Clean air zones

[Robmac]

My gripe also is it should not ever be applied to any private vehicle regardless of weight or classification if it is a private vehicle then a disabled person could be driving it, and a disabled person may not be able to get to their destination any other way than by car or a motorhome or whatever it doesn't matter.

Commercial vehicles also need to make deliveries into town centres, and some belong to very small businesses that can't afford to upgrade their vehicle, and how long before they move the goalposts on what is okay and what is not?

As well as many Hospitals being in CAZ's Kev. What with Hospital parking fees and CAZ charges a visit can be an expensive event!

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Out of town visitors get caught in the trap too, so why don't they have a national database so if you're registered at home then it applies everywhere, I come back to Scotland on this, they sorted it so it's not impossible it just needs the will to be fair.

 

[Robmac]

Out of town visitors get caught in the trap too, so why don't they have a national database so if you're registered at home then it applies everywhere, I come back to Scotland on this, they sorted it so it's not impossible it just needs the will to be fair.

They will never make it that simple Kev. There's too much money involved.

 

[mark61]

My gripe also is it should not ever be applied to any private vehicle regardless of weight or classification if it is a private vehicle then a disabled person could be driving it, and a disabled person may not be able to get to their destination any other way than by car or a motorhome or whatever it doesn't matter.

Commercial vehicles also need to make deliveries into town centres, and some belong to very small businesses that can't afford to upgrade their vehicle, and how long before they move the goalposts on what is okay and what is not?

My bet is 2026.

So you lot with your dirty Euro 6's better make the most of it now.

 

[Thistle]

@Pudsey Bear
The goal post will probably move when the euro VII standards come out, otherwise all the tax payers money they’ve blown on advertising, litigation, acts of parliament, local bylaws, cameras and fluffy cloud signs, plus the ongoing cost of admin staff e.g. those maintaining the dozens of application servers and web sites that take the money and issue the fines etc will have been too short lived.

However this infrastructure can probably lend itself to other uses, fines for picking your nose and eating whilst driving, fines for other emissions such as farting, discarding McDonalds packaging or even driving an EV that does less than x miles per kw so even if everyone switches to green vehicles I don’t think these systems will be going away

It rather reminds me of people that work in job centres, if they were any good at doing their job they would soon have made themselves redundant, so instead they had to switch tact. They no longer assist job seekers in finding work that’s totally counterproductive, their role is seemingly now to grill jobseekers and apply sanctions I.e. take benefits away for not finding work.

Or IFAs, frankly if they were any good they would all be multi millionaires and there would be no such thing as an IFA

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Eating whilst driving has been an offence for a long time, as is drinking while driving.

 

[mark61]

@Pudsey Bear
The goal post will probably move when the euro VII standards come out, otherwise all the tax payers money they’ve blown on advertising, litigation, acts of parliament, local bylaws, cameras and fluffy cloud signs, plus the ongoing cost of admin staff e.g. those maintaining the dozens of application servers and web sites that take the money and issue the fines etc will have been too short lived.

However this infrastructure can probably lend itself to other uses, fines for picking your nose and eating whilst driving, fines for other emissions such as farting, discarding McDonalds packaging or even driving an EV that does less than x miles per kw so even if everyone switches to green vehicles I don’t think these systems will be going away

It rather reminds me of people that work in job centres, if they were any good at doing their job they would soon have made themselves redundant, so instead they had to switch tact. They no longer assist job seekers in finding work that’s totally counterproductive, their role is seemingly now to grill jobseekers and apply sanctions I.e. take benefits away for not finding work.

Or IFAs, frankly if they were any good they would all be multi millionaires and there would be no such thing as an IFA

They'll have to give people a few months to get Euro 7 compliant vehicles, so sometime in 2026 we can expect a change.

Yes, don't think any of the systems will be going away either. Emissions is just the tool they are using at the moment.

 

[mark61]

Eating whilst driving has been an offence for a long time, as is drinking while driving.

No it's not. The police would have to prove and prosecute for careless driving, if you happen to get distracted while eating a spag Bol.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

There were cases a few years ago where they had a purge.

 

[mark61]

There were cases a few years ago where they had a purge.

Perhaps laws have been updated.

Shame really, I loved the carnage in my rear view while I rolled a fag, holding a cup of coffee, eating a sandwich and holding phone in other hand.
That was before cup holders were fitted everywhere.

 

[lefty107]

I saw somewhere that bath has just released it's figures stating that their air pollution is down by 20 % since the introduction of their clean air zone. Bradford on avon and other unsuitable lorry routes are up by 25% as me and large trucks skirt around.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Why have none of the nav apps jumped on this to help folk avoid the zones?

 

[JIXAMAN]

Its money, end of... They fed you the narrative they want you to hear, provide a solution that costs money to you and me, the UK taxpayer...

Its like smoking... Its bad for you, ok, it is and it costs whatever to the taxpayer to fund the services required to deal with the aftermath and tax smokers to the hilt for the privilege which goes not directly to the services that need the cash but to? It just fades away with the rest of the revenue collected. But they wont go after / remove the activities of the tobacco companies which would be far more effective, m and the way tax is collected has a big bearing on society, Malaysia has oil (ok, more than us) but they tax the oil companies for what they take out and not the population at the pump (they pay like 40p a litre).

Anyway, coming back to the post, they wont put pressure on the "worlds" real polluters to curb, no just tax us, make us poorer, instead of, if its that important and the planet is going to die, get the "worlds" big polluters to change, which they wont / dont...

...... ........ Just the mood ahm in, the van's broken and ahm taking it out on the world...

 

[colinm]

On monday I visited our nearest equivalent to a CAZ, Cambridge which is traffic free in centre, how much did it cost me to park and visit? £0, and AFAIK the same would apply for me to visit most CAZ's in England, how is this possible? Well that's simple, as a 'poor pensioner' I could only afford to drive my car not some 'gas guzzling' van , I parked in P&R then used my bus pass to get into town. TBH this is a great improvement to the 'good old days' when we where able to drive into town then spend our time trying to find parking and having to pay for it. Had a chat to the driver of the electric bus which transported us, he said they are much better to drive than the old deisel busses.

 

[Robmac]

The Cambridge Park and Ride is excellent Colin even though I have to pay (for the next 2 years anyway) but it's not a lot.

Me and a mate sometimes go to Cambridge for a day in the pubs and the bus service from St Neots is very good too. They even have a loo on board which is just as well!

 

[mark61]

Excellent. Boomers poncing off the youth, again!

 

[Robmac]

Excellent. Boomers poncing off the youth, again!

Note I said I still have to pay Mark so I presume you are counting me as one of the youth?

 

[Pudsey Bear]

That's a bit of a stretch Roberto.

 

[GeoffL]

We the people have a vote and we moan instead of using it or writing letters to the councils & MPs.

The problem is that we can only vote for those who have been nominated -- and these days ISTM that they're all part of the same cartel and nominated by central committees. So the candidates from who you can choose are already vetted to be acceptable to the elite and Joe Public hasn't got a chance should the elite be at odds with public opinion. As Boss Tweed once said, “I don’t care who does the electing, as long as I get to do the nominating.”

[...]
It's a mandatory 50 Mph zone for all vehicles even my EV! for about a mile to improve local air quality, obviously as with all unmanaged speed limits hardly anyone pays attention and I used to feel quite unsafe on that stretch trying to obey the limit on my motorbike.

No doubt there are many more across the country

FWIW, I can see reason for speed limits on the basis of air quality. These days, now that almost all ICEVs have DPFs and other anti-pollution measures fitted, most pollution (esp PM2.5) comes from tyre and road wear and resuspension and this increases considerably with speed. It also increases significantly with vehicle mass and, since EVs tend to be considerably heavier than the equivalent ICEVs, it seems only fair that these speed limits should apply to EVs.

My gripe also is it should not ever be applied to any private vehicle regardless of weight or classification if it is a private vehicle then a disabled person could be driving it, and a disabled person may not be able to get to their destination any other way than by car or a motorhome or whatever it doesn't matter.

Commercial vehicles also need to make deliveries into town centres, and some belong to very small businesses that can't afford to upgrade their vehicle, and how long before they move the goalposts on what is okay and what is not?

I agree. Where these zones do not apply to cars, they should not apply to any vehicle that is privately owned. However, ISTM that much about CAZs (esp the ULEZ) is a thinly disguised route to per-mile road charging, which will apply to all vehicles -- even EVs. I've seen reports that SadIQ Khan has instructed his people to draw up plans for "pay per mile" and the cameras are already being installed under the guise of ULEZ expansion. So the goalposts are already moving; much to the detriment of all private motorists IMO.

Why have none of the nav apps jumped on this to help folk avoid the zones?

The app I use has settings to both warn of and avoid "environmental zones" -- although this is well hidden deep down in vehicle profile settings. This app is CoPilot GPS, and is based on Trimble mapping. TBH, I'd be surprised if other apps didn't offer similar.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

The app I use has settings to both warn of and avoid "environmental zones" -- although this is well hidden deep down in vehicle profile settings. This app is CoPilot GPS, and is based on Trimble mapping. TBH, I'd be surprised if other apps didn't offer similar.

Oh, does it, thanks Geoff.

I bought it a few years ago and always update it before a trip but I confess to not using it at all unless I have no data signal after stopping somewhere and Google cannot see the satellites to give me a route which is rare but happens, I shall give it a coat of looking at later.