Late this May I ventured into the outskirts of London to pick up an offroader as the AT is too much bike for me for greenlining.
Came off the M25 and onto the A3 and followed the satnav to just short of Wimbledon staying out of the bus lanes and the cross hatching at junctions.
Found the address, exchanged folding, filled out paperwork and headed for the M25, all in all about an hour in Greater London.
Got home in July from 1300 mile trip round the best bits of England and Wales, lovely week with good weather.
Letter inside the front door sent from Darlington mystified me for a moment till I opened it.
Congestion charge which I didn't even realise I'd contravened, £500 pound penalty for my one hour visit into Greater London. What a complete smack in the chops that was.
I'll never enter that shithole again for as long as I live.
I’m from the States...
Now I can figure out that basically you got shafted; about 608.00 us (or 800.00 for our Canadian friends) worth of shafting. But my question is. Who decides that you added to “congestion” I mean you did have things to do there it’s not like you were just out for a drive. I’m saying no matter what you did, you are still adding to ‘congestion “ weather you take public transportation or walk it’s all still ADDING to some form of “congestion” is it not? Even your payment is adding to some kinda ‘congestion” especially if you send them a check through the post...
Oops my post is adding to the congestion of this form.....
I’m from the Staes...
Now I can figure out that basically you got shafted; about 608.00 us (or 800.00 for our Canadian friends) worth of shafting. But my question is. Who decides that you added to “congestion” I mean you did have things to do there it’s not like you were just out for a drive. I’m saying no matter what you did, you are still adding to ‘congestion “ weather you take public transportation or walk it’s all still ADDING to some form of “congestion” is it not? Even your payment is adding to some kinda ‘congestion” especially if you send them a check through the post...
Oops my post is adding to the congestion of this form.....
Are you saying oops I was riding somewhere I wasn’t supposed to, didn’t notice, but someone did cause they look hard for that so they can make butt loads of money off people mistakes...
Rip off city. Ice creams, taxis, trains, local government, national government, the banks...the whole place is one giant con job. So glad I don't live there anymore.
I haven't been to London for more than 20 years. But I do know about the congestion charge. I also know that regardless of where you go.. Particularly if it's a large town or city. It pays to do some research as rules etc are not standardised. For example in one city you are allowed to ride in a bus lane and in another you are not and are likely to be fined as they are now, often, monitored by a camera. Here in Nottingham I can park my bike free of charge in any pay and display. But in another town I cannot so I need to know where the motorcycle parking is or a paid car park I can use. In short: never assume the place you are visiting will be the same as the place you live, here in the UK.
Hope that exchange rate stays like that for a while, i can remember being over there when it was almost 2$ to the pound. We will being going back over next year. The wifes from Birmingham and her best friend has a sheep farm in Wales
If you didn't see the white stand alone signs, the big "C" on direction signs and the big "C" on the road then there's a case for driving without due care and attention as well.
Skimmer, I am slightly mystified by your route description that resulted in congestion zone violation. I live at Wimbledon and work in the West End i.e within the congestion zone. Going northbound from Wimbledon, the congestion charge zone starts at Vauxhall, so something is wrong here. I personally commute to work by motorbike - let me mention for everybody else that motorbikes in London are exempt from the congestion charge.
Forgot to mention in original post that was pulling my two bike trailer behind my motorhome.
I was too busy trying to avoid being T-boned by the pricks that seem to think everybody will give way because they want to join the lane and space you already occupy, trying not to do the bus lanes, chequering at junctions, the speed limit and pay attention to the directions from the satnav to arrive at my destination without having reverse a trailer in dense traffic.
So no I failed to have the time to read the poxy congestion signs whilst concentrating in traffic I'm not used to having to deal with on a regular basis.
Apologies for being a feckin carrot cruncher and failing to be aware of their **** idea of saving us from ourselves, it'll never be my problem again.
I generally avoid cities like the plague and this reinforces my decision made decades ago that London is not for the likes of me.
Rant over.
Given this is an AT forum I had figured you went to look at a new off road bike while riding your AT through whichever areas you were riding your AT through and got hit with a massive charge for congestion. Now at least I can visualize why. Thanks for clearing this up.
I hear ya i usually pull an 18ft trailer behind our motorhome with 2utv’s on it or my 10ft trailer with my bike and 2kayaks on it. Allways checking my garmin and tire pressure monitoring system, once i roll thru a big city like Phoenix or Dallas the traffic is my main concern not the signs
So where exactly were you fined for being?
I can only presume it wasnt anywhere near where you said you were in the original post? As there is no congestion zone anywhere near that part of London?
Signs for Wimbledon, Richmond Park and is it Staples Corner spring to mind. My work has taken me all over the UK but never South London and if I remember correctly, the last time I would have been in London would have been the 1980's, at the Racing and Sporting motorcycle show at Ally Pally, showing my age now.
By the time I'd crawled up the A3 for what seemed like an eternity, I let the sat nav guide me to the sellers address.
At a guess my destination was about a mile east of the A3 from when the sat nav told me leave the A3.
Signs with a big C don't mean jack **** to me, as a village idiot I have to wait a whole year for my turn to sit on the bench and watch the traffic go by out here in the boonies.
Did a 4 day visit to the UK last week from Ireland to visit some family. Went from Holyhead to Birmingham & then down to Sevenoaks. Ignored all motorway speed restrictions to a degree, ie tipped away at 60mph+ in a 50mph restriction.
Being from Ireland, we have to display a motor tax road disc, which fits perfectly on the back number plate, unfortunately covering part of our reg. no.
Is this the same as being fined for using the car pool lane when you are not in a car pool? What is this congestion you speak of? In Murica we have a pill for that. ;-)
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