The Congestion Charge

[jimmy156]

After a little bit of help please.

I drove some friends to st pancreas station on friday. I cannot be sure that i didn't enter the congestion charge zone, i was blindly following my sat nav so i'm not sure of the route that i took.

Am i right in thinking there is no way to check if i need to pay the charge?

What would you do? I dont think that i did enter the zone, but i would rather pay the £15 fee just in case then get a £120 fine!

Very annoying that there is no way to check, they obviously have all my details because they have the ability to send a fine in the post!

[balders118]

There are big signs up telling you when you enter a congestion charge zone, so don't know how you missed those!

If you do a google maps route from your house to St Pancras station you'll see where you went and whether you went through a congestion charge zone - I've already done this, and you did

[HTP99]

As well as big signs there are also congestion charge logos painted on the road, they are pretty obvious.

[WhereamI]

It's £12 if you pay now, £10 if you pay on the day.

Personally I have my car on autopay, then it is £9 if I go in the zone and it happens automatically so I don't have to think about it. (Does cost £10 to set up though).

[jagracer]

WhereamI said:

It's £12 if you pay now, £10 if you pay on the day.

I thought you could only pay it up to the day after the event so now would be too late, am I wrong on this?

[smartphone hater]

Can't you re-enter the postcode/address into your crapnav, press go & have a look at the route it takes you & compare to this.. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/roadusers/congestionchar...

[g3org3y]

Where did you drive from?

St Pancras station itself isn't in the zone.

[Silver]

Also, doesn't your sat nav prompt you when you enter the route? Mine says 'toll charge' if the route goes into the CC zone.

[WhereamI]

jagracer said:

WhereamI said:

It's £12 if you pay now, £10 if you pay on the day.

I thought you could only pay it up to the day after the event so now would be too late, am I wrong on this?

You are right except at weekends, you can pay for Friday up until the end of Monday.

[jimmy156]

smartphone hater said:

Can't you re-enter the postcode/address into your crapnav, press go & have a look at the route it takes you & compare to this.. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/roadusers/congestionchar...

Thats a good idea! i Will do that.

Silver - My sat nav is quite old, and i never update the maps! how long has the CC been around?

Balders - i didnt go that way (google maps) I went around he M25 from the A3 and along the M4 into london. I then went up onto the A40 westway to st. pancreas so it depends at what point i turned north to join the A40.

Yes - i have till monday night to decided if i need to pay or not!

[jimmy156]

hmm looking at maps i think i avoided it. Will check what the sat nav route is when i get home



Thanks chaps!

[redstu]

I have never driven within the zone so have no experience of the system.
But I would expect that you could only pay if your vehicle had actually entered the zone, so I went through the Tfl site all the way to entering my card details. This was with a car that was scrapped years ago.
I would have expected that the reg would be checked vs the database of cars which had actually been driven in the zone, but then that would stop people paying just in case.
I do hope that this type of system doesn't spread further.

[tubbystu]

jimmy156 said:

Balders - i didnt go that way (google maps) I went around he M25 from the A3 and along the M4 into london. I then went up onto the A40 westway to st. pancreas so it depends at what point i turned north to join the A40.

If you turned North at any point before or including Park Lane you did not enter the zone.

Now it is back to the original zone - East of Park Lane and South of Marylebone Road, I suggest it is unlikely you entered the zone given the above routing, unless you did a maneuver at or near St Pancras that just clipped it.

But if you really are not sure, £12 is better than £120....

[eltax91]

So they system is so badly shocking, that it will just accept your payment, whether you entered the zone or not.

The gubberment, robbing fking pricks

[Ozzie Osmond]

eltax91 said:

So they system is so badly shocking, that it will just accept your payment, whether you entered the zone or not.

Of course it will you muppet. How else could people pay in advance?!?!

[mrmr96]

Ozzie Osmond said:

eltax91 said:

So they system is so badly shocking, that it will just accept your payment, whether you entered the zone or not.

Of course it will you muppet. How else could people pay in advance?!?!

Make it date dependant - so if you try to pay in arrears and you're not on the list then it should tell you so. And equally if you pay in advance and then don't go in it should give you an automatic refund.

[jimmy156]

tubbystu said:

jimmy156 said:

Balders - i didnt go that way (google maps) I went around he M25 from the A3 and along the M4 into london. I then went up onto the A40 westway to st. pancreas so it depends at what point i turned north to join the A40.

If you turned North at any point before or including Park Lane you did not enter the zone.

Now it is back to the original zone - East of Park Lane and South of Marylebone Road, I suggest it is unlikely you entered the zone given the above routing, unless you did a maneuver at or near St Pancras that just clipped it.

But if you really are not sure, £12 is better than £120....

Having checked maps and Tom Tom's route via the M4 i think i avoided it. Also when putting the route into my sat nav from home (initially went from my friends place) it does come up with a "Toll Charge" warning, which it didn't do previously. I dont think i went wrong so i reckon i'm okay.

Also i assume that blue signs are to warn that you are approaching the zone, whilst white signs say you are actually entering it?

[Monkeylegend]

jimmy156 said:

st pancreas station

[jimmy156]

Monkeylegend said:

jimmy156 said:

st pancreas station

Yes yes yes... I was wondering why i wasn't getting anywhere with google searches.

[Monkeylegend]

jimmy156 said:

Monkeylegend said:

jimmy156 said:

st pancreas station

Yes yes yes... I was wondering why i wasn't getting anywhere with google searches.

Thank you, it made me smile