Congestion charges/Clueless AS Byatt

[Catherine Coleman]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "mstattersall" <cwood at t...> 
wrote:
> In other words, you pay a fine for adding to the traffic 
congestion 
> in that part of the city. (I hope no one in the Texas Department 
of 
> Transportation is reading this and getting bright ideas.)
> MsTatt

Yep - in London it costs £5 per day.  If you forget, you are fined 
something in the region of £30 (although someone told me it was £70, 
so I'm not sure on this point).

Anyway, the idea was to get people off the roads and onto Public 
Transport, which is overcrowded as it is.  And yes, as Kathryn said, 
the money is supposed to be spent on improving transport, but I 
haven't noticed any great improvement.  These improvements seem to 
be centred on making as many streets as possible one way, which 
means everyone gets hopelessly lost when driving around London.  And 
even if it is slightly quieter in the Centre (which isn't really 
discernable) it's also much, much worse around the outskirts.  It 
took me an hour and a half to drive the 8 miles from Tower Bridge to 
the M11 on Wednesday - a drive which is often about 20 mins in off 
peak times.  It almost made me glad to be back in Norfolk (although 
the drivers here are something else again).

Catherine, who takes the point on AS Byatt, but who nevertheless 
finds it very ironic, considering Byatt's obsession with fairytales.