London Van users - The Low Emission Zone rules

[sonnetpete]

Take it you have not travelled to Paris then, and driven around the périphérique intérieur.. That is one mean road.

Well, yes I have actually and it's not an experience I'd repeat willingly. Especially as we missed the exit for our autoroute, took the next one to 'turn round' and ended up driving down the Champs-Elysées.

@Nano : It was more the lack of both congestion charging and increasingly stringent regs I was hinting at. I can only imagine the shedloads of protests that would occurr if there was a hint of such things.

I thought that the majority of roundabouts here were now the same as the rest of the EU, give way to traffic on the roundabout. Out here in the sticks though you still come across junctions where you have to give way to the right. I bet it catches out a lot of UK tourists!!

 

[PaulR]

Take it you have not travelled to Paris then, and driven around the périphérique intérieur.. That is one mean road.

I do it many times a year. But I try to choose my time.

Going down I try to hit it at lunchtime, usually on a Saturday and coming back usually a Saturday evening about 9:00pm.

Yes, it's busy and you have to, er, drive with conviction but provided there's not been an accident the traffic usually flows smoothly. It's the bloody motor bike rideers that get my blood pressure rising though. Weaving in and out they're an accident waiting to happen.

The only thing i don't like are the traffic islands where you give way to traffic coming on to the island. That is one mighty head f**k

There aren't many left like that now. For the last 30 odd years traffic on the roundabout has had priority. It's usually only small roundabouts in villages and towns where this happens

 

[Channel Hopper]

I think whoever came up with this scheme has a great view of their rectum....

_http://www.cbrd.co.uk/indepth/lez/

 

[Channel Hopper]

Short of testing every vehicle and driver as they enter, how would you suggest they improve the air condition in London?

Removing the need for commuting in the first place.

The idea/analysis was handed to the Mayor back in 2001 by myself and quite a few others - prior to the Congestion Charge being implemented, with changes to employment from a virtual office or remote location without the need to travel into the capital (or any other built up area).

Figures based on the type of work carried out showed around 20% of all commuters would get to their office and either pick up a telephone, type, or surf their way through the day, when they could be doing exactly the same elsewhere. The SOHO (Small Office Home Office) rollout would have included voice conferencing equipment, lower rates for calls from the providers and an accurate system of logging on for time keeping. Employers and staff in about half the example job situations would benefit by around four hours a day from both the removal of the travel times, lower third party costs (food/beverage/laundry etc) and the original workplace could lose much of the furniture/fittings, as well as lowering lighting/heating costs.

The response we got from the authorities was to be ignored, the £5 charge went ahead and only three companies to date as far as I recall have realised the effectiveness of the remote office, BT being one of them.

_http://www.arup.com/_assets/_download/download51.pdf

Modern VOIP and smartlogging would of course make mincemeat of the earlier technologies proposed to remove the commuting aspect.

 

[moojuice]

I too drive an old van - 2000 (w reg) ford transit. I always avoid London when I can but I do have friends up there Id like to see occasionally. Im torn between being antisocial, and fitting a filter (reducing the 70hp engine down so its even less responsive)... or buying a newer van! Not great.

 

[2cvbloke]

I too drive an old van - 2000 (w reg) ford transit. I always avoid London when I can but I do have friends up there Id like to see occasionally. Im torn between being antisocial, and fitting a filter (reducing the 70hp engine down so its even less responsive)... or buying a newer van! Not great.

Be anti-social and wind them up with a bit of modding...

Take off the CAT(s), take off the silencers, and just have a straight pipe from engine to rear end, boosts your engine's horses by a few points too...

 

[hoggy]

Looking at the second link there, it seems to me that many councils in London will be paying £100 per vehicle per day. Lorries, Gritters, Bin Wagons etc are all affected. An ill thought out plan really. Suppliers, should really boycott all deliveries into the capital, or make the customer pay the LEZ charge (probably already doing this). Mark my words, in a few years time, all vehicles will be covered by the LEZ, including cars.

 

[2cvbloke]

I think a lot of government policies are going to leave them with lead poisoning, mainly from shooting themselves in the foot so often, but we shall see what happens, I'm pretty sure that this plan will be revoked by the people, cos it's the people that do the work to run the country...

 

[Channel Hopper]

I'm pretty sure that this plan will be revoked by the people, cos it's the people that do the work to run the country...

Since when did champagne socialists give a hoot about those that work, or the country ?

 

[moojuice]

Be anti-social and wind them up with a bit of modding...

Take off the CAT(s), take off the silencers, and just have a straight pipe from engine to rear end, boosts your engine's horses by a few points too...

Haha take off the CAT? This van has two silencer boxes and thats it! No CAT in sight. Suck, squeeze, bang, blow! No engine management unit (its got a timing belt). The engine is beautifully simple and reliable. Could do lunar mileage easily. Shame the bodywork wont. Old "smiley" transits rust like ****.

The flexi leading off the exhaust manifold blew once on me... sounded like I was being chased by a Spitfire! The looks people gave me!

 

[PaulR]

The flexi leading off the exhaust manifold blew once on me... sounded like I was being chased by a Spitfire!

You must drive a petrol engined Transit then. You can't hear ANYTHING over the sound of the early Transit DI diesels!

 

[2cvbloke]

You must drive a petrol engined Transit then. You can't hear ANYTHING over the sound of the early Transit DI diesels!

And that's just when they're passing....

 

[Channel Hopper]

Removing the need for commuting in the first place.

The idea/analysis was handed to the Mayor back in 2001 by myself and quite a few others - prior to the Congestion Charge being implemented, with changes to employment from a virtual office or remote location without the need to travel into the capital (or any other built up area).

Figures based on the type of work carried out showed around 20% of all commuters would get to their office and either pick up a telephone, type, or surf their way through the day, when they could be doing exactly the same elsewhere. The SOHO (Small Office Home Office) rollout would have included voice conferencing equipment, lower rates for calls from the providers and an accurate system of logging on for time keeping. Employers and staff in about half the example job situations would benefit by around four hours a day from both the removal of the travel times, lower third party costs (food/beverage/laundry etc) and the original workplace could lose much of the furniture/fittings, as well as lowering lighting/heating costs.

The response we got from the authorities was to be ignored, the £5 charge went ahead and only three companies to date as far as I recall have realised the effectiveness of the remote office, BT being one of them.

_http://www.arup.com/_assets/_download/download51.pdf

Modern VOIP and smartlogging would of course make mincemeat of the earlier technologies proposed to remove the commuting aspect.

The arrival of Covid19 has proven virtually every scenario twenty years ago.

Have we just stumbled on the biggest productivity increase of the century?

A conservative estimate of the productivity gains from working from home suggests they’re bigger than all of the reforms of the 1990s combined.

theconversation.com

Too bad the SOHO design was ignored, a reduction of people forced to commute for no reason then may have saved thousands in the first six months of 2020, and may even have prevented the pending economic crash.