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Comment by jdietrich | Hacker News Reader

The ULEZ charge only applies to diesel cars built before 2016 or petrol cars built before 2006. ULEZ only applies in London, so all of those non-compliant cars have a ready market outside of London. If you happen to own a car that isn't ULEZ-compliant, then a second-hand car dealer will happily offer you a straight swap for one that is.

You can buy a ULEZ-compliant car for under £1000 - less than the cost of a year's insurance in most London boroughs. If you can't afford to buy a car that is only 18 years old, then I might suggest that you can't afford to own a car at all.

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ULEZ charge is cheaper than a train ticket into London. GPs complaint is massively overblown. People want to keep doing what is most convenient for them and everyone elses air quality be damned.

My 2002 MINI was ULEZ-compliant.

I agree with you. The idea that ULEZ means people must give up driving is ridiculous and overblown. It does not affect the vast majority of people at all.

This. I blame the poorly chosen name. The phrase 'ultra-low emissions' suggests that only fancy-schmancy hybrids and EVs get to apply, when the truth is pretty much every street legal gasoline economy car made in the past 2 decades is compliant (it's Euro 4 and up, I believe).

The narrative that this ruling has been created by the rich elites to keep the poors out of London has been heavily pushed by some parts of the media, looking to curry favor.

I don't live in London, but my city has a similar low emission zone.

My dad is poor and must drive an hour to work because he can't afford to live in the city. When he last brought a car he stupidly listened to the government recommendation at the time and brought an extremely economical diesel car because he understood this was good for the environment, and my dad was a long-time green voter.

For the last couple of years since the low emission zone was implemented he's had to take a 30 min detour to get to work meaning it's taking him 1.30 hours to get to work adding an hour to his total daily commute and 50% to his weekly fuel bill and increasing his emissions by 50%. While he could just about afford getting a petrol car, this isn't exactly a cheap purchase for someone who only makes £25,000...

This isn't some media conspiracy. It's been making my dad's life hell for the last two years now. My understanding is that working class people who use vans for work are also getting screwed by this.

If you want to reduce the number of polluting vehicles in the city then ban non-essential cars, buses, vans and lorries. Creating a charge just means that if you're rich enough to not care you'll continue as is and if you're poor you'll get screwed and be forced to change habits.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't prioritise clean air, I'm suggesting that we should do so in a fair way. I don't understand why anything I'm saying is controversial or why I'm being gas lit about this being a media conspiracy. Perhaps it's you who is out of touch?

ULEZ is not popular. People here are likely out of touch: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/46024-londoners-split...

You’ve used a poll from the height of the misinformation about the ULEZ, this was when vox pops were decrying it from ULEZ compliant cars!

In reality the expansion always had broad support, and normalised earlier this year in advance of the mayoral election: https://redfieldandwiltonstrategies.com/support-for-ulez-has...

Would love to know more about this low emission zone that your dad is suffering with. What’s the new route he has to take?

Though there is only one low emission zone that’s been in place “for two years” — London’s. Maybe you mean a clean air zone? Or Glasgow’s that was implemented last year?

Honestly you raise a good point about diesel, and I think the government should increase the scrappage value for people who have these middle-aged diesels. In the long run, that would probably the cheapest and wisest way to solve the issue permanently.

So if it has nothing to do with cost, why are people no longer driving? Why don't they just get compliant cars and continue taking their kids to school as normal?

Either the ULEZ charge is changing behaviour or it isn't – which is it?

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