Congestion Zone in London - The FOI request that exposes the handy racket business

There are big signs with big red 'C' letters to let you know you are driving into the zone.
However visible sometimes when we drive our attention is taken away on our driving and we miss a big sign. This happens a lot when driving in big cities and even more to those who come rarely to such big city.
A number of people who are unsure whether they went inside the zone decide to pay the charge rather than face a fine. In other words some people pay the charge although they didn't drive in the zone.
There is no system in place for TFL (transport for london) to be able to tell whether a car has been driven inside the zone or not; except when issuing the fine.

The FOI request is a compelling read on the subject.


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[Internet quote:]
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford.

Why driving on the left? or on the right?

That is ze question.
I always wondered the reason why different countries would have a different system on the road.
Apart from the usual frog/rosbeef jokes no one ever could tell me.
Thank to the instructor in the bicycle mechanic course I undertook this month,
I now know and thanks to internet I now can tell and share.
In this article, it explains why do the British drive on the left?

in brief this is why:
"In the Middle Ages you kept to the left for the simple reason that you never knew who you'd meet on the road in those days. You wanted to make sure that a stranger passed on the right so you could go for your sword in case he proved unfriendly."

In France Napoleon's successful attack strategies and his massive ego are responsible for France and its colonies to have kept the driving on right system.

LDV Pilot van love :)

This is what I found cruising randomly on the web.

A sweet few nicely done webpages about a LDV Pilot from 2002 with good images

where the van seems to be the star of a movie!

I had to feature it here.

Thank you Timothy Birt.

It also has a wealth of information about sustainable energy (campervanners!boaters!) and much more.

(All credits for images and website to Timothy Birt)