[SteveyD]

Ok I haven't had a good moan for at leats 45 mins so here goes.....[]

I know that on a day to day basis the propesed manchester congestion charge won't affect many people on here but what are your thoughts? if any?.

I work in the city every day and will pass the propesed congestion toll area at least twice a day, now before I start my employer will foot the bill BUT...... thats not the point. In Manchester every billboard advert, every newspaper advert and every radio advert is aimed at current public transport users and non drivers as there are more of them. They use things like "bring in congestion charging will fix my bus prices" "the congestion charge won't effect me" "I travel after 9am so im not effected".

Doesn't that stink a bit? Pretty soon I will already be paying £450 for the joy of using the road why should I pay more?, why should the motorist yet again be taxed? bringing a car into the city already costs enough in parking fees. If the government can simply magic up billions to fund greedy over ambitious bankers, surely it can find a little more to improve public transport without toll charges to pay for it all. Even if the new system takes 20 years to pay for itself.

Oh I also use the Runcorn bridge and thanks to a new crossing planned by 2015 (I think) both bridges will also be tolled. Hmmmm [*-)]

Those who know me will understand my rant. and quite possibly correct all my points I just thought id start a new thread for peoples opinions etc.

 

[CkB]

CC Zones are a nightmare. Being a Londoner, and formerly of the daily-commute-by-car, I've had all this pain. The fact that your boss is willing to cover the cost when it goes ahead is something. The nice bank I work for refused point blank to cover their most important staff from the raised bill (and also refused to review London Weighting allowance too!).

We've also seen various surveys and reviews done, that whilst initially traffic will drop - long term it will make precisely no difference, and traffic will return to previous levels. Whether this is simply "more cars on the road" or people giving up and HAVING to use the zone in London I couldn't say. LT get very mixed write ups about the state of public transport so it wouldn't surprise me.

The latest crusade in London now though is "Save Our Cyclists" - as the stupid feckers keep getting themselves killed by lorries.

Whatever next?

C

 

[kaz219]

I seen the signs near trafford centre (Say no to congestion charge) but where are they actually putting the charges in mcr??

I signed a few petitions and whatever but none of them ever seem to work....

I really dont see the point.... Petrols high, tax is high, insurance is extremely high...now to drive cars on roads...thats going to be high....

Now i know why the gov was lowering petrol/diesel prices.... as they know they're going to rake it in with the congestion charge!

 

[SteveyD]

Ck good point on London's CC, people simply have no choice but to pay it in the end I guess and simply have to bite the bullet. As for the "save our cyclists" firstly why are they "are" cyclists? do we own them, do they do tings to help us?. If tey want to use "our" roads then perhaps they should contribute to "our" road tax or simply stay out of "our" way and they wont get hurt in the firat place. Never quite understood the sapndex thing either.

Kaz,

The city will be split into 2 rings (outer and intermidiate) here are the pricing details

INBOUND
7 - 9.30 am, Morning peak inbound:
£2 to cross Outer Ring, £1 to cross Intermediate Ring

OUTBOUND
4 - 6.30 pm, Evening peak outbound:
£1 to cross Intermediate Ring, £1 to cross Outer Ring

Thats right you also pay to leave, if you make 1 trip to and from the city centre then thats £5, or park your car in a crime hot spot and get the sh!tty bus for prob £3 and return to your car later with a £300 window and sat nav bill.

 

[SteveyD]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2007/01/24/240106_road_pricing_feature.shtml

loads of info here

 

[CkB]

Steve, if you so much as MOVE your car in the London CC zone it's flat £8, unless you are a resident in which case you get the reduced day rate (THINK it's still 50p). It's not about crossing boundaries. It's about movement down here.

C

 

[Gary Cundliffe]

It'll cost me £3-£5 per day, depending on shifts.

I can't use public transport because its not 24h and i provide it. I need to get to work somehow to get the infrastructure started and get people to work

 

[SteveyD]

I think you should go on strike gaz []

 

[SteveyD]

good forum for it all here :- http://www.manchestertolltax.com/

 

[SteveyD]

[quote user="CkB"]

Steve, if you so much as MOVE your car in the London CC zone it's flat £8, unless you are a resident in which case you get the reduced day rate (THINK it's still 50p). It's not about crossing boundaries. It's about movement down here.

C

[/quote]

Quite ironic that because I bet even after all the congestion charging London is still gridlocked, used to work there all the time and I bet nothing has changed....

 

[CkB]

Based on various studies Steve, the traffic levels initially went down noticably. Within the zone. However our inner ring road (boundary of cclondon) then got hammered, as did the surrounding areas on the outside of the zone.

IT's been in palce several years now and a survey a few months back actually said that traffic levels are now back basically at what they were before cclondon. Therefore, what's the gain??

Yes, there's many more cars on the road now than 3-5 years ago... But that many??

C

 

[kaz219]

Dam... I live in the second ring....

And my family live in sale/urmston (out side the second ring)...

Hmmm...

 

[kaz219]

FFS...my girlfriends lives in the first ring!!

And i pick her up before going work Start at 6 so i go from the second ring out to the first (£2) pick her up and back into teh second ring £2 out and £1 to get in and out the second ring (£1) and that all again when i drop her off back at home after work....

Thats £12 if i got it right... WTH ??

This does not look good for me.. []

 

[SteveyD]

[quote user="CkB"]traffic levels are now back basically at what they were before cclondon. Therefore, what's the gain??[/quote]

Lots of extorted money for the government []

 

[SteveyD]

[quote user="Kaz219"]

FFS...my girlfriends lives in the first ring!!

And i pick her up before going work Start at 6 so i go from the second ring out to the first (£2) pick her up and back into teh second ring £2 out and £1 to get in and out the second ring (£1) and that all again when i drop her off back at home after work....

Thats £12 if i got it right... WTH ??

This does not look good for me..

[/quote]

Its all bollocks........ The only thing you can do is vote against it. I can't believe how big the radius of tolling is. I work in manc every day and the congestion isn't that bad. Don't get me wrong its not good either but everywhere has rush hour traffic.

 

[CkB]

[quote user="Kaz219"]

This does not look good for me..

[/quote]

What's your alternative? Do you have one? (Humour me, I'm making a point!)

C

 

[SteveyD]

1) Move to the country....... and drive a combined harvister oooooooooh arrrrrrr.

2) Get the bus Be forced to take the bus.

3) Cycle mmmmmm spandex. or walk, or run.

4) Move away form everything you live and love.

5) cough up the money []

USE YOUR VOTE AND SPREAD THE WORD TO EVERYONE !

 

[kaz219]

Hmm..dumping the girlfriend could save me a few bob in CC and a lot of money in the long term...

Or...permanently move to liverpool..theres no congestion charge here (yet!)

 

[SteveyD]

Did you hear about the advert that was forced to be removed from the tv as it was deemed to be biased.......... its all about corruption.

 

[Diggler]

The congestion charge is shocking and I for one will be voting against it........for what it's worth!!!

Fortunately I won't be affected by the charging due to my work hours but i don't think its fair that the motorist is now being charged to get to and home from work!!! Why don't the councils ask the government for a grant to improve the public transport rather than get a loan off them that we have to pay back through the congestion charge??

Not heard about that advert but there are loads of 'seems fair to me' posters up around the city but nothing for people like 'stop the charge' who are against it which isn't fair at all.