London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

Thought a few of you lot might be affected by this change (anyone who commutes on an older motorcycle).

From what I can find on the internet the post 2007 pointy is Euro III compliment though will be very near to the maximum age of 13 years when this roles around. Becomes an effective ban on entering central London after that at £12.50 per day.

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/env...-emission-zone

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

I think thats unfairly penalising motorcyclists of all kinds. Bottom line, we move quicker through london than anyone else, so "taxing" us to the same degree is unfair at best.

The restrictions they're imposing will allow us to move even more freely through the capital, if motorcycles are excluded from this. Also, how many people commute into london via motorcycle? (which they have already proved costs 1/10th of the congestion (and emissions) of a typical car or van.

I can understand the push towards better air quality, but they're penalising one of the vehicles that actually help this issue, not make it worse.

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

So by their own stats (from the pie chart) bikes contribute less than 1% of the problem but are still being penalised. Anyone would think a government department dreamt up this nonsen....oh, er......

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

It makes 'perfect' sense. This is an emissions charge, so engines that are not compliant will be be taxed. This is in addition to the congestion charge so cars will be paying £25 a day which bikes are not currently subjected to, or will be subjected to as a result of this.

As all bike engines had to be EURO 3 compliant as of 2007 (hence why the pointy got two spark plugs per cylinder at this point) that's why 2007 has been chosen, and the argument is that the affected bikes will be 13 years old at this point, so most will be off the road.

However the government missed a few points, not all pre 2007 engines are non EURO 3 compliant, however the blanket date was introduced to make things simpler, which is a good thing, although I don't agree with the result.

Secondly if they made PTWs even cheaper for London there would be more, with less cars, reducing traffic and emissions, however such forward thinking policy does not appear to be forthcoming.

There are also a lot of older vehicles in use, the idea is to force them off the roads to improve air quality and to improve the economy by buying the cleaner newer models. Unfortunately not everyone can afford the newest models, wants to pay the price, or might just be happy with their older mechanically controlled vehicles with less electronic interference/things to go wrong.

However what would really help would be improving public transport so that it was cheaper and more convenient than driving in London, as although it is the greatest contributor, a bus full of people is putting out less emissions that if all those people were in cars.

There is too much focus on what each vehicle is putting out but it is not proportional to how many people it is transporting, or the effect that this has on traffic which in turn affects emissions, basically we are running out of space, and London is permanently like sitting in your garage with the car and bike running whilst you slowly suffocate on the fumes.

Really this is too narrow minded an idea to solve the wider problem of poor transport in London (let alone every where else in the UK).

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

great idea... the government price people off the road and onto already overcrowded public transport, while the rich or people who absolutely must travel with their van (for work) are taxed to the hills and in turn everything in london costs even more than it did before. Win win for the govt. More money, possibly cleaner air and more tax in the coffers over all as everything becomes more expensive..

There is an alternative guys..

http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/nowt-like-it

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

Its only the small bit in the middle!
Get off and walk !
Whats the house prices in Yourkshire

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

4-bed with large garden in a good part of town? £350k... lot of house for the money. Heard horror stories along the lines of what £350k would get you in central London... no congestion charge up here yet either ;)

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

I filled in the "consultation" in the link.From the figures shown it seems that motorbikes and petrol cars produce negligable or quite small amounts of pollution respectively so I made the point that legislating against them was unreasonable and if the point was to cut noxious chemicals then busses taxis and commercial vehicles should be the target.

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

To be fair, you don't see that many 13 year old bikes commuting into the city (yeah I know you see some, mine was one of them). From the quick sample of what I remember of the bikes sitting outside my old office, 90% already comply with being built after 2007. Also with a new SV650 costing less per month then a zones 1-3 travelcard (I seem to remember nearly new being sold in Bristol for about £65 a month too), I don't see that this will really effect motorcycle commuters in London as a whole, just a few individual cases, which given the 5 year warning shouldn't be a problem.

Motorcycle couriers have even newer bikes on the whole (though the only way you can tell is the plate, they are usually filthy).

I don't really think this is going to make that much difference for other vehicles anyway. It's wee-ing around the edges.

Re: London ultra-low emissions zone.
 

How are they going to enforce it? I'm told the actual reason motorbikes don't pay congestion charge is because they don't have front facing number plates and the system wasn't built to work with rear plates. So is there going to be loads of new equipment installed? Or perhaps they'll just end up dropping motorcycles from the exclusion as it saves a huge investment.