| Listened to the Transport Secretary justifiying himself on the Today program a couple of mornings ago. He let out that a similar scheme for HGV's was imminent, as they were seen to be a major cause of congestion.
Also, he stated that the £1.30 charge would be for heavily congested roads e.g. central london and that a typical motorway mile would be sub 10p. ( although in 10 years time £1.30's probably going to buy the same as 10p today).
It's a bad idea, but bring it on why, because it's really easy to defeat in it's planned form. GPS Signals are notoriously susceptible to blocking, and so the thinnest of lead sheets would make you "disappear" or stop travelling. Gyro technology and direct integration with speed sensors etc would allow for some dead reckoning, but isn't 100% accurate, and you can't bill someone because you think they may have used the road.
Then there's the issue of map data and its accuracy. TomTom use TeleAtlas maps, which are probably the most up to date of the lot, and have just release version 5, which still has roads missing from it after 5 years. It's only in the last 6 months the TeleAtlas and NavData maps have included the M6 toll road. So, until maps can be 100% accurate, they can't use them for charging.
Distribution of equipment is another issue, force manufacturers to fit the kit? Retro fit kits for older vehicles. It'll have a standard interface, and when it's released, within 6 months it'll be hacked, guaranteed
How will you be charged? Weekly, monthly, annually? Will the box attempt to upload the data on your journey in real time or at regular intervals? How will it do this? Cellular network? Another way to spoof or block transmissions, easy to upload false data using a clean clone of your actual box.
Don't even get me started on Civil liberties.
Keep the current tax system, it provides a mechanism to indicate that the vehicle has been insured and MOT'd, or transfer it to a US type system where you pay tax for your number plates (tags)
Obviously, the good ideas club have got together again to justify themselves.
You could also bear in mind hw much this would cost to implement, removing the cost of the black box ( £100ish?) think of the backend infrastructure required to track, in real time, the tens of millions of vehicles in the UK, and the resource required to generate those bills on a monthly basis.
Want to reduce congestion, get companies to review their attitudes towards flexible and remote working, stop parents driving their kids to a school less than 2 miles away. Oh, and invest the revenue taken in road tax and fuel duty and re-invest it in the transport system instead of Quango's. IIRC it's less than 10% that's returned to the roads...  |