Road Pricing

[Scorpion]

So those wacky politicians (Mr Darling) have come up with a winner to ease congestion/reduce traffic on our roads?.............or have they lost the plot

With the current plans being that we will all pay a max of £1.30 a mile to use roads such as the M25 at peak times and all other roads will be charged at 3p a mile,road tax will be axed and there will be a low duty on fuel.The cost of the sattelite road tracker/toll charge gadget i expect will be down to the owner of the vehicle,so i wonder if all users of our roads will be charged including foreign visitors?.....how would they do that,would all european countries be made to install a tracker to their vehicles.

Why aren't they putting more effort into finding those that DONT pay insurance/tax or even petrol as drive offs from petrol stations are becoming more often?

How would this affect you?

Me!....if these plans go ahead i will ditch the car and find an alternative to getting around as this govenment are taking more and more out of my pocket on a regular basis.

Rant over......post your thoughts below :D

[Tony-Bones]

Its all "Pants" square Bob.... i ride a motor bike total miles pw 120, total cost in fuel £6 :D "hence" the bike, but since i live in the M1, M25 Heathrow knot under this "idea" my cost pw would be £100+ ( NO :tsktsk: WAY ) and since this new idea involves lower costs in fuel and tax i dont think motor bikes can be exempt this time....

[Scorpion]

My alternative will be to jump back on a m/bike......ah happy days :D

[Tony-Bones]

My alternative will be to jump back on a m/bike......ah happy days :D

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Well if this :tsktsk: idea takes of i will be back on the pushbike...ah crappy days :D trousers stuck in the chain, the "skunk" pattern of mud up your back from the back tyre, and that ever exciting ring on my bell "ding" when the "bull bar" of a 4x4 extracts my teeth ( for free ) laying there tangled in the bike looking like an advert for "Kaplunk" with the bike pump up my arse i would say "thank you Darling" this is one i owe you.

[Scorpion]

My alternative will be to jump back on a m/bike......ah happy days :D

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Well if this :tsktsk: idea takes of i will be back on the pushbike...ah crappy days :D trousers stuck in the chain, the "skunk" pattern of mud up your back from the back tyre, and that ever exciting ring on my bell "ding" when the "bull bar" of a 4x4 extracts my teeth ( for free ) laying there tangled in the bike looking like an advert for "Kaplunk" with the bike pump up my arse i would say "thank you Darling" this is one i owe you.

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Aahhh the youth days.

[Jiberjaber]

MPS based tolling is currently under trial in Leeds under the DIRECTS project (I was the site manager for the lab trials at TRL in Berkshire). There were plans to carry out further trials of the MPS version (GPS with a 'mobile phone' style connection) for tolling HGV's withinn the Bristol area. I am not sure what came of that.

I have also worked on another DfT bid for HGV tolling country wide, the undertaking is massive to support the infrastructure, the jv I was with bailled out in the end because of the mounting risks, so I am not sure how much further that has got.

If you ask Monster Matt, he'll tell you I am too busy putting up speed cameras to do anything else anyway! ;)

[Tony-Bones]

MPS based tolling is currently under trial in Leeds under the DIRECTS project (I was the site manager for the lab trials at TRL in Berkshire).  There were plans to carry out further trials of the MPS version (GPS with a 'mobile phone' style connection) for tolling HGV's withinn the Bristol area.  I am not sure what came of that.

I have also worked on another DfT bid for HGV tolling country wide, the undertaking is massive to support the infrastructure, the jv I was with bailled out in the end because of the mounting risks, so I am not sure how much further that has got.

If you ask Monster Matt, he'll tell you I am too busy putting up speed cameras to do anything else anyway! ;)

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do you "agree" or "disagree" with Mr Darling?

[Jiberjaber]

Thats like asking me to do myself out of a job

I think it is inevitable that road user charging will occur withink the UK of a larger scale that it is at present. Everyone is waiting for a viable option, the London scheme is not what everyone thought it would be, so has not been adopted, the current trend I believe is that the majority are waiting for the results of DIRECTS (part of their deliverables is a specification on tolling for the UK).

MPS may come ahead of that as it is just a GPS and mobile phone connected together (simplified of course) so no great infrastructure

There is some not to bad info on this site.

BTW... pay no attention to the artist impressions of the tolling gantries in Leeds... they look a lot more different in the flesh

[Rillo]

MPS based tolling is currently under trial in Leeds under the DIRECTS project (I was the site manager for the lab trials at TRL in Berkshire).  There were plans to carry out further trials of the MPS version (GPS with a 'mobile phone' style connection) for tolling HGV's withinn the Bristol area.  I am not sure what came of that.

I have also worked on another DfT bid for HGV tolling country wide, the undertaking is massive to support the infrastructure, the jv I was with bailled out in the end because of the mounting risks, so I am not sure how much further that has got.

If you ask Monster Matt, he'll tell you I am too busy putting up speed cameras to do anything else anyway! ;)

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do you "agree" or "disagree" with Mr Darling?

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Mr Darling is an idiot.....

1) will the public consent to having mandatory GPS boxes in their cars?? NO! I wouldn't trust them with a TV remote control.

2) This has nothing to do with the environment - it is the politics of envy. Labour governments don't like to see people be successful and choosing nice cars. Only they will be allowed Jaguars etc. Do you think they will have to pay the charge??

3) Do you think it is right in a "free" country that a government can decide what car you drive and where you can drive it?

4) I, like many others on this site drive many miles for work so will my company happily accept a fee of 100 quid to get round the M25 in the morning to make a vital appointment? Doubt it.

5) If they can track your position they can track your speed...nuff said.

[legendswraith]

again this is an easy way to gain revenue, by attacking the motorist. I would assume that to use this system though the goverment would have to provide the gps trackers (remember big brother is watching you) or make it law that all new cars have them fitted and then just wait to phase road tax out kind of like 4*

Think if they do try to get this one going the whole motoring community is going to have to show some solidarity and protest en masse

[Scorpion]

Think if they do try to get this one going the whole motoring community is going to have to show some solidarity and protest en masse

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What like the fuel protests.....yeah coz that worked didn't it.

The government already have trackers on us....

....They're called mobile phones.

[Chris Skelton]

Well, guys. Back street fixers/computer whizz people may be able to get around it all? Watch out for 'boxes' on e-bay? Or, if you have an older car, just invest in James Bond style revolving plates to be photographed in?(oh, and a James Bond mask to drive in?)

Address supplied but witheld by request......Zorro!

Who wrote that name on here? Who he?

[LennyLexus]

My alternative will be to jump back on a m/bike......ah happy days :D

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pete u only do 4k a year dont ya?

[dhs]

Calm down dears, it's only a commercial. Have the government ever installed any technology that works? the scale of this project is way beyond the capabilities of any civil servant. Alistair Darling is high in mastubational capability and will be long gone before any trials begin in ernest. But is it not rather strange that this ground breaking idea was never mentioned before the election?

[Tony-Bones]

But is it not rather strange that this ground breaking idea was never mentioned before the election?

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yeh but, no but, yeh but :duh: Where i come from this is fighting talk "Darling"...... good thing i've have moved

[Dave-Ellen]

I reckon its a typical goverment stunt.........float this idea which is really bad and everyone gets wound up........while work on something not quite so bad..........so we all think the second option is better when thats what they wanted all along..........

Still think aboloshing road tax for private cars...increasing fuel tax and coming up with a way that its easy to see if you are not MOT'd or insured....is the way to go

[Gandalf]

What are the labour government thinking, they can't even collect monies from tax & insurance dodgers now!!!!. what chance do they think they'll have with the new system. Implimentation will be relatively easy, but like road tax currently, administering the system will be a farce.

I also think that if the system is to be reliant upon electronics, they I say whoo-hoo, because like someone said earlier, I guarantee that an electronic by-pass/hack/cheat (call it what you will), will be available from the right (or is that wrong) people.

The only downside will be the potential for having your car broken into as there will probably be a large black market for stolen Tracker units, I.E. your legitimate Tracker sits at home costing you zero £££, whilst you race around on someone else's stolen tracker, costing them gazillions of £££

Just my 2p worth

[javadude]

I do about 15,000 miles a year, most of which is on the M4 in the rush hour so I guess that would be classed at the £1.34 per mile rate. That comes to £20,000 per year. :o :megaangry:

[Kremmen]

The peeps who need to be hammered are the ones who only drive a mile or two and who could reasonably be expected to use public transport or even walk.

Those of us who have to drive long distances because transport does not go in our direction will be unfairly hit.

I 'have' to use the car to do 42 miles per day using part of the M25 as there is no sensible cheap transport link between Hayes, Middlesex and Woking. All the links from Hayes go to central London or Reading which is East or West of where I need to be.

The return school run which is the havoc creator taking less than a mile in total will still happen. Under the proposals they would probably be better off as they probably only need to fill up every Christmas. With duty removed from petrol it would again probably reduce the tankful cost enormously.

Who voted labour ?

[UKPulse]

How could any self-respecting human being come up with such a moronic idea - oh, sorry we're talking about our beloved transport secretary - Alistair "I don't even have the brains I was born with" Darling!

The government's attitude to motorists in this country is an UTTER JOKE, as is their pathetic and ill-conceived transport policy, (in fact it's just a sham to call it a policy)! After decades of little or no investment in a decent public transport infrastructure, we are left with a rail network that's the biggest joke in Europe, and a bus network that totally ignores the needs of rural communities because they're not profitable.

If I drive to my nearest office which is 21 miles away, the journey takes me 25 minutes and costs less than a gallon of gas, plus a tiny percentage of my annual Road Tax, insurance, etc. The same journey on the train takes 2 hours 10 minutes (with 2 changes) and costs £14.10..... HA frickin HA! The bus journey also involves 2 changes, costs £8.70 and requires me to walk about a mile at the work end. So both alternatives cost more, take longer and have the added inconvenience of having to travel at set times.

I do around 18,000 miles annually, mostly on major roads, and assuming I pay an average of 65p a mile (about half way between the 2p min and the £1.34 max), that works out at a whopping £11,700 a year !!!!!!! What's more, the news article I saw said they weren't going to abolish Road Tax as part of this ridiculous scheme, they would merely 'reduce' it.

Yet again the government takes the approach of trying to price motorists off the roads rather than provide a viable alternative. This is the carrot and the stick approach, only the goverment has never offered the carrot, they've simply beaten the cr@p out of the donkey (motorist) with the stick. Well let's just hope that this particular donkey collectively turns round and bites the government in the :tsktsk:

[javadude]

I just found a government web site which says that 155,000 vehicles per day use the M4. OK so if they want everyone to use public transport instead do they have capacity for an extra 155,000+ people on the trains into and out of london on the reading line? Hmmm guessing probably not.

[Fidgits]

Its another idea by the Labour goverment to:

a. Price us out of our cars, rather than offering a viable alternative. (dont forget, if we end up paying 10 times more road tax (and on average, we will) then the train companies can increase their prices to match)

b. Being the 'nanny state'

[Claire G]

Anyone who has to get their kids to school for 9am, and anyone who works full time any distance from their home would be screwed.