How come this conversation steered toward needing - not needing a car? when really the question is old car v new-ish car. l have 2016 Peugeot. Runs like a dream. Cost me 6k. No ULEZ worries. I would never drive to zone 2 in a car though. Might as well walk. Traffic is a bitch. Quicker on a tube [when they are not on strike]. Getting my old virago sorted in the garage too. It’s not ULEZ friendly but will be. Nothing that cannot be sorted.
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Took just 2 days to register my 2005 R6 as ULEZ compliant! Faster than i ever expected. Yamaha sent me my certificate of conformity in 2 days from paying. Registered and received confirmation from TfL within a few hours. I’m in shock.
Let me back in…
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my £500 volvo is ULEZ excempt, its not hard or expensive to get a car thats fine.
The move to talking about going car less is that the ULEZ is a way of encouraging londoners to use less cars, which id genereally agree with. Cars are a silly way of trying to move within a city.
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… When the public transport infrastructure works. Trains are my example. Off road obvs. Frikkin unreliable.
Since the pandemic they have had massively reduced income from public transport. The cynic in me thinks they need to bring in cash some other way. So - instead of encouraging people gently back to work on public transport they want to charge everyone whoe doesn’t use it.
The Dfts transport data shows that MC journeys are on average 8-12 miles (it varies from year to year). This is too far for most peeps to cycle. So much better to use an MC rather than a car if you are able - and yet the authorities don’t recognise this - in spite of MAG putting the data in front of them over and over and over again.
they do, and are. they are not trying to hide that. TFL have been told they have to seek other funding as ticket sales are down and the government want them self-sufficient. Being that TFL are responsible for maintaining the major roads into London, it makes sense that road users contribute to this.
Ive just bought an ebike for my 10 mile commute, its not actually ‘that’ far.
I know they are relatively new, but they seem the ideal way for transport in a city for people who don’t want to/cant get a train.
is it? on what grounds?
About the same fuel economy, about the same emissions, and not that much of a difference in actual journey times outside the very centre of the city (particularly once you take into account the extra time a bike takes in getting changed at each end and putting it in a garage)
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They are a game-changer. My partner has swapped her Piaggio 125 for an e-bike for her commute. It takes less time and she now longer has to deal with Westminster motorcycling parking etc, and she gets a bit of exercise thrown in.
They so are!
im trying to defult to using it to go anywhere within about 10 miles from home, which is most things.
I can plod home at the end of a 12hr night shift on full power, or turn it down/go faster with more effort from me.
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and recharge the battery using TfL’s electrickery
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I think you’re correct on all points.
Unfortunately, even on a motorcycle forum, you’re being met with opposition so I think MAG have got their work cut out.
8 miles really isn’t too far to cycle, especially across London, which is pretty flat. I used to do 7 miles to work when i lived in London and it was the quickest way of getting in, even on a rusty old mountain bike. You can pootle 8 miles across london without breaking a sweat and build up from 1 day per week.
Now i do 20 miles in from Surrey but that is probably a bit much, i don’t do it evry day
My daughter is 5 and will happily cycle 8 miles to the pub for lunch on a weekend
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That sounds so wrong
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Half pints only until she’s 10 
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Make sure you include all your pubs in her training then by the time she is 17 and learns to drive she will know where to pick you up from.
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Trouble is, she’ll only know the route through the woods.
Quad bike and trailer to pick you and your mates up 
I’ll keep the trailerbike I had for when she was little and she can pedal me home 
Didn’t help that one of the last things Boris did as mayor was cutting the subsidy TFL got from the government. A multi-million £ hole in their budget ever since.
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I’ve worked for Tfl for about twenty years now, so about two years after it started.
Along with the Mayor’s office I’m not sure it actually needs to exist.
When I started, and for about the next next five years, they were chucking tax payers money around like it was going out of fashion.
It’s remit should have been to efficiently run tubes, buses etc and keep the roads running as freely as possible.
Unfortunately we’ve seen a succession of Mayor’s who’ve decided that’s not enough and spunked hundreds of millions of pounds on worthless and minority projects.
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An interesting read here