Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by Hilift | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Hilift

[flagged]

View on HN

This is completely incorrect, please don't spread culture-war lies on HN.

The £12.50 charge is for old, polluting cars.

Petrol cars made since around 2005 are exempt, and diesel cars since 2015. Vans from ~2006 and 2016 respectively.

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/car...

A 2015 car is not old in a world of reduce, reuse, recycle.

So reuse them with the caveat you have to pay a little when you drive in a certain 0.6% of the uk.

The most economically valuable 0.6%

That value buys excellent public transport, and generally wages that let you trade in £1000 banger for £3000 one.

I don't know which planet you live on, but London's public transit is hellish on days where it works. The fact that there seems to be industrial action every other week, that the subway is slowly heating up, and major stations are virtually always overcrowded is not something I even take into consideration. Not when the local trains have a toss-of-a-coin chance of actually showing up at all, or even in a configuration that was originally planned, and not just half of the carriages.

I unironically had better public transit in third-world countries.

Certainly not my experience of London transport. I get a combination of trains, tubes and busses most days. I also grew up in rural England so I know what shitty transport is really like.

When they write "subway" and "transit" — not words used in London — I doubt they live there.

The tube is great (less so when they're striking or there's snow or it's rush hour).

But London is a singularly great place for tube tunnels and other mass transit:

- birthplace of the industrial revolution

- had a ton of infrastructure development during the 1800s when safety was no concern and development could be done cheap and fast

- high density

- lots of engineers and other skilled people to make it work

- tons, tons of money and support from a big government in a high-tax society

- focal point of a global empire for a long time, which fed all the above even more

- a nice layer of softer rock underneath the city perfect for tunnelling

We should build mass transit in places like this where it makes sense. But for 99% of the rest of Earth's populated surface, it won't.

When a bureaucrat makes your car worth -£2000 a year you'd be surprised at what you get vs what you still owe on it.

Also, the part that has actually functioning public transport.

> The £12.50 charge is for old, polluting cars.

It can apply to cars with a £0 VED that were built less than 10 years ago.

So it's only a charge the poors have to pay.

What “culture war” are you talking about? The one where Brits are frustrated with how their country has gone off the deep end in terms of sanity?

Speak for yourself.

I have a 2014 diesel car so I pay the charges when I visit cites.

I don’t drive much which is why I keep an old car. I’m fine with the charges. The air in London and Birmingham is gross.

Anything that can be done for the people that live there should be.

A statement that requires context/astriks is not "completely incorrect"

Please stop trying to act like a moderator here, it's against HN guidelines.

> Please stop trying to act like a moderator here, it's against HN guidelines.

Read that out loud to yourself, slowly.

It always amuses me when people respond with some completely unrelated personal hobby horse like this. There’s nothing at all in my comment in any way related to driving or congestion fees, not even if you squint a whole lot, and no way in which this comment ties into anything at all I said, even if I squint a whole lot.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com