Congestion charging, deliberate traffic chaos, car tax

[ian neal]

Register opposition to car and road tax proposals

Proposed Car and Road Tax -

There are only 13 days left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you
go' road tax ˆ which closes to petitions on the 20th February 2007.

The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody
about it. Therefore at this time only 671,354 people have signed it so far
and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it.

Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address,
just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.

Democracy in action?

The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will
know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.

If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible."

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

[Mark Gobell]

Deadline to sign up by: 20 February 2007 – Signatures: 869,516

Keep signing - get it to the million mark.

Is it a fact that 750,000 will stop it ?

[mobypaterson]

Signed!

Do it! It only takes 30 seconds. . .

[flamesong]

And it only takes 30 seconds to sign this one:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/9-11-Truth/

[London Mick]

I've signed but you know they will just ignore us.

[marky 54]

i dont know how much comfort people can take in this but i think if it gets bought in it will be ferther proof that the things we and others were warning about and people were saying is just conspiracy theory a lot will be woken up by this and may start to see where people were coming from.

also it will anger people and make them stand up and start asking questions. i know it sucks big time but people wake up around events especially when it effects them. when heavy tax and tracking devises
are imposed on people will microchipping the population seem bizare then for example?

[telecasterisation]

[London Mick]

The site insists on your full address plus your postcode. Ah, what the hell, they have me on one of their lists for years now. I'll be one of the first to be rounded up for the concentration camps!

[uselesseater]

If you sign this you're with the terrorists

[rodin]

Deadline to sign up by: 20 February 2007 – Signatures: 990,146

A million is a slam dunk.

[paul wright]

[rodin]

How about a petition to investigate how come the gov supplied witnesses to the 7/7 bombers train ride from Luton from a phantom train? Let's get drafting.

[mobypaterson]

This was on of the front page of the times today! Apparently the millionth signature went on last night

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/

[marky 54]

the poll tax? look what happened when they didnt listen.

[mason-free party]

2 million marched in 2003 against Iraq invasion and government ignored us....so doubt if they will take much notice of 1 million cyber protesters....we need a good old fashioned ruck outside the houses of parliament like the poll tax riots to make these traitorous MPs think again

[London Mick]

As in Lebanon and Georgia and other east European countries or even in France, those million or so protesters should just refuse to go home next time. Just camp out in downtown London. Refuse to move until the government falls. There is no other way these people will get out.

[Mark Gobell]

Threat to staff who sign road petition in office

Road Pricing Petition

By David Millward, Transport Correspondent

Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 16/02/2007

Workers were warned yesterday that they face disciplinary action if they use office computers to sign the Downing Street petition calling for the scrapping of road pricing proposals.

Peter Roberts started the anti-road pricing petition

The curbs faced by individuals wanting to protest emerged as Dorset Police launched an internal investigation into the circulation of an email which urged staff to back the campaign.

An inquiry has been launched by the force's Professional Standards Department and those who endorsed the protest could face disciplinary action.

Daily Telegraph

[Bongo]

What's wrong with taking the bus? Or are you afraid that your Land Cruiser is going to cost you?

My opinion is... hammer those fools who drive vehicles that they are just about too large for them to actually climb into.

[TonyGosling]

Congestion Charge coming in folks

UK health body proposes removal of speed bumps to cut air pollution
Variable speed limits, removal of speed bumps and ‘no idling’ zones near schools among Nice recommendations
Car going over speed bump
Speed bumps should be removed to help keep emissions down, says Nice. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian
Kevin Rawlinson
Thursday 1 December 2016 07.48 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/01/nice-proposes-smoo th-driving-measures-to-cut-pollution-and-save-lives

Speed bumps should be removed, speed limits made variable on England’s motorways, sometimes dropping as low as 50mph, and a congestion charge considered in more cities to cut air pollution and save lives, health experts have said.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) released a series of recommendations on Thursday which it said would “promote a smoother driving style” and help keep emissions down.

Health officials said vehicles created more emissions when they were speeding up and slowing down, as on congested motorways. To keep a more consistent speed, they said, the limit could be temporarily lowered to 50 or 60 mph when traffic is stop-start. That represented a “more sensible” approach than having lower fixed limits, Nice’s Prof Mark Baker said.

The officials added that some speed bumps encouraged people to speed up, then slow down. They urged planners to consider using average speed technology on the roads to promote smoother driving. Figures released earlier this year by the RAC Foundation showed that cameras measuring average speeds were now monitoring drivers on more than 250 miles of Britain’s roads. Sections covered range in length from a quarter of a mile on London’s Tower Bridge to 99 miles on the A9 between Dunblane and Inverness in Scotland.

On top of that, they want towns and cities with pollution problems to consider implementing clean air zones and look into the possibility of introducing congestion charging zones.

The draft guidance for England also contains proposals for “no-idling” zones around schools to prevent parents leaving their cars running during school drop-offs. Air pollution is a contributory factor to about 25,000 deaths a year in England, almost 5% of all deaths, Nice said, and road traffic is estimated to contribute to about a third of air pollution in urban sites.

Provisional figures show that road usage is at record levels, with an estimated 320bn vehicle miles travelled on Britain’s roads in the year ending September 2016.

Health campaigners welcomed the draft proposals, which were devised for local authority staff and are out for consultation, but environmental groups called for more stringent measures.

The British Lung Foundation said it backed the plans because “air pollution contributes to tens of thousands of early deaths every year” and the British Heart Foundation called them a “step in the right direction”.

Jenny Bates, a Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner, said the proposals were to be welcomed but that “we must deal with the real crux of the issue and reduce air pollution levels”.

She said: “Action is needed both to ensure vehicles on the road are clean and that there are fewer of them. Diesel vehicles, which are the most polluting, must be phased out and our transport and planning policy needs a radical overhaul.”

Nice officials called for a review of trees lining streets in urban areas. “In some cases, they restrict street ventilation, causing poorer air quality. In others they improve it”. It also warns that solid barriers placed next to roads to mitigate noise can actually lead to a wider dispersal of pollution.

Other suggestions by Nice included:

• Town planners should avoid putting cycle routes on heavily polluted roads but, where this was unavoidable, they should consider using foliage to screen cyclists from vehicles. .

• Local authorities may want to look into setting a standard for the types of cars used for taxis.

• Some areas should consider public awareness initiatives such as “car-free days”. Those could be similar to measures sometimes used in Paris, which only allows drivers with a number plate ending in an odd or even number into the city on given days when pollution reaches high levels.

• House builders should place living rooms at the back of houses away from roads and hedgerows should be grown to protect cyclists using cycle paths.