Nuxx:MPG.25c68fda8453b3a99896f4@news.zen.co.uk

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!goblin3!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!multikabel.net!newsfeed20.multikabel.net!dedekind.zen.co.uk!zen.net.uk!hamilton.zen.co.uk!prichard.zen.co.uk.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID:  From: Guy Cuthbertson  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling,uk.transport,uk.rec.driving Subject: Re: Blackwall Tunnel Closures Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:13:01 -0000 References:  Lines: 36 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: MicroPlanet-Gravity/2.9.14 Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: 023f214b.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=]m=SIj9OU=O8NIDBME`k7J0g@SS;SF6nGR9OH0:RnENDQ87PV2NVofK`:ITG5aA:cGRgX8j49B[^C X-Complaints-To: abuse@zen.co.uk Bytes: 3101 Xref: perfectly-safe.chapmancentral.co.uk uk.rec.cycling:752863

In article , kije.remove@this.bit.freeuk.com.munge says... > > The really good news is that the Blackwall Tunnel is to be tolled and > this may provide the funds to build cyclists their much needed Thames > Bridge. 50,000 vehicles pass through the Blackwall Tunnel daily, and a > modest £1 toll would generate as much as £18m a year in revenue. The > tolling could be automatic, similar to the tolling for driving in > Central London, with automatic number plate recognition, and hefty > fines for anyone who tries to dodge the toll.

Yeah, because obviously it's the motorists, rather than the cyclists, who should pay for cycling facilities by paying *even more* over the odds than they already do. Obvious, that is, if you hate motorists. (Nice to hear an admission from one of the car-haters that large fines for trivial "offences" are just to raise revenue and make motoring less pleasant though.)

I don't really like religious fundamentalists. Can I make them pay for something that I want? I don't like car-haters either...why don't I try to make them pay for things that I want to use? Alternatively certain people could grow up and accept that this is a largely capitalist society (however much they might object to that) and if people want something relatively unimportant for themselves then they should fucking well pay for it themselves, whether or not they've got some sanctimonious drivel in their heads about what they want being somehow "morally superior" to what other people want.

Perhaps if cyclists all just kept themselves to themselves, and were self-financing, and didn't constantly try to make things more difficult for motorists by picking fights with them and campaigning for anti-car measures, then they wouldn't be so disliked as a group. Of course, most cyclists *do* keep themselves to themselves, but their cause is spoiled by the minority who insist on interfering and trying to make out that their mode of transport is best and everyone else should either use it or fork out huge amounts of money as punishment.