| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Another fancy pants scheme? | |
| Posted by: | Raymond Havelock | |
| Date/Time: | 15/12/16 12:00:00 |
| People pay hugely for parking permits. It is not about parking outside ones house. It is about being able to park within reasonable distance of one's home. I work nights a lot and often cannot park within a 20 min walk when coming home. Since the CPZ which fundamentally, I'm not a fan of, this has occurred less but am still often parking 2 or 3 streets away. There are very few homes with off street parking in the Eastern end of the borough, very different from Osterley going west as the housing post dates the car. Off road parking and even garages are incorporated. Even council houses came with garages. Unfortunately most are too small for modern cars which are getting massive and utterly ridiculous for tiny streets. Quite why anyone needs a giant Volvo, Audi, Mercedes, Range Rover or BMW to simply do the school run in this sort of urban area is beyond me. These huge vehicles ought to be discouraged unless genuine work vehicles in which case you already pay more for commercial use insurance. What is a fact is the car is the single means of liberation for ordinary working people. It has given opportunity and freedom to people far more than any policy or legislation has ever managed. We don't all work down at factory at bottom of road any more. We have a choice and mobility and prosperity and not being in the hands of Rackmann type landlords and having to Cowtow to the gentry. The private car brought big changes where previously it was only benefitting those living by the railways. Nor was this something that could be achieved with a bicycle. Its fine for local use but only the very fit and with youth on your side is it s serious contender for daily commutes of more than a few miles and only if you do not carry goods or tools or fragile equipment. Time is to short and increasingly in urban commercial conurbations and economies. Public transport in not just London but most of the UK cannot cope and can never be as versatile. It is also massively expensive in this country. I used public transport almost entirely this year, partly by choice but also because I've not needed to take equipment to sites. But the cost is some 5 times higher than last years travel costs and I've only just noticed the huge dent that has put in the family income. A recent trip to Birmingham was over 200 quid - one way! By car 50 in fuel there and back plus other costs still under 90. And with a passenger we split the costs. These costs get passed on to clients and so the cycle goes. And inevitable people commute and park their cars at a point where it is cost effective. The Zone system is part of the problem here. Notable that in East London Zone 3 has been extended further out based on the increase in development and population surge. Exactly the same has occurred in the west notably Hounslow but it is still in Zone 4. Crossrail is only going to increase capacity by 10%. But already that 10% is going to be absorbed by users living beyond Slough in the West. In reality the capacity will be reduced for users inside the GLA as other services on the lines used will be reduced to allow the timetable to incorporate the new line. It will be standing room only and restrictive to anyone with bikes or baggage. We have a problem not just because of space limits but the complete lack of joined up thinking, idealistic policies, vested interests and myopic planning. Some could be easily solved but where are Ealing and Hounslow when it comes to getting the Zone 3 extended as far as Feltham, Hounslow Central and Northolt and Rayners Lane? |