Driving in London - advice please

Pippah45
Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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edited March 2016 in General Chat #1

i believe I am being sent to Lonon today on an errand to pick up my son's medical paraphernalia from somewhere in Pimlico.  Haven't driven there since children were at school and now in their 40s!  How do congestion charges work?  Train doesn't sound an
option as there is too much stuff To carry.  

Comments

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #2

    Pay London congestion charge (if appropriate) then when you get inside the M25 close eyes and drive like a bat out of hellWinkSurprisedHappy

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited March 2016 #3

    That reminds me of a car salesman in the mid 70s I wanted wing mirrors (an extra!) and he asked me why?  I said to help me get round Hyde Park Corner he said he just closed his eyes and drove!  

    So will a charge be appropriate if I avoid rush hours?

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,046 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #4

    It will Pippah. Depends on your motor vehicle. This is London, Boris rules, expect to have every single penny they can extracted out of you. I would go onto website and read things carefully. There are lots of tales of people inadvertently copping for huge
    fines for straying without their knowledge into congestion zones.

  • huskydog
    huskydog Club Member Posts: 5,460 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #5

    You can pay the charge up to 90 days before you travel or up to midnoght on the day of travel , if you look at LCC website it gives all the info you need , you can set up an account if you plan on going regularly (probebly not) on pay a one off fee £11.50
    i think £10.50 on account , but becareful of non offical web paying pages

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited March 2016 #6

    Well mission accomplished now I suppose I have to sit back and wait for the fines!  My son promised to check but he was so full of flu when I left I wonder if he did!  Thank you for the replies.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited March 2016 #7

    Flue or man flue as the latter is much worseLaughing

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited March 2016 #8

    Just checked the map and think I missed it by a whisker the only sign I saw was a Low Emmissions one.  I doubt I could have strayed into the other zone without noticing but you never know.

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited March 2016 #9

    Well one of the other people in the house a female had a temp of 104 yesterday!  I am steering well clear!  And there is also the babe just out of hospital too.  That's where the adults caught it.Frown

  • PATMAU
    PATMAU Forum Participant Posts: 250
    edited March 2016 #10

    Well done Pippah, I don't venture up there with the car these days and I live in Richmond upon Thames borough,lol.

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited March 2016 #11

    Thanks Pat it wasn't so far from Slough to Ebury Bridge Road and I didn't have to park!  There was quite a large MH stuck in the queues westbound on the embankment I didn't envy them!

  • Kennine
    Kennine Forum Participant Posts: 3,472
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    edited March 2016 #12

    London is not a car friendly place. They want you to pay money just to drive on their streets. I avoid the place. Don't like being ripped off !!

    K

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited March 2016 #13

    London is not a car friendly place. They want you to pay money just to drive on their streets. I avoid the place. Don't like being ripped off !!

    K

    ...It will not be long before it spreads to other parts of UK,as it has proved successfull in London and several other cities on mainland europe,and is an easy money earner,but does it affect OH and I not one jot at our ageCool 

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited March 2016 #14

    Other than the rip-off congestion charges, why do people feel worried about driving in London?

    Yes, there are a lot of inexperienced drivers on the roads there (because they have so much public transport) but surely, if you have a full driving license, you should be able to drive anywhere in tbe UK with confidence?

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited March 2016 #15

    Quite right really IanH just that I hadn't done it for years and no idea about the regulations!  I don't know why I was so intimidated!  Although living in the country as I do traffic lights are a novelty!  Just shows one should keep ones hand in!

  • tombar
    tombar Forum Participant Posts: 408
    edited March 2016 #16

    Don'tHappy

  • Merve
    Merve Forum Participant Posts: 2,333
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    edited March 2016 #17

    It's so easy driving in London. You can't have an accident whilst sitting still can you??? It takes me as long to drive from Birmingham to Londan as it does to get across the city to Guys Hospital (unless I'm on blues and twos)

  • kenexton
    kenexton Forum Participant Posts: 306
    edited March 2016 #18

    My brother in law lives in a town north of London and his wife is from  a town south of London.When they go to visit/look after her elderly parents it can take  so long in the car that they have now resorted to leaving a car at the in laws house and taking
    the train to her parents' town.Yet he says that he prefers the "buzz" of living down south after forty plus years of living and working "down south".It would send me bonkers but each to their own!

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited March 2016 #19

    By "buzz" does he mean the constant drone of traffic?

    Because otherwise, to me, it's just a series of scruffy, dirty, interconnected towns.......

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited March 2016 #20

    My elder daughter lives in Putney, which is as close in as I go. Driving in London is, however, covered by the bit from the Apostles Creed in the Book of Common Prayer - "the quick and the dead".

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