Driving in London

TfL's Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every London borough and the City of London, but the M25 is not in it. A car, motorcycle or van up to 3.5 tonnes that fails its standard owes £12.50 for each day it is driven there, and a charging day runs from midnight to midnight, so a drive that starts before midnight and carries on after it needs two daily charges. The separate Congestion Charge covers central London from 07:00 to 18:00 on weekdays and from 12:00 to 18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. It costs £18 when paid on the day or in advance, rising to £21 if paid by midnight on the third day after travel. Use TfL's vehicle checker and postcode map for the actual vehicle and destination; the zone page on this site explains the ULEZ rules in full.

London Councils publishes two parking penalty bands. In Band A, a higher level contravention is £160 and a lower level one is £110. In Band B, those amounts are £140 and £90. Higher level covers more serious breaches, such as parking on a yellow line; lower level generally covers a permitted bay used contrary to a condition, such as an overstay. The borough and the street determine which band applies, so the fact that your journey began in another borough does not matter.

Band A covers whole boroughs such as Westminster, Camden, Hackney and Croydon, plus the City of London. It also takes in the north of Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, the west of Barking and Dagenham and several outer London town centres. Everywhere else is Band B. Borough bus lane and minor moving traffic PCNs are £160 across both bands.

TfL manages a network of major roads known as red routes. TfL says they are 5% of London's roads but carry up to 30% of its traffic; boroughs manage many of the streets that feed into them. Red lines regulate stopping as well as parking. TfL says no vehicle may stop on a double red line at any time, while a single red line allows stopping only in the hours shown on a sign nearby. A loading box is not an ordinary parking bay. Read its sign before opening the boot or waiting for a passenger.

Taxis and some private hire vehicles may stop on red lines to pick up and drop off passengers, and a Blue Badge holder may be set down or picked up. Individual junctions and side streets still need their own signs checked. TfL has an interactive map for deciding whether the road is one it manages. Its PCN for a red route traffic offence is £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 14 days. Some boroughs now put red routes on their own roads, and TfL says a PCN from a borough red route belongs with that borough instead.

Read the issuer, contravention code, street, observation time and photographs first. If a civil enforcement officer placed a PCN on the vehicle, London Tribunals describes an informal challenge to the issuing authority. A clear challenge states what happened at that particular bay and attaches the useful evidence, such as a payment receipt, permit record, photographs of the sign or proof the vehicle was elsewhere. Send it using the council's specified route and retain the acknowledgment.

If the case proceeds, the council may send a Notice to Owner to the registered keeper. That document permits formal representations. The owner should use the stated grounds and deadline even if someone else was driving, because the legal process is directed at the keeper. If the council rejects formal representations, its Notice of Rejection explains how to appeal to London Tribunals. The adjudicator is independent of the council, and the London Councils guidance gives a 28-day appeal period after rejection.

TfL does not present station car parks as a formal park and ride scheme: the Mayor told the London Assembly in July 2024 that TfL has never promoted its car parks that way. Check the return train before paying the separate car park and rail charges.

Saba's Redbridge Station car park on Eastern Avenue lists £8.50 for a weekday, £7.40 on Saturday and £6.30 on Sunday. At Hounslow West, its published weekday price is £9, and Saturday and Sunday are listed at £0. These are car park amounts, not fares. Both operator pages take payment through PayByPhone, and neither promises a space in advance: Redbridge says a booking does not guarantee one, and Hounslow West works on a first come, first served basis. Confirm the live tariff on the site you actually enter, because a station name in a satnav may lead to a different operator's space.

There is no London-wide resident parking permit. Apply to the borough responsible for your home street, using its controlled parking zone and vehicle rules. Westminster provides a concrete example: a resident must have their main home in one of its controlled zones and have the vehicle registered and insured at the address. Its resident permit is electronic and linked to the vehicle. The council says its price is based mainly on the car's CO2 emissions and fuel type, so another borough's quote is not a reliable Westminster price.

Westminster's estate visitor vouchers work only in the visitor and shared-use bays of the matching estate area. Each e-voucher starts at £0.50 for one hour, a resident can buy up to 60 hours of them in a rolling year, and one only becomes valid once the visitor's registration has been entered correctly. A voucher does not guarantee a space.

TfL says public charge points are available on residential streets and at key destinations, including car parks, and that a rapid or ultra-rapid unit can take a car to 80% in as little as 20 minutes. City Hall says it has worked with London Councils to help boroughs install thousands of slow to fast charge points on residential streets. These serve different trips: a resident without a driveway may need an overnight unit, while a visitor may need a charger near a meeting or a rapid stop on the way home. TfL points drivers to Zap-Map, which shows live availability and the price per kWh, so check the connector and operator before travelling.

A charger does not waive a borough parking fee or the bay's maximum stay. Check the sign as well as the electricity price.

Both Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels carry a separate user charge in each direction, from 06:00 to 22:00 seven days a week. TfL raised the tariff on 21 September 2026. Off-peak rates go only to vehicles registered for Auto Pay; peak rates apply northbound from 06:00 to 10:00 and southbound from 16:00 to 19:00 on weekdays, and to anyone paying online or by phone at any charged time. Pay by midnight on the third day after the crossing.

East of the city, the Dartford Crossing on the M25 is paid as Dart Charge through GOV.UK, separately from every TfL charge. A car pays £3.50 a crossing between 6am and 10pm, or £2.80 with a pre-pay account, and motorcycles cross free. Pay it by midnight on the day after you cross.

The DVSA active station list shows 114 authorised MOT stations in the London postcode districts sampled for this page. The list below also gives counts for whole postcode areas, which extend beyond the selected districts in some cases. Use the class breakdown before contacting a garage: a test centre authorised for one class cannot automatically handle your motorcycle, car or van. This is a count of active authorisations, not an appointment search or a ranking of station quality.