Yes! Let's confuse the bikers!

[ffutures]

The latest on Westminster's wonderful master plan to charge for parking motorbikes is that the charges will pay for "security measures" that will apparently include putting metal rails for attaching chains beside the parking bays and ...err.. that's it. Exactly what dozens of other local authorities have done without charge for many years.

To make the situation even more farcical, the scheme will be introduced in phases starting in "the west end" (exact area not defined) this April, and spreading out gradually. There is still no information on alternatives to paying via text messages, on charges for season tickets, etc. - except that at one point it was going to cost more than a one-year resident's permit for a car, £150 versus £120. This isn't on the web site currently, so they may not have finalised it yet.

About the most positive thing I can say about it is that there are now more parking spaces - they want to lure the suckers in before charging starts. At the moment these are just meter bays with the meter covered, no security rails etc.

Any pretence that this is anything other than a revenue-boosting scheme to replace the income from cars (most of Westminster is inside the congestion charging zone) can be ignored - this is not good for the environment, it is not going to reduce congestion. And if other local authorities join in, each with their separate parking fee, it will become ridiculously expensive to use a motorbike in London.

And before pedal cyclists get too smug, my guess is that you're next...

Comments

Car-free London... Not!

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

Sounds a bit like the idiots we have here in Seattle. We have one by the name of Tim Eyman, who's filing a citizen's initiative to force the state to divert needed tax money for transportation and roads to open up the HOV lanes during non-peak hours (8PM to 6AM. Traffic is bad around here.), create something called roadside assistance crews. Not sure what that is. And to synchronize all the lights so that drivers can hit 70 mph for lights that at synchronized for 35 mph. (In reality the only time you could do that would be at 1AM in the morning. Otherwise, you'd be doing good to hit 20 mph during the day.)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/345856_eyman03.html

Tim is notorious for abusing the Washington initiative process to line his pockets. He used to sell fraternity and sorority branded watches out of his home, until he found out that he could earn tones of money peddling initiatives for various interest groups.

He even rates a Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Eyman

It's bigger than yours Marcus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Rowland

Re: Car-free London... Not!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

This is fairly typical for Westminster City Council - they have a very low council tax, but underfund quite a lot of the services they're supposed to supply, and claw in huge amounts of parking fine revenue by making the system ridiculously complicated to understand and use.

Re: Car-free London... Not!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Well, seeing that my bit is only about four or five lines that wouldn't be hard...

[weishaupt.livejournal.com]

that will teach those "hell's angels gangs" ;P

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

You'd think that they'd want to encourage large groups of bikers to come in and spend money, but apparently not...

[trinfaneb.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen your Wiki entry before. Have you ever talked to the other Marcus Rowland? I saw his name on the screen when I watched "Hot Fuzz" this morning.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

He seems to be very difficult to contact; no web site, no contact details on line, etc. A couple of times I've had calls and emails from people trying to reach him, and I haven't been able to help.