"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme"

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 15:11
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - Falkirk Bairn
Telegraph:-

Motorists could be given the option of paying more to use less congested motorway lanes under new Government proposals.

Telegraph's campaign against road pricing
Have your say: Would you pay to use less congested motorway lanes?
Plans to explore the feasability of pay-as-you-drive motorway lanes - dubbed "Lexus lanes" - have been announced by Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary


Plans for national road pricing are thought to have been shelved
Ms Kelly told a conference that the Government had already shown an interest in lanes where access is limited to vehicles carrying several passengers or drivers willing to pay a toll.

I thought I had paid for the lane - Road Tax 2 x £205 / year and £3.00 tax on a gallon of Petrol or Diesel.
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 16:14
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - movilogo
It proves money moves the world.
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 16:26
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - Lud
Motoring is expensive and always was. It may vary relative to the cost of other things but it has always been a luxury. It only seems a necessity in an irrational, ill-organised, decadent society in which public transport has been sabotaged and the private automobile promoted on a mass level by organisations with enormous clout that stand to profit from that situation.

Naturally I like what I am used to and wouldn't have it any other way. Well, perhaps just a bit, but not too different.

The point is that only the rich can really afford luxuries. The rest of us have to worry about parking and fuel consumption and depreciation. They don't have to worry about any of these things, or whether the jalopy will hold up until the next MoT.

I look forward to muddying up my number plates, putting on an Osama bin Laden mask and trespassing shamelessly on the golden lanes leaving clouds of pollution and rusty bits of exhaust system in my wake. Forward with the people!
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 16:36
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - Dipstick
"I look forward to muddying up my number plates, putting on an Osama bin Laden mask and trespassing shamelessly on the golden lanes leaving clouds of pollution and rusty bits of exhaust system in my wake. Forward with the people!"



Do you do that on the M6 toll road then? :)



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Tue 4 Mar 2008 16:42
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - Lud
Do you do that on the M6 toll road then? :)

Haven't needed to so far Dipstick, and I might hesitate to crash barriers and so on even in my ObL mask.

But I imagine these lanes will just be lanes painted gold and with flowers in vases every hundred yards. Surely we proles, when sufficiently anonymous looking, can swerve dangerously in and out of them as the moment seems to dictate? Anyway I like to think so.
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 16:40
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - ijws15
So if it is the "outside lane" and I want to cruise at 60 in my Lexus can no-one overtake on the inside? And of course it should be the BMW lane as these drivers are experts at forcing their way over to the outside lane quickly on a congested motorway!

And if it is the "inside lane" am I allowed to overtake lorries on the inside?

If overtaking on the inside is banned for safety they cannot do this!



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Tue 4 Mar 2008 17:23
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - oldnotbold
Will the NHS become like this, too? Sorry about the waiting list in A and E Sir/Madam, but if you pay the receptionist £XX.xx you'll be fast-tracked to the next available consultant.

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Tue 4 Mar 2008 17:30
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - b308
It already has....
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 18:24
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - madf
The trouble is: Lexus lanes can be blocked by an accident or more likely all the other lanes... So does the motorway stop because there is only one lane and you have not paid for it.

No need to send an answer to Ruth Kelly. They will not have thought of it.

It's enforceable in cities. On motorways as busy as the UK's? As much chance as finding truth in a government ... sorry as much chance as a snowball in summer.
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 18:33
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - Niallster
However the lanes will be free to deserving person such as MP's, MEP's, Lords, local councilors and police officers on duty or not.

They might as well start driving around in Zil's.
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 19:30
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - qxman {p}
This was one of Maggie Thatcher's ideas - looks like the government have decided to reheat it and serve it up again.
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Tue 4 Mar 2008 20:28
"Lexus Lanes" - buy a "privilege lane Govt scheme" - Ubi
I am missing it again. I wonder how can it be safe to drive on the hard shoulder when we have been told by the government for decades that it is unsafe to do so and we shall be made criminals if we attempt it. Must be my hairspray or something.
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