ULEZ

[norseman]

Whilst not strictly 'cars general' I thought I'd run the following -

Just out of curiosity I thought I'd browse the 'net to see what the London ULEZ charge might be in 2026.
Interestingly TFL seems unable to differentiate between the ULEZ & congestion charges, the latter of which is apparently set to rise on the 2nd of January.

Some of TFL's own articles state that the ULEZ is set to rise from £15 (actually £12.50) to £18.
Talk about confused? .. they seem to be & so am I.

 

[Mottie]

Pretty sure it’s the congestion charge that’s going up from £15 to £18. ULEZ stays the same, £12.50 unless Khan needs to fund some of his brethren’s projects.

 

[norseman]

Thanks Mottie, fortunately I'm far enough outside the zone to be unaffected (only had to pay the charge once since the ULEZ expanded) so I was only curious, but TFL's webpages are not helpful.

But then the same can be said about much of the 'net, so many pages of out-dated info.

 

[johnny2007]

The only thing the midget lot are good at, is extorting money from people.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

The only thing the midget lot are good at, is extorting money from people.

Carried over from Boris I believe?

But less pollution in highly populated areas is good, even though it comes with drawbacks . But balanced out, it has to be better to have less pollution

 

[johnny2007]

Carried over from Boris I believe?

But less pollution in highly populated areas is good, even though it comes with drawbacks . But balanced out, it has to be better to have less pollution

If you say so.
What I know is that people had to get rid of perfectly functional and greatly maintained cars.
And then bought compliant old bangers spitting smoke, oil and petrol everywhere.
Process is repeated at MOT time, unless one knows a dodgy MOT garage issuing certificates very loosely.
I bought mine from a gypsy camp with 12 months MOT...

 

[carmanmemoranda]

If you say so.

You prefer pollution ?

What I know is that people had to get rid of perfectly functional and greatly maintained cars.
And then bought compliant old bangers spitting smoke, oil and petrol everywhere.

Examples?

Process is repeated at MOT time, unless one knows a dodgy MOT garage issuing certificates very loosely.
I bought mine from a gypsy camp with 12 months MOT...

Mot emissions test is very low, but it does fail the worst

Not quite sure what you mean by repeated at mot time though

 

[johnny2007]

Examples?

Me and my nextdoor neighbour.
4 cars in total.

Mot emissions test is very low, but it does fail the worst

Not quite sure what you mean by repeated at mot time though

Some people buy old bangers for £500 or less with 12 months dodgy MOT.
When the 12 months are up, they scrap the car, get £250 from the breakers and buy another old banger.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Me and my nextdoor neighbour.
4 cars in total.

And the emissions of these are worse? Any facts and figures? Petrol to diesel or vice versa ?

Some people buy old bangers for £500 or less with 12 months dodgy MOT.

Always possible but getting less and less.

When the 12 months are up, they scrap the car, get £250 from the breakers and buy another old banger.

And these are worse polluting than the previous ones ?

 

[johnny2007]

And the emissions of these are worse? Any facts and figures? Petrol to diesel or vice versa ?

Always possible but getting less and less.

And these are worse polluting than the previous ones ?

On paper they're polluting less, but in reality, who knows.
Oil leaking from everywhere, unburned petrol, smokey exhaust.
Differently from my former cars that were sailing through MOT and had emissions massively within the limits
I'm not expert, but my A6 recorded a 0.01ppm at exhaust and limit was 1.6ppm and I'm told that 0.01 is a number much smaller than 1.6.
Don't know what these numbers are, but I bet they're surely better than those of my current car.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

On paper they're polluting less, but in reality, who knows.
Oil leaking from everywhere, unburned petrol, smokey exhaust.
Differently from my former cars that were sailing through MOT and had emissions massively within the limits
I'm not expert, but my A6 recorded a 0.01ppm at exhaust and limit was 1.6ppm and I'm told that 0.01 is a number much smaller than 1.6.
Don't know what these numbers are, but I bet they're surely better than those of my current car.

You are aware what a diesel test, doesn't, check for ?

 

[johnny2007]

You are aware what a diesel test, doesn't, check for ?

No, I don't know, I'm not a mechanic or MOT tester.
But I know that if a car has a limit of 1.6 and blows 0.01, surely is polluting way less than it should.
By your own admission, emission tests are very forgiving, so 1.6 should be a very high margin.
0.01 sounds very low.
And then there's the after of dripping oil, petrol and coolant.
Doesn't matter anymore, I've decided that unless we get a shake up government throwing out all of the modern nonsense, I will never buy another decent car.
If I need travelling, I just get a rental.
Old bangers for me all the way.
And pollution is still at same level as before, unless you read khan's fictional data, taken from a magician's hat.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

The current MOT test also doesn't explicitly test for other harmful gases like nitrogen oxides (NOx)

Which is much more important (imo) than smoke, although they can be related.

Moving from diesel to petrol, whilst not good overall, MAY be better for the pollution/environment.

Quoting 1 figure as you do though, means nothing

 

[norseman]

Wasn't it predictable that a simple question of whether TFL can differentiate between Congestion Zone & ULEZ would lead to yet another in-depth discussion on environmental issues ?

Sorry guys, that wasn't my intention when posting

 

[Avocet]

Wasn't it predictable that a simple question of whether TFL can differentiate between Congestion Zone & ULEZ would lead to yet another in-depth discussion on environmental issues ?

Sorry guys, that wasn't my intention when posting

It's OK. Looking at Johnny's responses, it's clearly a conversation that needs having quite a few more times before it starts to sink in with some folk.

In reality, it's a bit of a non-issue really. (Which is why Khan got re-elected recently). The policies are working, bit-by-bit, both for congestion and for air quality. And in reality, very few people can't afford a ULEZ-compliant car if they want one. Pretty much any petrol car registered after 2000 will be Euro 4 (and therefore ULEZ-compliant). Frankly, if Johnny's trying to tell us that there are folk out there who can't afford a 25 year old car, I'm not sure many will believe him (and that's clearly what the majority of the London electorate felt too. The joys of democracy, eh?)!

I absolutely take his point about poorly-maintained, smoky examples, and I'd be happy to give him my full support if he'd like to start a campaign to improve MOT emissions standards. I completely agree they're not fit for purpose...