Congestion Charge

[markjay]

I got fined when they opened the western extension, I new the A40 was just outside the boundry so thought I'd be fine, but apparently the slip road that leads to it when approching from the North, isn't... so I managed to not notice the signs and paid £60 for a few yards of incursion into the zone... I know better now and don't use the slip road to get on the A40 anymore, instead I take the (very) long way through Baker Street

 

[crockers]

It's too late now (I think) to pay the £8/£10 . Just wait until the penalty charge notice comes through and pay the £60 within two weeks. If you pay up, no further action will be taken and that will be the end of the matter.

On a similar topic, Boris said from next year, he'll introduce an account system, whereby payment will be made automatically from a registered credit card, each time you enter the zone.

Interesting, how they couldn't find the technology to introduce this when the congestion charge was first introduced (don't they have something similar at Dartford and Severn Bridge where they take payment automatically if you have a reader on the windscreen), but the technology used to capture your number plate on ANPR, match that number plate against existing ones which has already paid, getting your details from the DVLA, and sending the fine through the post is already there.

imagine to following scenario. You register your car and lodge a CC on their system. Someone clones your plate. You get debited endlessly. Now try to claim that lot back.

 

[iscaboy]

As you can tell from the left, I live in Devon, and a classic example is the city of Exeter.

The number of times I have heard people say that the (rush hour) traffic in Exeter is "worse than London" (thinks, yeah, right, all 1 square mile of it) but the fact is it is the same forces at play.

The advantage is that Exeter is a lot smaller than London, so you can see it all, know it all, and picture it all, so what holds for one should, more or less, hold for all, so here is what is wrong with Exeter traffic.

Not listed in order of significance.

1. Traffic lights on roundabouts - invariably when someone crashes into the pole or the rain kills them, the traffic flow much faster and much smoother.
2. The bottlenecks (2 lanes to 1 etc) all seem to exist on roads leading out of the City, none leading in - put a 1 cm hole in a bucket and fill it from a 2 cm hose and the end result is inevitable.
3. Traffic light timings that work perfectly at 3 am on empty road - but which seem to use the same timing in stop go rush hour traffic, and which actually make the problem worse.
4. Piss poor lane discipline - has to be said, not helped by some of the route planning and changed priorities.
5. Piss poor planning - lots of roads that used to flow, now ruined, people turning across the traffic to get into Tesco filling station, or roundabouts installed to make access to a supermarket easier, while wrecking the old flow of traffic.
6. Bus lanes - one of the major routes in and out of town reduced from 4 lanes to 2, plus 2 empty bus lanes.
7. School traffic - really, your precious little urchin does not need to be ferried to and from school, door to door, in a private car.
8. Delivery drivers - once upon a time deliveries went to the rear of the premises, now they park out front, hazards on, and kill the traffic flow, not helped by the courier companies giving drivers 80+ drop days.
9. Bus stops - these old pull-in bus stops have been eradicated, now the bus just stops in the traffic lane at one of those bits of raised pavement while all the single mums spend 10 minutes collapsing their pushchairs.
10. Mobile phones - every time you see a driver doing something stupid, they are talking on a phone, there are several junctions I could name where at £50 fine a time you could be a millionaire before the week is out.
11. Piss poor light discipline - amber gamblers, and entering the yellow box when there is no exit.
12. Pedestrianised zones - with the result that at the boundaries assholes simply walk across the road, not even bothering to look at whether or not the traffic has the right of way.
13. Accidents - all of the above causes accidents, there are three accident blackspots around Exeter, causing regular fender benders and once a year or so a major injury or fatality, and then all hell breaks loose.
14. Piss poor parking on residential and urban routes - an ordinary road with houses either side, all with driveways, one car parks at the side of the road, 6 inches out from the kerb, and you can guarantee that the next car to park in that road will park RIGHT OPPOSITE THE FIRST CAR...

Tellingly, one of the senior traffic planners for Exeter does not drive.

With every new initiative and revision, they make the problem worse, and then cite the awful snarled up traffic system as reason to screw with the system even more.

I'm sure much of the microcosm of traffic management that is Exeter scales up to larger cities like London, what works in one will work in the other, what is broken in one is broken in the other.

 

[DuFFmAn]

Just to let you know, They can't tell you if you owe an £8/£10 charge due to data protection...

TFL have been taken to court before because a suspicious husband called in regards to his wife's vehicle usage. (Vehicle registered in his name).

 

[DuFFmAn]

Noodle: As long as the PCN has been issued, you can pay the CC over the phone. You don't actually need the physical PCN in your hand. Just give them a ring quoting your reg number and you can make the payment there and then without any PCN numbers.

Hope that helps.

 

[MOCAŠ]

I got fined when they opened the western extension, I new the A40 was just outside the boundry so thought I'd be fine, but apparently the slip road that leads to it when approching from the North, isn't... so I managed to not notice the signs and paid £60 for a few yards of incursion into the zone... I know better now and don't use the slip road to get on the A40 anymore, instead I take the (very) long way through Baker Street

AFAIK, at least since the revisions made for the inclusion of the western extension, no-one joining the A40 from the north should need to pay the charge. I'm guessing from the fact that you now divert via Baker St that your preferred option would be to join at Paddington (to travel westwards)? If so, this map shows how to do it without being charged.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Noodle: As long as the PCN has been issued, you can pay the CC over the phone. You don't actually need the physical PCN in your hand. Just give them a ring quoting your reg number and you can make the payment there and then without any PCN numbers.

Hope that helps.

Slight correction: you can pay the penalty charge (ie: £60), not the congestion charge, in these circumstances. Not meaning to be pedantic, just offering a clarification.

 

[stevesey]

imagine to following scenario. You register your car and lodge a CC on their system. Someone clones your plate. You get debited endlessly. Now try to claim that lot back.

Not hugely different from someone cloning you plate at present - the PCN's might start arriving before your monthly account statement. But at £60 a pop - you could easily be worse of than a whole month of £8.

Also any day you use the zone the clone plate won't generate an extra change anyway.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Just to let you know, They can't tell you if you owe an £8/£10 charge due to data protection...

TFL have been taken to court before because a suspicious husband called in regards to his wife's vehicle usage. (Vehicle registered in his name).

Fair point. At first I thought this sounded a little specious, especially as the registered keeper would be informed anyway if a PCN was issued, or if the car had been caught by a speeding/bus lane/yellow box camera, but I suppose the distinction is that the driver would then have been deemed to have committed an offence.

 

[markjay]

AFAIK, at least since the revisions made for the inclusion of the western extension, no-one joining the A40 from the north should need to pay the charge. I'm guessing from the fact that you now divert via Baker St that your preferred option would be to join at Paddington (to travel westwards)? If so, this map shows how to do it without being charged.

This is very good, thanks...
My situation is no 3, i.e. 'If approaching from West of Maida Vale'.
I went through Royal Oak and the Gloucester Terrace. What they suggest is going through Bishop's Bridge Road. That will work for me better than Baker Street.

 

[Gollom]

Ruffec in France decided to remove a lot of traffic lights -the traffic flows much, much better!

This is very good, thanks...
My situation is no 3, i.e. 'If approaching from West of Maida Vale'.
I went through Royal Oak and the Gloucester Terrace. What they suggest is going through Bishop's Bridge Road. That will work for me better than Baker Street.

Mornington Crescent!

:bannana::bannana::bannana:

 

[G.O'Rilla]

Just thinking that.......... lol

 

[Palfrem]

Having used all all the money they have stolen from us for CC, is the congestion better or worse?

Just an observation but, if I'm a "member of the travelling community" where do they send the fine or any speeding FPN?

 

[markjay]

Mornington Crescent!

:bannana::bannana::bannana:

That was one of my favourites BBC4 programs!

 

[markjay]

Having used all all the money they have stolen from us for CC, is the congestion better or worse?

Just an observation but, if I'm a "member of the travelling community" where do they send the fine or any speeding FPN?

Friend of mine drove over from France with his newly-purchased S350 CDI the other day.... he phones-up TfL and they said you must pay or the fine will find you where you are in Europe... in the end he chose not to pay and hid the car in a private car park till the weekend, when he drove back, so got no fine.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Having used all all the money they have stolen from us for CC, is the congestion better or worse?

From TfL's website:

Sadly, congestion has risen back to pre-charging levels but would be much worse without the charge. The rise in congestion is also due to:

• Widespread water and gas main replacement works, which have greatly reduced the road capacity
• Traffic management measures to help pedestrians and other road users

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/sixth-annual-impacts-monitoring-report-2008-07.pdf

Just an observation but, if I'm a "member of the travelling community" where do they send the fine or any speeding FPN?

Simple answer is that they'd be sent to the address at which the vehicle is registered. If it isn't registered to a legitimate address, then the driver is committing an offence just by driving it on a public road.

 

[markjay]

Just to let you know, They can't tell you if you owe an £8/£10 charge due to data protection...

TFL have been taken to court before because a suspicious husband called in regards to his wife's vehicle usage. (Vehicle registered in his name).

Talking of data protection... a guy in a van was stopped by a police car outside my house. When he pulled over, he slightly scratched our war-zone-damaged trusty old car (not the Merc, the other one!). I came out and told the copper I didn't mind, it was a 1-inch scratch on the wheelarch and we had plenty of those anyway (not me driving!). Copper said can't do that sir, I am afraid that you car was involved in a crash during blue-light police chase (and kept a straight face while saying that!), you will need to produce you MOT and Insurance at a police station within 5 days... I said this is ridiculous, the car was parked and I wasn't even in it... copper says I know, this is why you only have to produce MOT and Insurance, but not your driving license... I said no way I am going to a police station, surely all you need is the vehicle reg number, it is all computerised these days and you can get the MOT and Insurance details from your computer? Copper says (wait for it!) sorry sir, we can't do that because of the data protection act.... I said how come? You are the police! copper says yes, but you are not suspected of committing any offence, so we are not allowed to access the computer database and obtain any information about your vehicle...

In the end he agreed that I'll just bring the papers out and then spent the next 15 minutes copying every possible detail to his notebook including the mileage and name of the MOT testing station. Sheer madness, I tell you....

 

[Londonscottish]

On a similar topic, Boris said from next year, he'll introduce an account system, whereby payment will be made automatically from a registered credit card, each time you enter the zone.

Interesting, how they couldn't find the technology to introduce this when the congestion charge was first introduced

Yeah, funny that.....

 

[Londonscottish]

unless anyone has any bright ideas that could help me in this predicament?

Any advice would be well received.

Phone up - very agitated - tell them the post in your area is totally unreliable and you never received the £120/£180 letters and refuse to pay the extra. Then pay £60.

Worked for me.

I genuinely believed this is what had happened. Weeks later I found the missing letters which had been tidied/moved/mis-filed in two separate places.....

Of course as soon as the automated system kicks in I'll sign up. I've lost count of the number of times I've been stung through forgetting to pay immediately. And I live in London......doh

 

[ianstaley]

An interesting point is that most embassies in London, most notably the US embassy, racked up thousands of Pounds in fines because they refuse to pay the Congestion Charge... they claim that it is a 'tax', and as diplomats they are exempt for paying taxes under international treaties. TfL refuse to accept that the Congestion Charge is a tax, but they can not take any legal action against the embassies or the diplomats due to diplomatic immunity, so the dispute goes on...

Weel thats dead easy isn't it, old BBBBBBORIS should park a bloody great dustbin lory accros the gate and stop the buggers getting out. pay the charg and we will remove the vehicle. Sir. ever notieed that when it comes to the yanks, we can all sod off, but when they want something from us all our MP's and Prime Minister just bend over and drop the pants to get shafted once againe. Special relationship my ****, my motto is do unto others as they would do unto you.

Hey I have just had a brain wave, every yank that comes over here charge them £200 quid as a entry fee to cover the cost of their embassy staff taking advantage of our good nature and the congestion fee oh and unpaid parking fines. bet that would go down well with OBAMA! my opinion the yanks, make them pay for a visa BIG time with BIG bucks. support BP and tell em to stick it where the sun dont shine.