to have it so full of buses that it's hard to walk, or catch a bus, as the stop is filled with a full bus sitting in a jam.

Westminster council want to reduce the number of buses on Oxford Street, which is a brilliant idea.

I do note that Ken is extending the zone West into Tory land, and not East or South into the more Labour areas of Inner London. Shame is Tory bashing will backfire as all the affluent people in K&C get a discounted run to the city. 50p per day is cheaper than a bus or tube and the residents, if they have a car, will take it into the City for work!

Red Ken really will be red when this goes awry for him!

Simon