Bob
4th December 2006, 01:40
Got home, sorted through the post - and found a letter from Transport for London (the authority that runs all the roads in the city, public transport, looks after the congestion charge, that sort of thing). Opened it up - and found it was a fixed penalty charge.
Turns out that on the way home one evening, I'd stopped in a box junction (I remember the night in question, the traffic flow was a mess and I'd moved forward, knowing I couldn't quite clear the box). And they caught me on camera.
There were two photos shown on the fine notice - timed at 7 seconds apart.
£50 fine! Which works out as NZ$ 145!!!!! And that is just because I paid up within 14 days of the notice. If I took over 14 days, it went up to £100/NZ$290 - and after 28 days went up to £150/NZ$435!!!!!
Ouch.
Annoying thing is - aside from me being dumb enough to roll forward without being able to clear the box - is when I looked at the photos, a car had followed me in... so was slap bang in the middle of the box so blocking me in from behind... and two bikes had pulled alongside me, so I couldn't get out to the side or filter between lines of traffic.
So I was literally boxed in... in the box.
But £50/NZ$ 145 for seven seconds? Only Paul McCartney makes that kind of money!
Turns out that on the way home one evening, I'd stopped in a box junction (I remember the night in question, the traffic flow was a mess and I'd moved forward, knowing I couldn't quite clear the box). And they caught me on camera.
There were two photos shown on the fine notice - timed at 7 seconds apart.
£50 fine! Which works out as NZ$ 145!!!!! And that is just because I paid up within 14 days of the notice. If I took over 14 days, it went up to £100/NZ$290 - and after 28 days went up to £150/NZ$435!!!!!
Ouch.
Annoying thing is - aside from me being dumb enough to roll forward without being able to clear the box - is when I looked at the photos, a car had followed me in... so was slap bang in the middle of the box so blocking me in from behind... and two bikes had pulled alongside me, so I couldn't get out to the side or filter between lines of traffic.
So I was literally boxed in... in the box.
But £50/NZ$ 145 for seven seconds? Only Paul McCartney makes that kind of money!