ULEZ

Hetty I live 4 miles from the station and the taxi journey one way costs £15.00. I know, I did it 2 years ago and it will not have gone down since.

I estimate replacing my car by taxis would cost upwards of £100 a week, plus unduly restricting how I currently lead my life.

Well I hope the taxis are cheaper there than they are here. It costs over $150 for a one way trip to the city for us. Even Uber is $100 plus.

Oreo

MaizieD

It's a bl**dy sad world when you can't trust a taxi driver...

Like the one who murdered several women? Or the one who pretended not to know the way to the local hospital for a friend of my Mum recently going for her cancer treatment, and charged her an absolute fortune when they eventually did get there? Or maybe the surly one who grunts at you and leaves you to put your own case in.

And what percentage of the thousands of taxi drivers in the UK would that be?

I'm no great fan of Khan but he's merely following instructions in a bid to get funding for public transport.

DiamondLily: 'the areas that were most polluted was the London Underground,, followed closely behind by inside Waterloo Station' ??? Well, of course, confined spaces will have a build up of fumes and pollution - isn't that obvious? ULEZ itself doesn't make a huge difference - but it's a start. Surely, you don't support the vandalism that will cost us dear in camera replacements? You don't support crime, do you?

M0nica, it all depends on who you are and where you live, of course. I walk and cycle a lot (although my cycling days are limited) so I usually spend about £15 a week on taxis, that's all. I have to pre book at busy times.

Where I am, I make good use of my travelcard on the trains - while I still have it. At least that's not been taken away from us just yet. Yes, I do get travel sick and I just can't use the cheapest long distance travel - coaches - as I'm violently sick on them.

Khan and his family have to have 24/7 security as he has received so many death threats and is the subject of more vile racism than any pathetic examples here. This has been ongoing for years.

Sorry, hear hear!

DiamondLily

It's a cash cow. Various tests show it will make little difference. Someone, from a radio station, was trawling London this morning, with an official measure thing of pollutants - the areas that were most polluted was the London Underground,, followed closely behind by inside Waterloo Station.

I have breathing and lung problems - the air I breathed in a village in Sussex was no better than I am breathing now in an outer London leafy suburb.🙄

It's descended into chaos anyway::

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12456717/ULEZ-expansion-destroy-cameras-Sadiq-Khan.html

Roll on next May's mayoral election. 👏

Here, here!

I think Khan is out of his depth in the London Mayor job.

MaizieD

It's a bl**dy sad world when you can't trust a taxi driver...

Like the one who murdered several women? Or the one who pretended not to know the way to the local hospital for a friend of my Mum recently going for her cancer treatment, and charged her an absolute fortune when they eventually did get there? Or maybe the surly one who grunts at you and leaves you to put your own case in.

"No he's a total failure of a mayor"

I'm not a fan either. Recently he called anti ULEZ people far right Covid deniers, an amazing assumption, lumping two totally unconnected issues together. Always assuming that anti ULEZ people must vote Tory, another assumption, there would have been just as much opposition to the scheme, if as has been pointed out, that it was their idea, and they had actually rolled it out. Labelling anyone who doesn't agree with certain policies as far right extremists has been bandied about so often it's rendered as meaningless as far left bleeding hearts, meaningless tropes!

Meanwhile when he's not slagging off hard strapped Greater Londoners who live way out in the sticks surrounded by countryside, Man of The People Mayor Khan uses his own mahoosive 4x4 merely to take his dog for a walk

PS. I've never used a car wash and I don't pay that much for parking - maybe £5 a month max.

Hetty58

growstuff, your '£100 a month' isn't the true cost, though, is it? You'd have to include road tax, parking charges, depreciation, car wash - every little expense associated with it. Just like smokers and drinkers always downplay the expense - it's an addiction. That's why I never get an honest answer to my question.

Yes, it is the true cost. I don't pay road tax, but I've included everything except depreciation. As I mentioned, I usually have something left over from my £100 and put it into a savings account for a new car, when this one dies a death.

PS. Thanks for the tip about car prices in London - if I ever decide to sell this car, I know which market to target.

Hetty58 Keep your car long enough and depreciation becomes irrelevant. I had a 20 year old car for 13 years. Never broke down, never had any repair costs. Depreciation averaged at £ 250 a year and since interest rates were rock bottom when I owned it, little cost there either. It was certainly cheaper to run than local taxis, which are extortionate. Travel sickness precludes me from using buses, and my journeys and bus routes do not coincide.

I rarely have parking charges, all the local towns offer free parking for the first hour to hour and a half and my car is lucky if it gets more than one car wash in a paying car wash facility a year. The rest of the time it gets the occasional windscreen clean and bucket of soap suds over it, but no more. We have a garage and it lives in the garage when not in use.

(just read that there's no road tax on yours)

growstuff, your '£100 a month' isn't the true cost, though, is it? You'd have to include road tax, parking charges, depreciation, car wash - every little expense associated with it. Just like smokers and drinkers always downplay the expense - it's an addiction. That's why I never get an honest answer to my question.

growstuff

vickymeldrew

Growstuff - your little runaround is as rare as hen’s teeth!
The world and his wife are looking for just such a reliable vehicle. The scrappage scheme pays out £2,000.

I looked up the value of my car and it's about £2000, so the 82 year old could afford one - and almost certainly save on running costs.

The value of your car may be listed as £2000, but can you find loads for sale at that price in London? Second hand compliant cars are attracting a hefty premium now.

vickymeldrew

Growstuff - your little runaround is as rare as hen’s teeth!
The world and his wife are looking for just such a reliable vehicle. The scrappage scheme pays out £2,000.

I looked up the value of my car and it's about £2000, so the 82 year old could afford one - and almost certainly save on running costs.

Growstuff - your little runaround is as rare as hen’s teeth!
The world and his wife are looking for just such a reliable vehicle. The scrappage scheme pays out £2,000.

Grantanow

Khan is defiant about the ULEZ expansion but he is ditching plans for a zero car rating in central London and road pricing. His main problem is that he doesn't have a confident manner and adequate spoken English facility (unlike the silver-tongued shyster of former years) to put his case across. I recall he was pretty useless when speaking against Brexit. He didn't come over well o¹n Channel 4 News when challenged with the statistics about the likely marginal impact of the ULEZ expansion by Krishnan.

No, he's a total failure as Mayor, and not just with ULEZ.

The stats he produced were "manipulated" and now it's backfiring on him.

Since DH died, I don't own a car, so it doesn't affect me on that level.

All I know is I live in a leafy suburb, where the air is pretty good, and as good as it was when I lived in a Sussex village, but it'll cost me more for workmen, deliveries etc, and, although I've got COPD/Asthma, it'll serve no useful purpose.

Next May, all Londoners get to vote - I don't know who I'll be voting for yet. I can just guarantee it won't be for Khan.

How much is this 82 year old spending to run his car? Road tax, insurance, MOT, fuel, repairs?

I'm fairly poor, but I run an 11 year old ULEZ compliant car. It's my one luxury and I cut back in other areas to afford it. I budget for £100 a month, which covers insurance, MOT, fuel and repairs (the emissions are too low for road tax). I usually have some left over.

I use my bus pass when I can and often travel by train for longer journeys, when I use my Senior Railcard.

The 82 year old could pick up a car like mine very cheaply. I don't know how much scrappage he'd receive for his existing car, but a car like mine would be adequate for his needs, if he's only doing infrequent short journeys.

Khan is defiant about the ULEZ expansion but he is ditching plans for a zero car rating in central London and road pricing. His main problem is that he doesn't have a confident manner and adequate spoken English facility (unlike the silver-tongued shyster of former years) to put his case across. I recall he was pretty useless when speaking against Brexit. He didn't come over well o¹n Channel 4 News when challenged with the statistics about the likely marginal impact of the ULEZ expansion by Krishnan.

Well, my husband had a volunteer activity running a community bowls club and maintaining the green in our local park. It is run entirely by volunteers . The council do not maintain this area at all.
Maybe you bright sparks who suggest getting taxis everywhere could help him transport his tools, lawn mowers and cans of petrol in order to support this community facility.
He has just sold his perfectly serviceable multi purpose vehicle. It was old but non-compliant. We live on the edge of a common and acres of green fields, so obviously him pottering down to bowls four times a week would have been poisoning everyone around him!

Jaxjacky

Ilovecheese

Do people deliberately ignore that this was introduced by Boris Johnson and encouraged by Grant Schapps, or not bother to find out.

Boris implemented the original zone n 2020, it’s this expansion, down to Sadiq Khan, that’s being discussed and objected now, two distinct phases.

Kahn was ordered by Shapps to extend the scheme to the outer London boroughs as a condition for financial support for TfL during the covid crisis.

He's fulfilling the condition that the tory government insisted on.

vegansrock

tinafl perhaps you could enlighten us with Sadiq Khans’s racism comments? I haven’t heard any. You obviously listen to his speeches . The car lobby here is like the gun lobby in the USA - right wingers who feel they have the right to do what they like even if it harms others.

Well only this month vegansrock when the mayors website published a picture of a white family saying they did not represent true Londoners
I do listen to his speeches hope your enlightened

I've always used taxis, on a regular basis - with never a problem. It's more a case of people (who've got used to the convenience of running a car) upset at the prospect of change. Anyone in their 80's may well have to stop driving soon anyway.

I'm always asking on here 'How much to run a car?' with few answers, but let's say it's at least £50 weekly. That's where the arguments fall down, isn't it? We're not talking about poor people (who can't afford to drive) or being stuck at home. There are various mobility schemes for the disabled, taxis, hospital transport etc.

When we eventually took away my 89 year old mother's car keys (after a couple of near misses) she'd get a cab to the bus stop - not because she couldn't walk there, she simply didn't want to.