Safe Speed Forums

I had an e-mail from an ABD webring that I subscribe to, duly copied here:-

>Following the news that Transport for London seeks to ban vehicles more than 8 years old entering London, the ABD calls for control of public and private transport to be separated.
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>ABD Environment Spokesman Ben Adams explained: "When bodies such as TFL control the whole system it creates a vested interest for them to take away choice and force members of the public onto the public transport which is providing their income. London's drivers have seen this over recent years as their car use has been hindered by obstruction and removal of road space. This latest attack will mean exclusion for the less well off and further exacerbate the economic and social harm already caused by the congestion charge. Those who cannot afford newer cars will have no choice but to make a transport choice that may well be highly inefficient for their needs. Public transport is simply not a practicable choice for many journeys, even those that use it often need to use a car for some journeys. TFL have a history of making life difficult for drivers whilst not improving choice. Good public transport will naturally attract users, enforced use by penalising the alternatives is not the way to go."
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>Adams continued: "Transport Research Laboratory report TRL 431 studied this issue and concluded that restrictions on cars are not warranted on air quality grounds. The fact that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders are supporting this is not surprising. They too have a clearly vested interest in persuading people to buy newer cars. The vast majority of cars in London will be less than eight years old already, many cars built before this are quite clean, catalytic converters became standard fitment some 13 years ago. The amount of pollution caused by the naturally declining number of older cars doing ever decreasing mileages is so minute as to be insignificant."


What next will this guttersnipe come up with?

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

Extending the congestion charge zone westwards from next year, despite objections from local residents.

Raising the congestion charge rate again, to £10, if he is reelected in 2008.

Red Ken, Red Ken Uber Alles...

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

Now that will put paid to the annual London-Brighton "Emancipation Run", won't it?

Presumably Ken will take delight in banning such an exhibition of motoring triumphalism

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Classic cars aside, what about those on low wages who can't afford a more modern car? We're only talking about S reg motors after all.

Well it really is supposed to be about the carcinogen belching buses, trucks and taxis as an air quality improvement, as it is very embarrassing to force everybody onto buses with the CC, only for air quality to get significantly worse as more buses are required. The cars that they forced off the road were in many cases cleaning up the emmisions of the buses.

But as said earlier TfL and related groups such as their friends T2000 are heavily sponsored by those with a vested interest in forcing public transport onto us whether we want it or not, so they want it "to be fair" and effect all road users.

The logical conclusion will be a Europe wide solution* based on Japan where all vehicles are forced off the road by strict testing after a certain age.


* Except France of course where they will have riots to ensure that the average french villager can still pootle around in their 1962 rust bucket - and win.

Did anyone else notice that the moment this was announced, it was followed by an announcement that bus fares will go up 10% at the same time. They're not so dumb!

I am all for it.... as long as it includes trains and tube trains cranes jcb's lawn mowers, fire engines, royal coaches, and twojags. thames barges.


This must be a fair and even policy.

EDIT: Ken is rushing this in because he hear that Paul will be visiting in the SafeSpeed mobile office

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

'What next will this guttersnipe come up with?'

.....and what have guttersnipes done to you to deserve such a slur?

Can anyone point me at the actual proposal please?

Searching the TfL website for "Low Emission Zone" or "LEZ" (hope that doesn't trip any over-sensitive web filtering software if you're reading this at work...) throws up a whole bunch of documents. There's plenty of stuff talking about restricting HGVs, PSVs and some LGVs based on their emissions, but all the docs I've read so far either don't mention private cars at all, or state clearly that to include them in such a scheme would result in the benefits being grossly outweighed by the drawbacks.

Not saying the ABD is wrong - much of the documentation I've read so far is no newer than January this year (and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to search for documents by age), so it's quite possible that a more recent revision to the scheme has introduced private cars as well.

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Chris

Try this, Prof

pressrelease@abd.org.uk

I know the ABD website is a bit of a bugger to find specifics on - I hope that his leads somewhere closer...

My original reply to this e-mail is posted below:-

>As the daily driver of a classic British vehicle that is 27 years old, I find this absolutely moronic. Who the bloody Hell does Livingston think he is? My vehicle is fully road-legal and as such has access to all Public Highways in this poor beleaguered, Third-world Police-state refugee camp that I used to call home.
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>I think this prat needs calming down - a small piece of lead inserted in his left ear should do it (very effective from the barrel of a 9mm Glock...).
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>This country is going to the dogs so fast that we will be greeting each other by sniffing arses instead of shaking hands before long...
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>FFS!
>
>Josh

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

And how long before this spreads further a field. Is this the beginning to the end of our classic cars.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.