Motorbikes to pay to enter London's Congestion Zone

[headlamp]

[craigT19]

it must be case of "shit...we need to start making money out of bikes"

"i know were release the same old crap about bike deaths going up so we have an excuse......that always works"
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Bikes owned :- 2001 nsr125, 1999 zx6r, 2006 yzf-r1, 2009 xmax 250, 2012 yzf-r1, 2015 MT-07
Current bike : - 2016 MT-10
BCF member pops. sadly missed 1945-2003

[mr jamez]

Great way of encouraging people to use types of transport that ease congestion they are just total idiots aren't they? I don't actually think they care what happens as long as they can screw as much money out of people as possible with all these schemes

[MarJay]

Good old Ken. Completely wide of the mark by 100% again.

Does he ever do anything right?
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[craigT19]

What i dont understand is that the government has made it public they intend to make driving a more expensive item than "quality public services" BUT!!! if every body stoped driving tomorrow..... how long would it take for the whole british economy to collapse?? 5-10 mins? i think summin like 40% of our GNP comes from driving revenue..in one form or anouther....




are they stupid?
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Bikes owned :- 2001 nsr125, 1999 zx6r, 2006 yzf-r1, 2009 xmax 250, 2012 yzf-r1, 2015 MT-07
Current bike : - 2016 MT-10
BCF member pops. sadly missed 1945-2003

[map]

[badlydamaged]

[sarcasm] Well thats a really good idea!! [sarcasm]
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My bike: 1988 Kawasaki KH100 Status: Polluting Devon with two stroke smog and noise pollution!
"Its not your engine size that matters!, It's what you do with it that counts"
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[headlamp]

[Ste]

Wonder how much the charge will be for bikes compared to cars. It still reduce the number of accidents including motocycles and scooters as the charge will still be less than cars so people will still use bikes over a car as it costs less. And no, I'm not suggesting that they charge more than cars for bikes, but something does need to be done as there are lots of people going and using scooters or bikes on just a CBT as it is a cheaper form of transport than the car. They should make the CBT valid for less time, and possibly make it so you can only renew it a certain number of times unless you have a certain number of attempts at your test, as this would make people actually do their tests and a lot of the people in London would need to get lessons for this which would increase road safety.

Something does need to be done really, just not sure this is the right thing.

[tgabber]

I think the main point of the article is about the rise in two-wheeled deaths and injuries. This is a fair point, though perhaps badly expressed. I blame the scooter riders myself...

I reckon that applying the congestion charge to motorbikes is very unlikely. As Headlamp points out, that would mean renewing the whole camera system.

(I also think this thread title could do with a 'might' inserting in it).
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"It's all about dislocating expectation"
Kawasaki KMX125 -> Aprilia RS125 -> Kawasaki ZZR600

[map]

Just re-read the article and it's full of contradictions. First it's saying there's more injuries and the idea is riders will have to pay to reduce this. Then at the end there's less accidents in the charge zone

Doesn't add up. Either poor journalism or the work of a spin doctor. The whole feel of the thing is looking for an excuse to charge everyone on motorised vehicles and pulling wool over people's eyes by citing 'safety' as the reason.

[craigT19]

the point is "hello" there isnt a huge accident rate...yet again its been fabricated to justify a shit decision....look at the excuse given for the speed camera blitze etc..."ohh its cos accident rates have gone up" when they went up in camera zones, and ok speeding went down...but burglery went up
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Bikes owned :- 2001 nsr125, 1999 zx6r, 2006 yzf-r1, 2009 xmax 250, 2012 yzf-r1, 2015 MT-07
Current bike : - 2016 MT-10
BCF member pops. sadly missed 1945-2003

[stinkwheel]

[Kickstart]

Hi

This would not surprise me at all.

For a start it would not take much effort to sort out the cameras, or just turn a few more round to take pics from behind.

Next they really do not care about private transport, except as a source of revenue for their buses.

Bikes DO cause a far greater risk to pedestrians. From memory the number of pedestrians killed by motorcycles is around 5 times as many as killed by cars, per passenger mile travelled. Much of this is probably due to pedestrians wandering through queues of non moving cars and getting wiped out by a bike, but it does happen.

We also know that they are desperate to fleece more money from road users. We have just had the announcement of a new toll motorway to run alongside an existing motorway, and over the last 2 days loads of articles about proposals to toll ALL roads. For example take a look at this https://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1258751,00.html and note that they talk about 30m vehicles, and to get to that figure they will be including bikes.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Frost]

I wonder if these statistics are based purely off number of accidents rather than ratio of accidents per bike.

Ie 5 times the number of bikes before and 26% more accidents is actually a HUGE drop in accidents per bike.

[MikeyC]

i think the above emoticon sums it all up!

[map]

Why doesn't Ken introduce a licence scheme for pushbikes in the congestion zone?
After all it's bound to reduce these casualty rates for these riders, isn't it? If a pushbike doesn't have a licence then it can be clamped! A yearly fee should be able to be sorted.

Oh, and while they're at it how about catching the pushbikes that go throught red lights. Last time I checked highway code pushbikes weren't exempt from this law

[synaptyx]

[mazza]

[headlamp]

I was thinking of something along the same lines. It has been pointed out that if it weren't for the pedestrians and pushbikes then there would be no accidents involving them! Therefore why not levy everyone coming into Central London. After all they are contributing in one way or another to congestion in Central London!
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Using a mobile phone while driving a car should be made a capital offence!

[Rhino]

[mazza]

Sorry everybody, but you're missing the point. As Craig said, it's about making money. Nothing to do with the benefits/rights/wrongs etc. That's all peripheral.

They need to raise money (to improve thins), the government only give them so much, they'd like more so they raise it how they can. Extend the congestion zone area, raise prices, include bikers. etc. etc. etc.

If you want to change anything, you need to vote him out.
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Laugh!? I nearly bought a drink!

[byke95]

I don't live near london, and only ever go into town on the weekend, avoiding the congestion charge.

Still, it's one more thing that makes me wonder why I continue to live in the UK. The standard of living os not what it used to be...

[Ian (GPX)]

They got to be taking the PISS !

[headlamp]

The stated aim of the Congestion Zone (as taken from the website) is