Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

This is applicable to readers likely to drive in central London so apologies to the rest of lotuselan.net's global audience.
I'm a country lad and only drive in central London once in every few years - today was such a day. After returning home I remembered 'I must pay my congestion charge' so googled congestion charge - Google helpfully suggested 'pay congestion charge' so I went with that. The top result was http://www.londoncongestioncharge.net . It all looked pretty official - when I put my reg number in it knew what car I had etc. I was surprised when it said the charge was ?15 but just thought it must have gone up so I paid up. Thing looked a bit odd when I didn?t get a decent receipt or have to go through the verified by visa exercise so I started looking closer. Turns out the site the site is not official at all they charge you an extra fiver (the correct charge is ?10) and there is no guarantee your payment gets to the right authorities in time so you could still receive a fine.
Maybe other contributors to LotusElan.net are not as gullible as me but I hope this helps any that are....
All the best
Baggy

Hi Baggy, speaking as a yank who's pissed off another yank very recently, I read your post as science fiction. I thought 1984 by George Orwell was a novel.
Eric

I'm with Erick...........congestion fee? I'm goin' full Yank now, WTF does that mean?.....congestion fee.
Sounds more like a "Con fee" to steal more of your money....they don't deserve.

Sorry Baggy, here in the States the thievin' government bastards want our money at every turn as well......I'm venting as I have had a gut full. But congestion fee is over the stinkin' top.

Humbly,
Mike

cal44 wrote:...congestion fee? I'm goin' full Yank now, WTF does that mean?.....

The LCC is run by TFL and has to be paid before midnight to avoid being served a PCN which is 12 times as big. You have 28 days to pay the PCN. If, however, the PCN is paid within 14 days you get a 50% discount in which case the PCN is only 6 times as big...a real bargain. But beware! If the PCN is not paid within 28 days there is a 50% hike so the PCN becomes 18 times as big.

Hope it clears that up for you!

Cheers - Richard

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... G_10025599
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/congest ... /6714.aspx
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18688605

Oh, and since you mention going full Yank:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009 ... ion-charge
http://www.citymayors.com/transport/congestion_usa.html

I have the solution don't go to London it's a s--thole anyway
Ian

elansprint wrote:I have the solution don't go to London it's a s--thole anyway
Ian

Earlier in the year I was doing a job in London with a colleague and (fortunately) we went in his car. He paid the charge on his mobile and thought that was that. The job went on into the evening and we finally finished at about 1.00am. About 10 days later the fine for not paying the charge for the following day turned up! It didn't occur to either of us that 1.00am meant a second day.

69S4 wrote:Earlier in the year I was doing a job in London with a colleague and (fortunately) we went in his car. He paid the charge on his mobile and thought that was that. The job went on into the evening and we finally finished at about 1.00am. About 10 days later the fine for not paying the charge for the following day turned up! It didn't occur to either of us that 1.00am meant a second day.

"It operates Monday to Friday between 7.00 am and 6.00 pm, excluding public holidays"

So, presumably, it was missing the midnight deadline for payment, rather than breaking into a second day, that triggered the PCN??

Richard

It's not as bad as you chaps make it out to be. London is choked by traffic and pollution, so while not perfect, the congestion charge is no different than the toll you have to pay to cross into Manhattan, etc. If you know you're going into central London, the best way is to just pre-pay on their website. Whenever I go I try to come in before the charge kicks in and leave after, so the last 10 times I went down there I avoided having to pay it altogether. Driving at those times is much nicer anyhow.

Americans are always incredulous at the various regulations in the UK, especially London, but the big cities in the US are much more heavily policed and regulated and the road rules much more restrictive. It's easy when you live on a great expanse of open roads, but when you are on an overpopulated rock like Britain, whether we like to admit it or not, we have it pretty damn good.

All this begs the question, if we have to pay a congestion charge to enter their fair city, pehaps us country dwellers should impose a 'decongestion' charge when they drive out into the country

Hey yanks, recognize these?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_to ... ted_States
Uk?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_to ... ed_Kingdom
(mostly bridges).

You've only yourself to blame if you get a fine since you obviously didn't drive your Elan.

Orsom Weels wrote: pehaps us country dwellers should impose a 'decongestion' charge when they drive out into the country

How many potatos would you like?

The toll roads in Southern California are optional. If you want to save 38 seconds of drive time, take one. Otherwise, stick to the Interstates and if possible, use the carpool lanes.

Took the grandkids to a well attended theme park earlier this week, which offered two routes to get there. Up through X marks the spot downtown Los Angeles, or loop around, use less congested roadways and carpool lanes where possible. The 120 mile one way trip took just over 2 hours each way, including a slow down for a car-B-que on the way up and a fender bender on the way back. And this is for one of the more congested cities in the country. Can not complain much. Plan a
h
e
a
d.
Rob Walker
26-4889

simonknee wrote:
How many potatos would you like?

,

No No No, we av plenty o potatos in the country, tha's where they come from !

Tha's yer money we want.

Orsom Weels wrote:No No No, we av plenty o potatos in the country, tha's where they come from !

What! You have Marks and Spencer in the countryside too? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to pay a visit