A good thing right?

The prediction suggests that 2/3 of the cars affected (gas guzzlers... so SUV's and large luxury cars) will avoid coming into London afterwards.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/7240309.stm

Oh no! I'm gonna have to sell my beemer. :(

"cars with the lowest carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will receive a 100% discount from the daily charge."

So all the cunts with X5s go out and buy another car, a smaller one and fuck us anyway. Great.

Replace large cars with smaller ones and we get better air quality, and more space in which to weave through the standing traffic.

It doesn't reduce the number of cars, but it makes them smaller and less polluting. They'll still be stuck in traffic and angry at not being able to get out of 2nd gear.

I'm all for it.

If Red Ken can persude drivers into those G-Wizz spazz-chariots London will be a better place.

Some law involving audible warning of them would be handy, though.

I am all for it too.

The problem is that Ken is probably going to lose the election in May and Boris will overturn all these things to please his Tory electorate.

GaH!

If Boris becomes Mayor we're all fucked. The guy's clearly an idiot.

We have 1,200+ members. If we think we're going to be that screwed by Boris, why not let's agree to collectively campaign for Ken... or someone we believe could beat Boris?

I hate getting politics involved in this stuff... but a straight up "It's in the interest of all members of the community" thing I could get behind.

As much as this place is beginning to look like my whole world, we live in a city of 7 million people.

Campaigning is a good idea, for sure, but it'll be like farting in a wind tunnel.

i never get out of first gear - ;)

but seriously why is it going to affect rich people with big cars if they can afford the car, petrol tax etc, they can afford congestion charge

Except for the extra shit in the air during production of all these new cars, plus you have the added risk that now these muppets will be driving outside of London in cars they are less familiar with. I deal with enough cnuts during my training now without a bunch of 'G-Wizz on weekdays, wow look at me in my big car' on weekends types..

You are right about the city being nicer with less 4x4s. I'm all for the increased C-charge.. but there are other issues. Hopefully the plonkers with X5's will be so stretched on their mortgages they won't be able to afford the X5 AND the G-Wizz... that would be a beautiful thing :)

Have you seen me fart?

Some of them can't or the ones on the edge might be forced to use public transport. The rest, we continue to attack.. :)

I agree Hippy. I reckon a lot of these X5 twats can't really afford another car, but need the 'status symbol' that is a big 4x4.
Hopefully, £125 a week to pick up Poppy and Tarquin from school might get these blind, 30something women out of their Cayennes and into a car they can actually drive.

I think the C Charge should be extended to the M25.

even one less chelsea tractor is a triumph.

Isn't it delicious how he's brought in the congestion charge, and then extended it west over the long driveways and shining range rover SEs of the Fulham set, and now is going to charge them £25 daily for the pleasure of polluting and clogging our streets and blindly reversing over our children? It actually makes me shiver a little bit with pleasure when i think of the fuckers spluttering over their earl gray as they read the good word in the Kensington Gazette. MWU HA HAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Anyway. I'm gonna vote ken - he's not perfect but i reckon he makes the hard decisions without being in thrall to 'the man' - i work for a homelessness charity and he always backs us up with press releases etc when tory cunts a la boris propose the banning of soup kitchens etc...

Oh My God. I've just found out my car (that gets used for holidays and visiting relatives on weekends ONLY) is going to be excluded from the C Charge! Ha. Maybe I'll start driving to work ;)

Thing is though Ken's just building up to some kind of tax/congestion/licensing for cyclists, ca see it happening. He's a cunt and I wouldn't trust him with my left bollock!

Fuck it.. just ban non-commercial vehicles within the M25. Done.

I would not fancy that but I wish there was full on national road pricing adjusted also to the type of car you drive. Therefor people who drive the worst cars at the worst time in the worst places get stung and someone who lives two miles from the nearest bus route in the middle of no where does not. They can drive to park and ride on the edge of the local town they wish to go to if it is an expensive town to drive into.

And company cars are...

But. But. If they remove all cars in the m25 ring I'll have nothing to play with.
Where's the adrenalin rush come from if you're not being targetted by homicidal cunts in cars?

a tax dodge. Do I win a prize?

I would also like to see trains that allow bikes on board when it would be ACTUALLY USEFUL to everyone. I never want a folder but if I move to the burbs I'll have to bloody buy one eerrr

Why don't you think the congestion charge all across London would be a good thing Tommy the Brick? Its not as if there are any less cars on the north circular than on Marylebone road.

I'm not allowed to tax dodge. I'd get taken to court and sacked.
You lose.

Bus drivers, black cabs, knobby's on hybrid Marins?

Thank fuck for that, I nearly had a panic attack.

You could've always tried doing tricks as you commute... proper freestyle stuff and none of that mucking around in playgrounds doing wheelies but going nowhere. Finally I would've agreed that tricks had a purpose and might've considered learning some.

if this actuly happens it will be a small step towards something good, but it will be gutted by discounts for residents of the c charge area so the k&C 4x4s will still be able to do the 1/2 mile school run. also they will add exceptions to all kinds of small cars, which still pollute. do i think it will make the roads safer... marginally

i think HGVs should be banned from the C charge zone from 8am to 8pm, that would make the roads safer for cyclists, although would probably end up with more brain dead ipod/ mobile phone peds stepping into the street.

as far as global warming this is not a solution, its not even close to the smallest bit of a start of one. and we will not see one.

this is a farce, as the further they move the congestion charge, particularly to the west ie chelsea and kensington; the more of these cars are exempt as people live in the area ;)

The congestion charge covers the last two miles of my commute only, and central London is always going to be busy, what with very wealthy people/commercial vehicles.

Extend it to the M25, and maybe I can have some fresh air on my way into work.

Forget this reduced congestion charge for smaller cars, too - only electric cars should be exempt. I know the long-tailpipe problem, but this is about congestion and quality of air in the city, where I do all my breathing...

I just like going fast and dodging things on my commute.
Tricks are for impressing people with your generic bike skills whilst drinking.

London Assembly Liberal Democrats will ask tomorrow why Ken Livingstone has poured another £31 millions of taxpayers' money into congestion charge contractor Capita.

At a London Assembly budget committee hearing, Lib Dem members will grill the mayor on his new contract with Capita Plc as well as the original deal that Transport for London entered into.

Sally Hamwee, Lib Dem chair of the London Assembly, warned that there were at least three serious unanswered questions about the mayor's deal with Capita:

'The mayor told us traffic in the charging zone would fall by ten to 15 per cent,' she said. "In fact it is just one per cent higher than that. He has to explain why that means the net income has been halved from £130million to just £65 million.

'Despite a 27 per cent increase in half-year profits in July, Capita claims it is not making a profit on congestion charging, and Mayor Livingstone gives them an extra £31 million. We need to know whether Capita can come back every year to ask for more cash.
(Lib Dems, 2003)

Or, in other words, the Congestion Charge was never intended to work - it was intended as a revenue generator and, when it failed to generate enough revenue for Crapita, the good taxpayers of Olde London Towne were forced to shore up Crapita's profits.

I'm well aware that Crapita no longer administer the C-Charge, but the pessimist in me doubts that the new operators are going to do this out of the goodness of their hearts. Something tells me that IBM will be making a hefty chunk of change and that the rest of the revenue will be pumped into London's transport network - another public service that is being run as a private, profit-making business.

I'd love to think that this new charge is about something other than making money (and god knows, I hate idiots that feel like a 4x4 is necessary to navigate the cratered, pock-marked landscape that is Old Brompton Road) but - as already opined - this is just going to be another slight inconvenience for Araminta. Her husband Jeremy will simply put up the already-exorbitant rent he charges on those buy-to-lets he bought in awful Hackney to cover the costs.

I'm sure Private Eye will probably dissect this in a far more comprehensive manner than I can.