Is Ulez a War on Motorists?

Summary:

• There is a perceived conflict between Ulez measures and motorists.
• Car enthusiasts feel emotionally attached to their vehicles.
• Expansion of Ulez raises concerns about its impact on rural areas.

There feels like there's a little bit of a war on motorists going on right now. People are in anguish about having to get rid of their pride and joys. And very soon it feels like we're not going to be able to drive and enjoy our cars the way that we currently are. Cars are not like other objects. Somebody very famously said cars got sold. And the thing is a lot of us car people relate to those cars. You know, they become our friends, they become our companions, they become our confidants, they become the things that we obsess over.

I spent most weekends cleaning my car. People don't understand the relationship that we have with our automobiles. And it's kind of callous and cruel when you tell people, oh, just scrap your car or just sell your car or just get another car. I don't think this U-Led expansion should be a priority at all. And this is to say that I'm actually not anti-U-Led in its current form. Because there's clear evidence of the improvement that that's had. But the law of diminishing returns applies.

So the further out you go, the less impactful that will be. And when you look at areas like this, which are much sparser, much less dense, and positively rural in some parts of out of London, you can see that there really isn't any point to expanding U-Led any further.