10,000 non payers on day 1

[skittle]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2775023.stm

By my maths thats £800k, a nice little earner for a days work

Wonder how many will actually end up paying?

Not that I support the congestion charge but if I were Ken I would be loving it at the moment - there surely is no limit to how smug a person can be

[deltaf]

See if hes grinning when he gets run over by one of his fecking double deckers! CNUT!!!!!

[Mad Dave]

"A motoring organisation said average speeds had increased from 10 miles an hour to 20, although Mr Livingstone said this would not be maintained. "


Whats the point then?!

[anonymous-user]

You've got to remember that it is school half term this week so less cars on the road (well planned no doubt).

Also Ken said that there would be mayhem in the first week or so which would have made people stay away for the first few days.

If people keep hearing how much better the roads are since the charge came in... maybe they'll get back in their cars again and enjoy the new found lack of traffic.... and then we're back to square one again!

Load of old B*llocks I reckon !

[whoozit]

You Central London peeps will know that the Tubes are already HEAVING, more so than usual. God help you when half term is over.

Just as well my motorbike'll be back on the road by then

[stc_bennett]

i dont care about the congestion charge if you work in london you can afford to pay the charge.

tubes may be full or getting near capacity but there are many miles of underground lines and stations that are not used so the moey can be used on getting them up to scratch, theres buses... if not there are mopeds, bikes and hybrid fueled vehicles that are exept from the charge...

[plotloss]

bandit said: You've got to remember that it is school half term this week so less cars on the road (well planned no doubt).

Also Ken said that there would be mayhem in the first week or so which would have made people stay away for the first few days.

If people keep hearing how much better the roads are since the charge came in... maybe they'll get back in their cars again and enjoy the new found lack of traffic.... and then we're back to square one again!

Load of old B*llocks I reckon !

Thats exactly what happened with the M25, lets build a big fcuk off road to alieviate the traffic in town said the government, so they did and it was great, for a while.

The the public noticed how easy it was to drive round and through central london so car demand went through the roof. Car manufacturers built more cars than they have had before and now we are at the congestion charge, which will be nothing more than a HUGE revenue earner for the government and those people that have to take buses will still be waiting on buses because the percieved benefits will outweigh the cost and it will all come cascading down around kens ears with the world watching, laughing and pointing at the world joke we are becoming.

Matt.

[johno]

stc_bennett said: if you work in london you can afford to pay the charge.

Not a particularly wide spread sweeping monstrous generalisation at all ....

No, not at all ....

Ahem !!!!!

[mdh]

"stc_bennett said: if you work in london you can afford to pay the charge."

Just ask the teachers, nurses and market workers.
You better be quick though as all the teachers and nurses will be leaving London soon.

[DrSeuss]

stc_bennett said: i dont care about the congestion charge

Well you should do. If it works here (or, more likely, if the stats are massaged and the traffic lights fiddled again to make it look like it's working), you can be sure it's coming to a town - and even country lane - near you soon.

stc_bennett said:tubes may be full or getting near capacity but there are many miles of underground lines and stations that are not used

Where?? Name the lines and the stations?

[Tabs]

Has anyone worked this one out? If I want to get from say the end of the M1 to Gatwick at peak M25 time, would it be quicker to pay a fiver and go straight through the middle?

[350matt]

Interestingly enough did anyone else take note of all the major London Periphery roads (M25 , North circular) showing traffic warnings, 5 mile tailbacks etc nothing to do with people avoiding the city centre of course.

Matt

[andytk]

Back to the point of the 10000 non payers on day one.
You've gotta ask who these people are? Is it some type of protest and the same people will keep it up permanently? After all how are they gonna process 10000 demands for a court hearing when these people get their penalty notices.

Or are there really that number of people driving into London with Cloned/False plates?

Or was it because the system kept on crashing and perhaps erased their record of payment somehow?

I heard that over 100,000 cars were logged on day one of the tax so that makes these 10000 around 10% of the total.
Where is this going?

Andy

[hertsbiker]

so, 10,000 on day 2... etc etc. Court case for all of 'em? yeah rigght !!!!

[pbirkett]

Speaking as someone who works in IT, i'd be very interested to see whether their computer systems can cope with this much data. I'd say it was a fair bet it'll go wrong, often...

[gnomesmith]

I understand that just like a London PCN no court proceedings are required. An enforcement list is produced and rubber stamped and bailiffs or suchlike instructed.

I may of course be wrong.

[whoozit]

DrSeuss said:

stc_bennett said:tubes may be full or getting near capacity but there are many miles of underground lines and stations that are not used

Where?? Name the lines and the stations?

www.thetube.com/content/metro/01/0110/31/

[GrahamG]

350matt said: Interestingly enough did anyone else take note of all the major London Periphery roads (M25 , North circular) showing traffic warnings, 5 mile tailbacks etc nothing to do with people avoiding the city centre of course.

Matt

I didn't notice them on day one because - They didn't have any! The North Circ was at worst only as bad as a normal day and for the most part was WAY better than that. I reckon the predictions of gridlock kept a lot of people away.

[twit]

I've just got back from london, not been up in the day for a while, and considering it is half term and I guess some people may have gone on holiday this week the tube at Paddington was really busy. I went on the Bakerloo, which is normally the quieter line, and they were rammed. There were also anouncements form outside saying that no more people were allowed in the station! What is going to happen next week when the kids are back on the train and the people who are away are back...?

I also noticed a fair few cars in central London, I was at the BT tower, with their plates blanked with cardboard...

Twit

[icamm]

According to one report I read the tube was no busier than normal. I don't know if this was "normal" for 1/2 term or "normal" for non-1/2 term.

As to the 10,000 people who failed to pay I would guess that there is a healthy mix of people who were unable to register, people who's registration has been lost and people who were chancing their arm that the system would fail.

As far as I know they currently have to take you to court if you fail to pay the charge. I'm sure this will change if the numbers keep at this sort of level.