Spy chips in our cars?

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Originally posted by Guigsy
Good rant, well done! You up for round 3?

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I know, you'll say that if we drove at the speed shown on the sign gatsos would be obsolete. Ok, let's leave the tunnel and use this page as example - http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso.htm, hidden grey gatsos, gatsos placed on stretches downhill, just to make sure you won't get away with just engine braking, gatsos in the middle of nowhere with unneccessary speed limitations. These are your "doing 34 in 30 area", these are the slacks never cut. Unneccessary, stupid frame ins. Not to help safety of pedestrians, not to save lives. You just have to believe when people say there gatsos out there that are not about safety, but only about making money. It's easy, it's relatively cheap and most of all it's perfectly legal. Except that this is our minority report - as long as we can prove councils use gatsos as money making scheme and place them anywhere but the high risk areas there is no reason to support the so called fighting with speeding. Going few miles over the limit downhill in open empty area? Not speeding, just common sense, who the hell cares about clock going up for few seconds. Doing 35 instead of 30 in front of the school. Speeding. Priority?

As for the red light camera, maybe it's because the crossing is so frequently jumped that there's a camera on there... It may have been an important crossing once upon a time, and the chance of removing it is very slim because someone would complain. Imagine the protests if the council took a road crossing away? It'd cost money and be bad publicity.

I don't care, it's a risk to my life to break right past a turn. This knife edge works both ways, my safety over empty crossing leading to fenced building site.

You're saying, if you put a camera in, and it catches loads of people breaking the law, then it's a bad thing? Best keep CCTV cameras out of dodgy city centres then. Speed kills. If you don't speed, you've got nothing to worry about.

Yes, if there is spot where a lot of cars collide we call it "notorious spot" and put warning signs on both sides. In the name of public safety. In similar manner - if there is a spot where a lot of people jump their red light first time there should be investigation. It's not so difficult to understand - you look into stats and it says, on Ken The Greedy Street East crossing we had 10 red light jumpers in 12 months, on Ken The Greedy Street West crossing we had 10 jumpers in last 24 hours. Clearly we should take a look, we are here for public safety not to cash on planning cockups.

I'm not going to comment on your walking ability. If you can walk at 12mph, then you shouldn't bother with a car either.

Come on, now you're just byting. Obviously I don't follow bus lanes, I go across with many shortcuts, trust me, you can walk from Bank to Holborn in 15 minutes.

To improve public transport, they need more money. The sad truth is that no money has been spent on rail for about 40 years. It costs a lot to keep it going in it's current state, it costs a lot to get it up to standard, and people complain when they close it at weekends to repair it. The CC should help fund tube/train/bus improvements, but it will take time. It's chicken and egg, but the PT improvments can't be afforded without the CC. It's worse now, but it is better long term.

I do not care.
Why is my work travel have to become more expensive and longer in order to save something I wouldn't normally use? It is not for Ken to decide how I get to work. It's for me to decide what Ken should work on. No chickens, no eggs, my convinience first, if in current economy state it is cheaper for a family of 2 plus kid to drive from zone 6 or 5 or 4 into the city and back rather than take train so be it - it is Ken's obligation to make it easier.

It's marginal, but Taxis are more efficient that cars. The main reason is people have to use public transport before they catch them.

Have you ever been inside London cab? Only poeple with expense accounts can afford them. They are the most expensive 4 wheel transportation in the world. Helicopter flights are probably cheaper per mile than London cabs in peak hours.

Putting in a City parking charge would encourage car use! People would have no reason not to make loads of short trips. Bad idea.

Why, why is it a bad idea. Why wouldn't people take short trips. Why wouldn't they drive to city to shop. It's safer for them, it's more convenient for them, it's how it should be. If they create trafic and agree to be stuck in it, so be it, their own business, doesn't affect buses, they have their own lanes. Let them have the traffic, they pay road tax to have some of that too. Why is this a bad thing?

Since the fiftees, people and the government have thought that cars were the solution. They took all the money away from public transport and piled it into roads. Fuel tax may be high, but it's still cheaper to run a car now that it has ever been. What's the result? Choked cities and gridlocked motorways. What do we do? Build roads for another 40 years to see if we can spend our way out of it?

I'm sorry but thinking that this whole "return to 19th century" scenario will save the city is just ... uneducated. If delivery is too expensive the prices within the sector rise. When prices rise and commuting to the city becomes too expensive then in a 10 year prospect it drives everyone out. Including people who forked out millions for their Hyde Park Corner flats and Whitehall appartments just to find themselves under yet another taxation. We have already surpassed Tokyo in daily costs per head. You can't find a sandwich in the city for less than £2.50 and the only new shops that can afford rent are mobile phone chains. All that drives people out of the centre. It might be good for suburban areas, but in long run Ken will have to come up with yet another tax, as in few years less people will travel to work inside the zone, new busses become even more empty and shops and businessess change high street for a mall outside Dagenham. Count all the students that can't afford spending £10 for travel and lunch out of their £115 a week trainee wager. Part time workers, terminating staff, temps. There is no point for these people to come to the City just to earn a fiver. I know the day Ken extends CC into Docklands and Canary Wharf (and he plans to) I have to move out because I just can't be charged for driving to Asdas too. There just have to be an end to extra costs.

And it is coming to the town near you, yet another expense, another extra cost, and it comes with 17.5% of tax on top of already taxed money too.