F the motorist

[giggity]

New powers ‘let councils milk drivers for millions’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-powers-let-...

Also, went for a drive in Balham and Tooting - what a shower of st. Bus lane converted to a cycle lane.

All of Upper Tooting Rd has had parking removed and bollards for cyclists put up - I guess this is the new covid excuse.

The death of the car is coming real fast to London boroughs.

And with that income about to dry up I guess this is a way to continue to milk the motorist.

[eharding]

The Times said:

An analysis by the RAC found that the two cities handed out more than one million penalty charge notices to drivers for offences such as stopping in yellow box junctions, making prohibited turns and disobeying “no entry” signs in 2018-19.

Whilst I can see that congestion charges & parking restrictions can have an effect on the average driver, how is fining 2@s for driving like 2@s "milking" the motorist?

[JuniorD]

eharding said:

The Times said:

An analysis by the RAC found that the two cities handed out more than one million penalty charge notices to drivers for offences such as stopping in yellow box junctions, making prohibited turns and disobeying “no entry” signs in 2018-19.

Whilst I can see that congestion charges & parking restrictions can have an effect on the average driver, how is fining 2@s for driving like 2@s "milking" the motorist?

Stopping in box junctions...my pet hate. I'd want to crush their cars so they should feel lucky just being fined

[Watchman]

giggity said:

New powers ‘let councils milk drivers for millions’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-powers-let-...

Also, went for a drive in Balham and Tooting - what a shower of st. Bus lane converted to a cycle lane.

All of Upper Tooting Rd has had parking removed and bollards for cyclists put up - I guess this is the new covid excuse.

The death of the car is coming real fast to London boroughs.

And with that income about to dry up I guess this is a way to continue to milk the motorist.

As far as I can see, all this change does is to move who is in receipt of the fines to councils. A consequence might be that councils focus on it a bit more because of the benefits to them. I'm guessing no new rules are being proposed.

Anyway, the SE is overpopulated. There's only so much land, roads, resources. This might encourage some to move away.

[heebeegeetee]

giggity said:

New powers ‘let councils milk drivers for millions’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-powers-let-...

Also, went for a drive in Balham and Tooting - what a shower of st. Bus lane converted to a cycle lane.

All of Upper Tooting Rd has had parking removed and bollards for cyclists put up - I guess this is the new covid excuse.

The death of the car is coming real fast to London boroughs.

And with that income about to dry up I guess this is a way to continue to milk the motorist.

I'm sorry, but "The death of the car" and "income about to dry up" is complete nonsense imo.

In the UK we have, and have had for a very long time, sh*t traffic policies which have f**ked things up for everybody.

We need a re-appraisal, and a pegging back of the car-is-king culture, to improve things for everybody.

Re yellow boxes, yes, very often drivers are just getting what they deserve, but I have come across some yellow boxes which are just huge, and are just money-making devices imo.

[eharding]

heebeegeetee said:

Re yellow boxes, yes, very often drivers are just getting what they deserve, but I have come across some yellow boxes which are just huge, and are just money-making devices imo.

Google maps reference to an example? Then we can all look at the overhead imagery and pontificate as to whether they're too big.......

[trails]

eharding said:

Google maps reference to an example? Then we can all look at the overhead imagery and pontificate as to whether they're too big.......

Spoiler; they aren't, some drivers are ste at planning ahead and some drivers are entitled asses who don't care...so mostly deserved fines

[oyster]

giggity said:

New powers ‘let councils milk drivers for millions’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-powers-let-...

Also, went for a drive in Balham and Tooting - what a shower of st. Bus lane converted to a cycle lane.

All of Upper Tooting Rd has had parking removed and bollards for cyclists put up - I guess this is the new covid excuse.

The death of the car is coming real fast to London boroughs.

And with that income about to dry up I guess this is a way to continue to milk the motorist.

You went for a drive in Balham and Tooting?
Is this a joke post?

[anonymous-user]

We are witnessing a huge change to motoring in Britain, and it will only pick up pace over the coming years.

Many city centres are lining up to effectively ban or heavily restrict cars, we are potentially having laws changed to increase protection for cyclists and e-scooter riders, new methods of transport are being introduced and encouraged such as e-scooters and e-bikes, the combustion engine has effectively been legislated against come 2035, the push for using public transport, and so on.

We all know there are numerous reasons for this:

Overcrowding in certain parts of the country.
Environmental concerns.
Air quality concerns.
Pedestrianisation of town and city centres to encourage a change in use to residential, recreation,
Safer streets.

Everything is changing and I guess we all just need to accept it, and adapt our lives around it.

Despite being someone who enjoys driving and owning combustion engined vehicles, I find the future both interesting and exciting, it doesn't worry me.

[Murph7355]

giggity said:

...
The death of the car is coming real fast to London boroughs. ...

London's been a sthouse driving environment for decades. Especially Balham and Tooting

With some of the best public transport available (I'm not talking cleanliness, sitting next to weirdos or any of the other ancillary factors necessarily...just being able to get to/from more or less anywhere...apart from Chelsea maybe ) there really isn't a huge amount of need to drive within London most of the time. So I always took it as a "don't have to do this often so suck it up" exercise.

If you like cars and driving, move out of London. There are still some great roads to enjoy, which makes the reaming the motorist gets a gnat's chuff more palatable. And not everywhere has inordinate amounts of traffic.

[giggity]

oyster said:

You went for a drive in Balham and Tooting?
Is this a joke post?

Why is that a shock? Also Hammersmith and Fulham have embarked on the same shower of st. And the cars are going nowhere. It’s rammed in Balham today given the rain.

Just visiting the local Sainsbury’s to get a large shop is not something I’m going to do on the bus or tube.

[Murph7355]

giggity said:

Why is that a shock? Also Hammersmith and Fulham have embarked on the same shower of st. And the cars are going nowhere. It’s rammed in Balham today given the rain.

Just visiting the local Sainsbury’s to get a large shop is not something I’m going to do on the bus or tube.

As it's officially 2020...get them to deliver. (And buy eggs from the corner shop).

[Sophisticated Sarah]

heebeegeetee said:

Re yellow boxes, yes, very often drivers are just getting what they deserve, but I have come across some yellow boxes which are just huge, and are just money-making devices imo.

There’s one in Worcester city centre where if you don’t enter it, you’ll end up trapped at the other side of the lights due to the volume of traffic.

[giggity]

Murph7355 said:

As it's officially 2020...get them to deliver. (And buy eggs from the corner shop).

No thanks.

The draconian measures are just a fad.

15mph limits, 40mph average cameras on the A40, average cameras on the A406

[anonymous-user]

giggity said:

Murph7355 said:

As it's officially 2020...get them to deliver. (And buy eggs from the corner shop).

No thanks.

The draconian measures are just a fad.

15mph limits, 40mph average cameras on the A40, average cameras on the A406

You honestly think these things are just a fad?

The landscape of transport and allowable car usage will continue to change over the coming years, and guess what, it won't make things easier or cheaper for the private motorist.

[JNW1]

Lord Marylebone said:

We are witnessing a huge change to motoring in Britain, and it will only pick up pace over the coming years.

Many city centres are lining up to effectively ban or heavily restrict cars, we are potentially having laws changed to increase protection for cyclists and e-scooter riders, new methods of transport are being introduced and encouraged such as e-scooters and e-bikes, the combustion engine has effectively been legislated against come 2035, the push for using public transport, and so on.

We all know there are numerous reasons for this:

Overcrowding in certain parts of the country.
Environmental concerns.
Air quality concerns.
Pedestrianisation of town and city centres to encourage a change in use to residential, recreation,
Safer streets.

Everything is changing and I guess we all just need to accept it, and adapt our lives around it.

Despite being someone who enjoys driving and owning combustion engined vehicles, I find the future both interesting and exciting, it doesn't worry me.

Don't disagree with much of that but as someone who lives in a more rural location my fear is always we have "solutions" forced upon us which focus primarily on the problems in the towns and cities. It's all well and good advocating getting rid of the car - or restricting its use - but that's not especially practical when the nearest shops are miles away and there's next to no public transport!

I'm retired now but for many years used to be based in an office which was only about 15 miles from home; typically the journey to and from work was about 20 minutes each way but if I'd had to rely on public transport it just wouldn't have been practical (there's only one bus through the village on a morning and with two changes required by the time I got to work it would have been mid-morning!).

So by all means do what you need to do in the cities but please remember not all of us live in them and one size won't fit all; increasing (say) fuel duty to encourage people out of cars might work where there's an alternative but where there isn't it's just an additional financial burden.

[s1962a]

It's the 20mph limits on big wide roads that get me. Have to turn cruise control on try and stay within limits.

[Four Litre]

London boroughs are welcome to it. The whole place is a sthole and soon to be a broke sthole. The wheels are going to fall off the whole thing sooner or later when nobody needs to live there anymore.

[anonymous-user]

JNW1 said:

Don't disagree with much of that but as someone who lives in a more rural location my fear is always we have "solutions" forced upon us which focus primarily on the problems in the towns and cities. It's all well and good advocating getting rid of the car - or restricting its use - but that's not especially practical when the nearest shops are miles away and there's next to no public transport!

I'm retired now but for many years used to be based in an office which was only about 15 miles from home; typically the journey to and from work was about 20 minutes each way but if I'd had to rely on public transport it just wouldn't have been practical (there's only one bus through the village on a morning and with two changes required by the time I got to work it would have been mid-morning!).

So by all means do what you need to do in the cities but please remember not all of us live in them and one size won't fit all; increasing (say) fuel duty to encourage people out of cars might work where there's an alternative but where there isn't it's just an additional financial burden.

I don't disagree with you at all.

I grew up in an large and very rural county, and you had to drive a car to go to work, be taken to school, go to the shops, or pretty much do anything. Public transport only consisted of a few bus routes, which were pretty much useless unless you wanted to get from one town to another at certain times if the day. It was not just impractical, but pretty much impossible to conduct your daily life without a car.

You would like to hope that measures taken by cities to curb private motoring would remain in cities, but don't ever underestimate the incompetence of both local and national government in this country.

[Vickers_VC10]

Happening in Reading, roads being turned one way with the other lane converted to a two way cycle lane. Reading bridge get a full road width cycle lane each side....