TFL penalty charge profits: ‘It feels like they’re making money off our mistakes’

We ask Londoners how they feel about TFL making £89m from PCN charges last year. Is London a good place to drive?

Transcript

00:00Transport for London has recorded a 57% rise in income over five years from

00:06fining drivers using major roads in the capital, with a leading motoring

00:11organisation saying the Transport Authority has ensured London streets are

00:15now paved with fines. But how do Londoners feel about driving in the

00:19capital? I think it's appalling. I don't think London is a good place to drive.

00:24I'm also a cyclist, so I cycle quite a bit. There's too much congestion,

00:30there's too many angry motorists. No, it's not a good place to drive,

00:36unfortunately. There are so changing rules about these things. Roads

00:42where you cannot really enter, cannot really park, and so it's always ever

00:48changing, and without really proper notice to the drivers, so that drivers

00:55tend to really unwillingly or unwittingly commit these crimes, which

01:00are not really, if they were really well-informed, they won't do it. So I

01:05think there is a bit of money-making thing. I think it's quite difficult. I

01:11keep getting a lot of fines for going down streets that shouldn't have

01:15vehicles at certain times of day, and I think it's really difficult to know where

01:18you can and can't drive. I think, not sure if it's TfL or the councils, or they

01:23actually seem to make a lot of money out of people's mistakes, really. Figures show

01:28it received £89.3 million in the 2023-24 financial year for

01:35perceived offences on its Red Route network, up from £56.8 million in 2018-19.

01:42The AA attributed the rise to increased use of more sophisticated CCTV cameras

01:48and TfL's decision in January 2022 to raise penalty charge notices from £130 to £160.