Ah the dreaded congestion charge in England's fine capital city. You would think it would be easy and painless to find out if you had passed through it by mistake. You would be wrong.
So driving in London the other day as one does, I decided to go against my gut feeling and the ever so wise judgment of my trusty satnav and take what I thought to be a shortcut through the earl's court area of town.
As I made my way down this particularly wide and quiet avenue I started to get suspicious at the lack of traffic especially since it was peak hour on a Friday afternoon.
I began to get a bit worried and saw a few odd looking C signs at the sides of the road. It was only after looking in the map book several hours later that I realized I may have unwittingly taken a shortcut into the infamous congestion zone!!!
The Uncertainty
Now not being sure if I had indeed encroached into the dreaded area I thought I'd check online at Transport for London's website as to where I might have gone into it. After checking their map but not sure of where exactly I had been as I had been driving and keeping my mind on the road I thought it best for me to call the trusty call centre and check if they could bring up my registration plate on their “state of the art” camera system. I was sure this was possible after reading this stunning review found on Road Traffic- Technology.com
I quote “There are 400 camera positions throughout the congestion charging zone, of which approx. 180 are on the inner ring road. Up to seven cameras are mounted at each position on 8m poles to enable them to read number plates in bumper-to-bumper traffic. All images are then sent to the ANPR via a telecommunications system designed and supplied by COLT Telecommunications and BT RedCARE Vision. This system is based on dedicated DWDM (dense wave division multiplexing) technology which link the central data hub with each of the network cameras over analogue video circuits. By using this system, multiple wavelengths can be transmitted over a single optical fibre, allowing the large amounts of data that are collected to be sent simultaneously to the image processing centre.”
So after learning this I called and asked if they could bring up my info and check if an image of my speed racer was in fact captured within the zone. They duly informed this driver that they were not connected to the data base of images and I should go back to the Transport for London site to check.
When I punched in the site they had given me it came up with the same infuriating map I had originally tried to suss out when I began. So almost 3 hours into this little mission I was back to square one. I had told them I didn't know where I had been a.k.a I didn't know the street I was in and I was not sure if I had hit the zone only to be told I must check where I was to know.
The Disappointment
In the end I parted with ten of my wonderful pounds due to my uncertainty just in case it ended up I was in the bloody zone. It made me think though; just how many poor unwitting individuals are mistakenly driving into the zone and ending up with massive penalty charges for not paying? And how many more are not sure and just paying the charge to avoid a chance of a penalty? It's highly concerning that a system that cost millions of our hard earned taxes to develop and make a reality is totally user unfriendly and does not serve the public to a higher degree. I spent ten pounds which when I'm working is almost 2 hours of my salary on only a chance and a fear. I'm sure I'm only one of millions.
So will I ever know for sure if I was in the C zone? I'm doubtful that I will receive my ten pounds back even I was found not to be. It makes me realize yet again that even in a first world democratic country, the only sure thing is that the government will milk you for all you're worth while you still have life in your body to afford it.
