Paul Jolly: London’s war on motorists gathers pace

London is a very expensive place to be and no, I am not talking about property prices or the shops here.

Motorists have long argued that Mayor Sadiq Khan hates the motor car and has set out to milk the motorists until their pips squeak. The ever expanding Congestion Zone and now the enlarged ULEZ zone can cost an ordinary car driver £30 a day and that excludes tunnel charges under the River Thames. Cameras will get you without fail and your fee becomes greater unless you pay on the day. This source of revenue is quite phenomenal.

But there is now another charge to be aware of and one that could have an ever greater impact on your life and those who depend on you as a driver. The 20 mph zones which are spreading like the plague and even encompass multi-lane arteries within London.

Hit 24mph and that triggers three points and a £100 fine. Of course you may be exempt from the points if you pay an additional £100 and go on a speed awareness course, with potential pay day implications for the time off work.

It is quite feasible to accumulate enough points in a single journey to warrant loss of your license in one fell swoop. Driving at 20mph can be highly dangerous and is not how we are all taught to cope within urban driving. 

It feels so slow that actual road ahead concentration can drift, your time is spent glued to the speedometer and not the road and you become a serious hazard to bikes whose identical speed means cars cluster around them rather than passing them.

It also means a lower gear and higher engine revs which in turn is more polluting for the 90% or so motorists who are not electric.

My current vehicle only became available to me because the London owner could not afford the daily charges. I can only ever visit London in future by train so avoid doing so.

It is easy to bang the safety drum here but in reality money drives this revenue raising madness.