ULEZ is just a part of a 'war on motorists' which must be resisted, says ROBERT BULL
Motorists are the target of a hostile campaign, with restrictions and penalties imposed upon them as if they were a nuisance to society.
This relentless assault on the rights and freedoms of drivers has given rise to what can only be described as a War on the Motorist.
Across our cities and larger towns, so-called 'Clean Air Zones' such as Mayor Khan's infamous ULEZ (Ultra Low Emissions Zone) are springing up.
READ MORE: Should Sadiq Khan resign over ULEZ?
However, the mask has slipped in London. We have had government confirmation that Sadiq Khan’s expanded ULEZ will simply be a stepping stone towards intrusive pay-per-mile London-wide road pricing.
Tracking and logging every motorist’s journeys would be an outrageous invasion of privacy and yet TfL, under the Mayor’s direction, is already planning for this dystopian future.
Local authorities often look to London for a lead. If London is allowed to introduce such hostile policy, so too will others follow.
Motorists, the vast majority of whom rely on their vehicles to earn a living and move their families from A-to-B, are being corralled into ditching convenient, affordable transport.
Electric cars are unaffordable to buy and expensive to run. The technology and infrastructure are simply not there and have no chance of being in the foreseeable future.
Across the channel our German and Italian cousins have seen sense – thanks to added pressure from their powerful motor industry.
Their ICE bans have been scrapped. So, why is the British government pushing ahead with this destructive policy?
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The War on the Motorist also takes the form of excessive parking restrictions and charges, with councils sacrificing local businesses for profit.
Increasingly parking charges are introduced based on emissions, even though the emissions from a car parked with its engine turned off are zero!
Speed limits are reduced, often to a mind-numbing 20mph in town, and regardless of resident opposition.
Meanwhile a swathe of speed cameras is brought in to maximize revenue.
Under-used bus and cycle lanes and paths litter our road networks, causing traffic to bunch up.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) deny vehicles a shortcut that would save them time.
The result is that they burn more fuel, increasing emissions and congestion.
Giant plant pots cut roads off, not only for workers and tradesmen keeping our economy afloat, but they also stop our emergency services from reaching those desperately in need.
To add insult to injury, the latest trendy excuses for denying motorists the roads they’ve paid for include "Play Streets", "School Streets", "Lunchtime Streets" and potentially taking roads wholly out of service (known as "greening the grey").
The permit system associated with LTNs and other zonal systems can also require local businesses and residents to repeatedly book in their visitors so that the latter won’t receive a fine.
Surely we, as a society, are not saying that working class mums with young kids should get them on the bus with the weekly shop, whilst woke-signalling middle-class middle-managers sit in their air-conditioned Teslas?
This blatant disregard for the needs of motorists is not only an inconvenience or an infringement on their right to freedom of movement, but also economic lunacy. It's time to end the War on Motorists and it's time to do it now.
Robert Bull is the chairman of the Alliance of British Drivers.