Sumac wrote: <What is a congestion charge???>
In order to cut down the amount of traffic in central London, when you enter it on any road, you have to pay 5 pounds. There are cameras on all roads which capture the car's number plate and compare it with number plates registered on a central computer to check if you have already paid in advance. There are fines for entering without paying. The government also has plans to charge for travelling on certain motorways (freeways?). Not certain if some don't already have charges. These will be called toll roads. You already have to pay a toll to cross some bridges. It's all part of the government's attempt to get people out of their cars and onto public transport everywhere they can. It seems to be working in London, but it's not working here in Poole. The previous administration in Poole built a car park at the bottom of the road where I live. The idea being that people could park there for free and then catch a bus at one pound fifty per adult (accompanied children free) to get into the centre of Poole. It was opened at Christmas for six weeks and was very well used because the bus ride was free as well as the parking. It's just closed after being open for 5 weeks in the summer charging for the bus ride, and there have been a maximum of 210 paying adults on the the best days, and 79 on the worst. It's lost 600 pounds on each of the best days, and a whole lot more on the bad days. The council haven't got the sense to work out that people would rather go into the car park in the centre of Poole, pay fifty pence (half a pound) to park for an hour, spend 5 pounds or more in the supermarket there and be given one pound to cover their parking at the checkout, giving a profit of 50 pence. There's also the convenience of putting shopping straight into the car boot instead of lugging it back on the bus. Even people who don't have a car and travel into Poole by bus anyway, collect a fifty pence ticket at the parking machine and get a pound back at the checkout. Jean in Poole To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
