Road Pricing
 

We have been bombarded with recent reports saying charging to use the roads is the only way to stop congestion so I guess its looming, probably with GPS tracking for the Xtra big Brother effect

We already pay through three quarters of the price of fuel being tax, road tax itself, tax on insurance etc :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

It seemed to make sense the other day when some said the problem isn't too many vehicles on the road it's too many vehicles going to the same place, i.e. big business centres, out of town shopping centres, big mega schools in towns etc

Time for a double dose of me tablets:eek:

Ray

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6160877.stm

"Motorists should pay charges to drive on the road network, a key government-backed report recommends."

...I thought we already did?!?

I haven't got a problem with this, if they scrap road tax and simply add a few pence to the price of a gallon of fuel, you simply pay for the fuel you use which in 99.9% of cases will be on the roads, plus this also has a green affect that people with gas guzzlers will take more of a hit than someone driving a 1 litre Micra

I am with you on this!

I agree with that 100% if the do abolish road tax.....but i can see "them" gradually scaling road tax back in or back up to its orginal cost after a few months or years...adding the cost to the fuel has to be the easiest and fairest way to acheive the increase in revenue thay so obviously desire.

However i think if they charge per mile...surely it will almost destroy the tourism industry ! and the biking scene...!

Pay for your car to drive to work
Pay for your car on the weekends
Pay for your bike if used week nights and weekends in the summer.!

The Public transport infrastucture simply does not exist for the majority of us to dump our cars for the work commute..!

Can you imagine the rise in suburbia and city living cost, as those that dont want or cant afford to pay per mile to travel to work move back to the burbs and city.?...all those that have to move out of the citys to afford a house will now have to pay more to travel to work.?

Would you as a tourist travel in a country where you payed per mile to travel.!?

i simply cant see how the ordinary joe public could afford 2 cars and the social side of biking.?.......

It could spell the end of social biking as we know it...when the BHC lads do a run its 200 miles plus....at the mooted 12p of peak thats 32 quid.?..plus fuel....thats almost 60 quid for a 200 mile ride out..???

Forget raid the lakes ..LOL..or tpt to race weekends....

madness

I saw this on the news this morning and have to say that it brings back memories of the poll tax.

I can see no way that they can collect the money unless they put it on fuel and collect it at source.

If they do it via cameras, then look at the billing and debt recovery costs that they are going to incurr.

As someone who actually owns a 1.0 Micra, that does over 50 to the gallon even when thrashed within an inch of its life, it wont be too bad. However my Jaguar that does 19 on a good day is going to spend even more time parked!

I'd vote for abolishing road tax every time for a little more tax on Fuel, it really is the sensible solution to replace road tax. The only slight drawback is it that "taxes" you the same for using uncongested roads as well as the congested ones. Road tax has been in place for eons and this option has never been taken up.

The sensible solutions never get put in place, the govt are wanting to target specific congested roads or areas, much like the Congestion charge in London and the scheme that got booted out in Edinburgh and that is gonna mean a "solution" of ANPR as in London, GPS tracking or some sort of smart card.

We are maybe a way off wodespread road charging but the softening up process is already well underway.

Ray.

And don't forget one of the knock on effects - your plumber/electrician/gasman/alarm engineer/etc will charge you more to recover the cost - just as we do for congestion charging. Our London customers pay a higher price already!!

How will pay per mile stop congestion in the week.?...................

I think the idea is to make cars more expensive than public transport...... that said the inner ring road in London is now a total nightmare with people avoiding the charge. So its quicker to cut through and pay..........

Not that road pricing will change anything - its just another form of stealth tax.................... Grrrrrrrrrr

Sorry but even if you own a 1 litre Nissan Micra or cycle eveywhere you will still pay for these extra charges.

The additional costs of road charging will have to passed onto the end consumer leading to inflation of prices of goods and services for everything transported by road.

i think its highly unlikely that there would be sufficient investment in the rail network to enable all of the goods to go by rail, and even then stuff needs to go by road from the rail terminal to the shops and offices, unless of course they build a rail terminal next to every village shop:lol:

OK i work in road transport and therefore have a vested interest, yes the road transport causes some of the congestion, but could be argued that it is more important to the economy than commuting by car, the school run in a 4 x 4, or indeed a pleasure ride on a bike (and of course i love riding my bike)

Some simpler solutions may be changing school hours so they don't conicide with peak rush traffic for workers. have the kids start at school at say 7.30 pm and finish earlier, bingo, minimise rush hour,

Or ban single occupancy of cars and make them use motorbikes!

Restrict HGV use to outside a window of 7.30 to 9.30 am and 4pm to 6pm.

BAN ALL CARAVANS FOR EVER BECAUSE I HATE THE BLOODY THINGS!


Another point is that the bulk of the money raised thru road tax/excise duty on fuel does not get spent on the transport infra structure so IMHO its another stealth tax.

JPM

Unfortunatly it wouldn`t be just a few pence, we would be screwed for fifty + pence at a rough guess which would net the government millions extra, but at least it would make all the people who eveade road fund licenses pay as well.

I now walk around with a bigger tub of Valsaline for more Government Shafting

LMAO

BUT surely we can do something about this...its a radical move affecting every single resident in the uk...!!

im sure the majority are against such a tax...!!

what can we do.!

Move the road tax onto the petrol pumps - just remember that when you fill up your race bike / petrol mower / chainsaw / generator / whatever! :(

Emigrate, then they just have to work out how to tax the remaining illegals.

Emigrate to NZ, unleaded is about NZ$ 90c a litre, ie half the UK price.

Cracking roads too.

It's the world/gov going made, they say that money collected will go into public transport !!! it should really be in place before so at least you do have an option, have they really thought this thru ? I think not
The first x years returns would be eaten up by the cost of the infrastructure of collecting the data, ensuring we all have a black box/ tracker, who will pay for the installation of this ???
Just think of the pensioner that is getting screwed by all in tax, poll tax, pension provider going bust etc Where will they get the money for this.
I could go on but !!
It's just all hype, it's not practical, we should not let it happen.!!!!
We have a very good collection system at the moment its called petrol tax.(remember several years ago when the price went to 80p ltr - we had protests in the streets, but until very recently we were all paying £1 without a murmer)
Oh and remember there has been no mention of scrapping road tax from what I have seen, how will they impose the levy for the gas guzzlers ?
In Germany recently they imposed charging for trucks on the autobahns, all that happened was that they moved on A roads and caused further congestion and slower deliveries.
How would you collect from trucks vans etc comming from the continent ?
It's all impractical to me and seems like a way of giving an old friend a job and bunging him some money.

Have a good weekend and enjoy whilst you can

Then buy a Micra Chris to either replace your uneconimical Jag or as a 2nd car as a runabout :p

Er, he;s already got one as mentioned in his post that you quoted??, have yer lenses fallen out:frog:

Ray

An excellent post, i couldn't put it better myself, you really are brilliant, well done.

Is there some sort of brain frying chemical being tested in the water in the NW today:lol:

If so please put some in a bottle and have it couriered over this side of the pennines immediately:D

Ray.

road charging seems to be more about big brother.

if the issue was really pollution then they would/should put it on fuel.

also if the issue was about congestion then they should have a system like Londons in every city/major town, as well as expand Londons.

Both proven to work with proven technology, no need for satellite tracking.

I think Londons congestion charge has been great for the city, its a better place for it, and this kind of targetted approach to the problem of traffic would be more acceptable to most. paying per mile could well go down the poll tax route with a lot of civil unrest