" The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working Mum who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.
On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times.
They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit you can expect a NIP with your monthly bill.
If you care about our freedoms and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website.
The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working Mum who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.
And this just might reduce the amount of motorised traffic on the roads, and you want me to sign it!?!
On 10 Jan 2007 03:13:39 -0800, "dkahn400" <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:
squeaker wrote:
> And this just might reduce the amount of motorised traffic on the > roads, and you want me to sign it!?!
It might also displace a lot of motor traffic onto the minor roads that we like to use.
Why?
That's the point of the road pricing system using GPS so every road is priced, rather than just having toll main roads.
Already mentioned - the 'rat run' effect.
What Rat Run effect? The point of being able to price any road - is that what are currently used as rat runs with expensive traffic calming measures can be priced extremely high (but not for people who start or end a journey near there, only for mid-journeys)
On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:38:42 -0000, "p.k." <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:
Accident on motorway.
Traffic dumps onto "quiet" local road
Local raod becomes congested.
Locals going about normal business get hit with swinging congestion charge.
Ummmmm - Poll Tax revisited!
That would of course depend on the pricing structure - there is no reason that a pricing structure which didn't penalise local journeys in the above situation couldn't be made. Starting/ending within the town in question priced differently to driving through.
On 10 Jan 2007 03:13:39 -0800, "dkahn400" <[email hidden]> wrote:
> squeaker wrote: > >> And this just might reduce the amount of motorised traffic on the >> roads, and you want me to sign it!?! > > It might also displace a lot of motor traffic onto the minor roads > that we like to use.
Why?
That's the point of the road pricing system using GPS so every road is priced, rather than just having toll main roads.
Already mentioned - the 'rat run' effect.
What Rat Run effect? The point of being able to price any road - is that what are currently used as rat runs with expensive traffic calming measures can be priced extremely high (but not for people who start or end a journey near there, only for mid-journeys)
Jim.
So a highly priced rat-run becomes less used (good), while the traffic diverts to a cheaper (previously quiet) route (bad) - usage is monitored leading to it becoming highly priced, so the traffic diverts to.... and so on.
No the poll tax was a tax on everyone regardless of what services they use or their ability to pay. The current "car tax" disk is more like a poll tax, at least for vehicle owners.
Also the proposal is linked to a reduction in fuel tax, nobody seems to have taken that into account when looking at how much it will cost drivers. Might they even end up paying less in some cases?
It might also displace a lot of motor traffic onto the minor roads that we like to use.
Why?
That's the point of the road pricing system using GPS so every road is priced, rather than just having toll main roads.
The point is to encourage road users away from the most congested routes/times. Inevitably, it will displace traffic from the £1.34 per mile motorway or A-road onto the cheaper-to-use minor roads. Those nice, almost traffic-free, minor roads that form most of the national cycle network in my neck of the woods will become rat-runs of the worst kind.
Road pricing will bring with it speed limit enforcement by black box - further reinforcing the mistaken belief of many motorists that they only need to obey the speed limit to be safe drivers. So not only will we see motorised traffic displaced onto the national cycle network, that traffic is likely to proceed at whatever the speed limit happens to be regardless of whether they might meet up with a cyclist around the next bend. So road pricing might actually make cycling on some parts of the national cycle network a lot less safe than it currently is.
I suspect also that, because we won't initially pay road pricing charges, cyclists might be seen as freeloading leeches on society - and it might not be too long before we see calls for us to shove transponders up our *rses and pay to use the roads the same as everyone else. At the very least, it will give more ammunition to the "motorists pay VED and so have more right to use the roads" brigade.
