RE: Snap! Now pay your road toll
Discussion
JVaughan said:
Time to dig out that set of Albanian License plates :hehe
Been thinking about this actually: You'll go online to pay for each individual trip, or set up an account. Don't pay and you'll get a fine in the post, currently proposed at between £35 to £105 depending...What about foreign license plates? Would it mean I'd get a fine every time I'd used the crossing?
TonyHetherington said:
julian64 said:
Errumm, good news for those going south but it won't be used for those going north. There will still be a queue back to the M2 on most mornings.
I double checked, but couldn't see where it mentioned that bit?! Would be surprising to put in all the infrastructure but only update half the tolls.There are apparently special reasons why it can't be used on the northbound, so its likely to be only half a solution.
Oh perhaps I mis-read, I read this paragraph;
As I say, seems ludicrous to me that they'd half implement it.
article said:
That traffic-snarling impediment on the southside of the Thames crossing will be replaced in October 2014 with cameras that'll snap each passing vehicle, much like they do within the London congestion charge.
That all the tolls for both north bound and south bound are on the south side of the thames, if you see what I mean?!As I say, seems ludicrous to me that they'd half implement it.
PascalBuyens said:
What about foreign license plates? Would it mean I'd get a fine every time I'd used the crossing?
I'd say no fine whatsoever - speaking from personal experience I haven't received anything in the post when I've used a UK registered car to cross the E-toll bridge over the Liffey in Ireland...I started a thread on this on 6th Novemeber, including a link where one can complete the official Highways Agency On-Line Consultation Questionnaire and share our collective PH wisdom...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Thread also includes the consultation documents.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Thread also includes the consultation documents.
I don't know, I love driving my cars and Bikes but it just seems now that every other month the Motorist is being taken for even more money.
OK the idea of lifting the barriers on the Bridge 'seem' to be a good idea, but as others have also said, it then causes a whole lot of other problems on how you tackle the payment
Lets be honest here, this all comes down to the Big Brother is watching you scenario
I remember years ago my late dad got a automatic fine for parking his car in Eastbourne. He had never been there and someone had cloned his number plates In this wonderful country you are guilty until you can prove you innocent! The camera is always right because its taken a picture of your numberplate on a similar car!
Am I being negative about this, Er no I'm being honest! The arguments from Central Government will be, well it works for the Congestion Zone in London, so now we are going to roll it out across the country.
All the time if you look at your local roads you see more and more camera/ traffic monitoring cameras being put in place. I think its totally wrong, no one is telling you what all these extra cameras and monitors are for, (but we all know whats comming, right?)
But there seems to be no one representing the motorist who can lobby against any of this crap. ...Yes that means you to Haymarket and Pistonheads!
What it does mean is that anyone who does not comply to the correct format of a numberplate be it car or motorcycle will be even more heavily fined.
Oh and don't get me started on f
kin Fuel duty 
OK the idea of lifting the barriers on the Bridge 'seem' to be a good idea, but as others have also said, it then causes a whole lot of other problems on how you tackle the payment
Lets be honest here, this all comes down to the Big Brother is watching you scenario
I remember years ago my late dad got a automatic fine for parking his car in Eastbourne. He had never been there and someone had cloned his number plates
In this wonderful country you are guilty until you can prove you innocent! The camera is always right because its taken a picture of your numberplate on a similar car!Am I being negative about this, Er no I'm being honest! The arguments from Central Government will be, well it works for the Congestion Zone in London, so now we are going to roll it out across the country.
All the time if you look at your local roads you see more and more camera/ traffic monitoring cameras being put in place. I think its totally wrong, no one is telling you what all these extra cameras and monitors are for, (but we all know whats comming, right?)
But there seems to be no one representing the motorist who can lobby against any of this crap. ...Yes that means you to Haymarket and Pistonheads!
What it does mean is that anyone who does not comply to the correct format of a numberplate be it car or motorcycle will be even more heavily fined.
Oh and don't get me started on f
kin Fuel duty Ninjajim76 said:
DonkeyApple said:
Do you require a physical barrier to stop you and tell you that a road has changed from 60 to 30 or which way to drive on a one way street? 
Nope, but I would like to be aware I'm being charged for something when it's not entirely obvious I actually am..... Assume here that I'd never seen this article.... or perhaps I'd worked hard and could spend longer than a couple of weeks on the continent and would therefore not get back home in time to find out I need to pay the low rate fine for going over a bridge which didn't have any obvious pay booths (and had in the past) - read the comment I made about the erskine bridge - and therefore could be assumed to be free.... I'm fairly certain there are a lot of people in other weird and wonderful situations who would be excessively disadvantaged by this system.... How about this as an idea - use your numberplate recognition technology in advance to work out which vehicles are regular users of your facility, then contact them offering them a Dart Tag (they can still pay for it online - same as they are proposing). Keep a few booths (max 3 or 4) for those of us who still want the option of throwing cash into a bucket, putting our card into a slot (like the m6 toll) or dealing with a human being, and make the rest Tag lanes only. Yes, not as free-flowing as having no booths whatsoever, but a lot better from the perspective of actually getting money from your punters, not pushing an increase in criminality, and would be a lot better than it is at the moment.
What existing mechanism is in place to ensure that you know it is there and respond accordingly?
I can only really see this as a significant issue for blind drivers.
I had no idea the toll was supposed to be stopped when the bridge was paid for, stuff like that really boils the proverbial piss. I feel sorry for anyone forced to put up with the road network in the UK whenever I am over....last time I drove and it drove me mad. Pulled over looking for somthing dragging underneath the car because of the ste tarmac making so much noise, and played the "lets try not to shag my alloys on potholes" game for 6 hours.
Germany gets a lot of stick, but I drive to work with no traffic jams because the road is wide enough, I can go as fast as I like (conditions permitting) because I am an adult not a moron, and despite 2 feet of snow, ice and snowplows somehow we dont have potholes.
Someone somewhere in the UK needs a good kicking.
te tarmac making so much noise, and played the "lets try not to shag my alloys on potholes" game for 6 hours. Germany gets a lot of stick, but I drive to work with no traffic jams because the road is wide enough, I can go as fast as I like (conditions permitting) because I am an adult not a moron, and despite 2 feet of snow, ice and snowplows somehow we dont have potholes.
Someone somewhere in the UK needs a good kicking.
fatboy18 said:
I don't know, I love driving my cars and Bikes but it just seems now that every other month the Motorist is being taken for even more money.
OK the idea of lifting the barriers on the Bridge 'seem' to be a good idea, but as others have also said, it then causes a whole lot of other problems on how you tackle the payment
Lets be honest here, this all comes down to the Big Brother is watching you scenario
I remember years ago my late dad got a automatic fine for parking his car in Eastbourne. He had never been there and someone had cloned his number plates In this wonderful country you are guilty until you can prove you innocent! The camera is always right because its taken a picture of your numberplate on a similar car!
Am I being negative about this, Er no I'm being honest! The arguments from Central Government will be, well it works for the Congestion Zone in London, so now we are going to roll it out across the country.
All the time if you look at your local roads you see more and more camera/ traffic monitoring cameras being put in place. I think its totally wrong, no one is telling you what all these extra cameras and monitors are for, (but we all know whats comming, right?)
But there seems to be no one representing the motorist who can lobby against any of this crap. ...Yes that means you to Haymarket and Pistonheads!
What it does mean is that anyone who does not comply to the correct format of a numberplate be it car or motorcycle will be even more heavily fined.
Oh and don't get me started on fkin Fuel duty
YES THERE IS. They're called The Association of British Drivers, ABD for short.OK the idea of lifting the barriers on the Bridge 'seem' to be a good idea, but as others have also said, it then causes a whole lot of other problems on how you tackle the payment
Lets be honest here, this all comes down to the Big Brother is watching you scenario
I remember years ago my late dad got a automatic fine for parking his car in Eastbourne. He had never been there and someone had cloned his number plates
In this wonderful country you are guilty until you can prove you innocent! The camera is always right because its taken a picture of your numberplate on a similar car!Am I being negative about this, Er no I'm being honest! The arguments from Central Government will be, well it works for the Congestion Zone in London, so now we are going to roll it out across the country.
All the time if you look at your local roads you see more and more camera/ traffic monitoring cameras being put in place. I think its totally wrong, no one is telling you what all these extra cameras and monitors are for, (but we all know whats comming, right?)
But there seems to be no one representing the motorist who can lobby against any of this crap. ...Yes that means you to Haymarket and Pistonheads!
What it does mean is that anyone who does not comply to the correct format of a numberplate be it car or motorcycle will be even more heavily fined.
Oh and don't get me started on f
kin Fuel duty http://www.abd.org.uk/
All PH'ers should belong. Should be compulsory, so there !!!
If there's one little ray of sunshine coming through with all this talk about charging etc etc - since the advent of tiered VED charging, it's been apparent "the man" has lost a whole heap of money.
They tried to entice people out of cars with poor MPG by offering exceedingly cheap road tax to little city cars. Now a lot of people have swapped the government are getting very little money so shot themselves in the foot.
If they carry on punishing a lot of the rest of us with fines and tolls eventually more people will give up driving or find alternative routes (if possible) losing them even more money.
Who knows, one day in the distant future, perhaps some one will look back and say "it all went wrong because we took the piss out of them"
Regarding ownership of Dartford Bridge - when the costs were settled I believe the authority in charge sold it to a private company who now charge and have no interest in using the charges to pay for it and then make it free.
This means the authority in charge since it's completion actually profitted considerably out of it.
Just a little heads up for you locas too - go here and apply - they dont make it really obvious but with this you will only pay TWENTY PENCE per crossing.
http://www.dart-tag.co.uk/nossl/index.php?page=lrs...
No cash at the barrier needed and you get the satisfaction of knowing it probably costs them more to provide that service than it costs you to use it.
They tried to entice people out of cars with poor MPG by offering exceedingly cheap road tax to little city cars. Now a lot of people have swapped the government are getting very little money so shot themselves in the foot.
If they carry on punishing a lot of the rest of us with fines and tolls eventually more people will give up driving or find alternative routes (if possible) losing them even more money.
Who knows, one day in the distant future, perhaps some one will look back and say "it all went wrong because we took the piss out of them"
Regarding ownership of Dartford Bridge - when the costs were settled I believe the authority in charge sold it to a private company who now charge and have no interest in using the charges to pay for it and then make it free.
This means the authority in charge since it's completion actually profitted considerably out of it.
Just a little heads up for you locas too - go here and apply - they dont make it really obvious but with this you will only pay TWENTY PENCE per crossing.
http://www.dart-tag.co.uk/nossl/index.php?page=lrs...
No cash at the barrier needed and you get the satisfaction of knowing it probably costs them more to provide that service than it costs you to use it.
DonkeyApple said:
But you'd be charged for passing a speed camera at 60 in a 30. In order to spot that speed camera do you need a toll booth to brief you or an SMS?
What existing mechanism is in place to ensure that you know it is there and respond accordingly?
I can only really see this as a significant issue for blind drivers.
eh??!! What existing mechanism is in place to ensure that you know it is there and respond accordingly?
I can only really see this as a significant issue for blind drivers.
Its not a really a valid comparison, is it - I have been taught from the day I first got into a car that driving at over the speed limit (or going the wrong way down a one-way street) is illegal. I have not been taught from day one that I need to check every time I go over a bridge whether or not I need to pay for the privilege.
Granted, for those embarking on their life of driving we can probably have it included somewhere in their training (though it could be a bit pointless, especially if you happen to do most of your driving in the outer hebrides), but for the rest of us, do you propose an annual update (in this technological age would this mean my being given a pointless lecture in the middle of doing my actual work, and slowing me down, or would I have the option of delaying it until later?!) - to include all other random local, privately-managed, changes to the roads (which aren't part of the national highway code, and haven't been implemented at a national level) we outside a radius of 20 miles from the Dartford crossing should be aware of (ie the rest of the country)....
On that basis, and just so you're aware - the gates on the roundabouts on the haul road are permanently shut now, so you can't drive straight through (unless you're in the market for a cheap convertible)
TonyHetherington said:
Oh perhaps I mis-read, I read this paragraph;
As I say, seems ludicrous to me that they'd half implement it.
Well I often complained to the MP for dartford about the congestion and suggested that the levy should be ignored when there is a large queue, and cars should be raised till the queue dissipated in a similar fashion to france.article said:
That traffic-snarling impediment on the southside of the Thames crossing will be replaced in October 2014 with cameras that'll snap each passing vehicle, much like they do within the London congestion charge.
That all the tolls for both north bound and south bound are on the south side of the thames, if you see what I mean?!As I say, seems ludicrous to me that they'd half implement it.
The reply was that the queue northbound was nothing to do with the company wanting to make a fortune out of the tolls. It was to do with the fact that they had to prevent congestion in the tunnel because of ventilation problems. So the traffic was restricted on the northbound stretch by the toll booths to ensure there would never be a queue inside the tunnel.
There wasn't the same problem with the bridge as it had been designed much later to take a higher quantity of traffic.
I think if they are going to let a free run happen on the northbound they will have just made a complete U turn and shown themselves to be simply a money grabbing organisation and misled the MP.
German said:
I had no idea the toll was supposed to be stopped when the bridge was paid for, stuff like that really boils the proverbial piss. I feel sorry for anyone forced to put up with the road network in the UK whenever I am over....last time I drove and it drove me mad. Pulled over looking for somthing dragging underneath the car because of the ste tarmac making so much noise, and played the "lets try not to shag my alloys on potholes" game for 6 hours.
Germany gets a lot of stick, but I drive to work with no traffic jams because the road is wide enough, I can go as fast as I like (conditions permitting) because I am an adult not a moron, and despite 2 feet of snow, ice and snowplows somehow we dont have potholes.
Someone somewhere in the UK needs a good kicking.
I couldn't agree more, which is one of the reasons I left the UK to live in Sweden. The UK road network is a complete joke. For many people, driving is a big part of everyday life and in the UK it was the most miserable, irritating, and not to mention expensive part of my life. I'm glad to have left it behind but I really feel sorry for UK motorists when I read articles such as this. te tarmac making so much noise, and played the "lets try not to shag my alloys on potholes" game for 6 hours. Germany gets a lot of stick, but I drive to work with no traffic jams because the road is wide enough, I can go as fast as I like (conditions permitting) because I am an adult not a moron, and despite 2 feet of snow, ice and snowplows somehow we dont have potholes.
Someone somewhere in the UK needs a good kicking.
Ninjajim76 said:
DonkeyApple said:
But you'd be charged for passing a speed camera at 60 in a 30. In order to spot that speed camera do you need a toll booth to brief you or an SMS?
What existing mechanism is in place to ensure that you know it is there and respond accordingly?
I can only really see this as a significant issue for blind drivers.
eh??!! What existing mechanism is in place to ensure that you know it is there and respond accordingly?
I can only really see this as a significant issue for blind drivers.
Its not a really a valid comparison, is it - I have been taught from the day I first got into a car that driving at over the speed limit (or going the wrong way down a one-way street) is illegal. I have not been taught from day one that I need to check every time I go over a bridge whether or not I need to pay for the privilege.
Granted, for those embarking on their life of driving we can probably have it included somewhere in their training (though it could be a bit pointless, especially if you happen to do most of your driving in the outer hebrides), but for the rest of us, do you propose an annual update (in this technological age would this mean my being given a pointless lecture in the middle of doing my actual work, and slowing me down, or would I have the option of delaying it until later?!) - to include all other random local, privately-managed, changes to the roads (which aren't part of the national highway code, and haven't been implemented at a national level) we outside a radius of 20 miles from the Dartford crossing should be aware of (ie the rest of the country)....
On that basis, and just so you're aware - the gates on the roundabouts on the haul road are permanently shut now, so you can't drive straight through (unless you're in the market for a cheap convertible)
It is exactly the same as any other road orientated charge/fine system. You are visibly warned in advance and then fined by post if you ignore these signs. Hence, only a blind driver would have a legitimate excuse.
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