Wednesday 31st January 2007

Road charging petition hits 600k

ABD issues roads manifesto in support

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Will road charging prevent this?

The massive growth in the online petition against road charging has prompted the Association of British Drivers (ABD) to issue a road manifesto.

The petition against road pricing (see link below) was set up by Shropshire ABD member Peter Roberts on the Prime Minister's website and has now been signed by well over 600,000 people. It dwarfs all other petitions -- the second largest has attracted just 22,000 signatories.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has previously stated that "Doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing means that in 10 years, congestion will be 25 per cent worse."

The ABD said it disputes the figure of 25 per cent but "wholeheartedly agrees" that doing nothing is not an option. The pressure group itemised action allegedly taken by the Government to reduce congestion:

• Cancelled bypass schemes -- forcing traffic through towns.
• Cancelled major road upgrades like the A40 into London even after land and property has been purchased and demolished
• Installed bus lanes -- halving the capacity of dual carriageways, so doubling the length of the traffic jam.
• Closed side roads -- preventing traffic dispersion.
• Removed parking spaces -- forcing people to drive round and round looking for one.
• Splashed red, green, and white paint to narrow roads and reduce capacity.
• Increasing parking charges, including those car parks associated with public transport facilities.
• Closed subways and replaced them with surface crossings, increasing hazards for pedestrians and obstructing traffic
• Massively increased the proliferation of traffic lights in urban areas and on roundabouts, leading to stop-start motoring and unnecessary waits at the lights.

The ABD said that Blair "intentionally makes congestion worse, then tells us we have to have a road pricing scheme 'to solve the problem'."

Instead, the ABD suggested what it called "constructive proposals" for reducing congestion, including:

• Completing the motorway and bypass network that was planned 40 years ago.
• Stopping the practice of building inadequate roads such as the A14, and the A42 between Tamworth and Nottingham, both of which should clearly have been built as three-lane motorways in the first place.
• Improving existing roads, for example by completing the flyovers and underpasses for which space was left when roads were constructed.
• Removing all bus lanes on dual carriageways.
• Forcing councils to reopen side roads that have been closed off at one end, or have had access restricted in some other way.
• Providing more parking spaces rather than legislating for less.
• A return to the policy of separating pedestrians/cyclists from heavy traffic where possible by construction of proper facilities for both groups, rather than using vulnerable road users as cannon fodder to justify the obstruction of motorised traffic.
• Free parking at all park and ride schemes for bus users.
• Free parking at all rail and tube stations for train users, and a big reduction in restrictions on parking in side streets nearby.
• Better marketing of bus and train services. The train advertising hoardings on the M1 approaching London are a good example of this.
• Better facilities for carriage of bicycles on public transport -- it couldn`t be much worse.
• Secure well-lit parking for bicycles at all railway stations to encourage cycling and deter bicycle theft.
• Incentives to encourage bicycle hire companies to operate at railway stations.
• Co-ordination of development to ensure that people can live close to their place of work and have proper transport links instead of the piecemeal approach that takes the road network for granted.
• Incentives to encourage or oblige companies to adopt home-working practices. Technology now means that many office staff simply do not need to commute into a city centre every day. If all such staff worked from home just one day per week, their commuting needs would be reduced by 20 per cent.
• Incentives for moving closer to places of work. For example, reduction of stamp duty on houses for employment relocation purposes. This could relate to the distance moved, for example someone moving 60 per cent nearer to their place of work would get a 60 per cent reduction on stamp duty.
• Large scale studies into people's transport needs and habits, done with the intention of facilitating people's lives rather than justifying anti-car anti-transport policies.

ABD director of policy Mark McArthur-Christie said "The issue of road pricing and vehicle tracking is clearly one of the most important to the British public, and they seem to be vehemently opposed to the idea. The petition runs until 20 February and continues to grow by thousands of signatures each day. If the prime minister decides to ignore the wishes of such a large number of people, he will regret it at the ballot box."

Note that PM Blair will not be facing any more elections, as he intends to retire from office before the year is out.

• Road charging petition

[RobPhoboS]

These guys should probably be in charge of the roads, appears like they know what they are talking about.
UK gov makes my blood boil !!!

[james f]

^^ what he said it might actuly be nice to move about this country if it was like the above suggestions but that would far to sensilbe for our money grabbing govermnet

[drags06]

Not long to go now!
Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy, Peter Roberts, ends 20 February 2007
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

www.abd.org.uk/

Edited by drags06 on Thursday 8th February 11:13

[fatboy b]

RobPhoboS said:

These guys should probably be in charge of the roads, appears like they know what they are talking about.
UK gov makes my blood boil !!!

Absolutely agree. Just goes to show what a bunch of ing idiotic ing wankers we have leading this country.

[negative creep]

signed it a while ago, but don't think for a second they will listen. Just look at the Iraq War; the government doesn't give a toss what ordinary people think

[Zod]

It doesn't matter (even though I've signed it). Every member of the electorate could sign and they qould still ignore it.

[fatboy b]

Zod said:

It doesn't matter (even though I've signed it). Every member of the electorate could sign and they qould still ignore it.

But 3/4 million people refusing to have their cars fitted out with the right equipment will cause a big enough headache for them to back down hopefully. Also, what are the plans for Johnny Foreigner when he visits our roads. Or is that the way to avoid the charges - register you car overseas?

[joe_90]

fatboy b said:

Zod said:

It doesn't matter (even though I've signed it). Every member of the electorate could sign and they qould still ignore it.

But 3/4 million people refusing to have their cars fitted out with the right equipment will cause a big enough headache for them to back down hopefully. Also, what are the plans for Johnny Foreigner when he visits our roads. Or is that the way to avoid the charges - register you car overseas?

no change.. they do what they want (see the G.W.Bush model of democracy for reference).

/yes i signed too
//yes, i know America is technically not a democracy

[fatboy b]

joe_90 said:

fatboy b said:

Zod said:

It doesn't matter (even though I've signed it). Every member of the electorate could sign and they qould still ignore it.

But 3/4 million people refusing to have their cars fitted out with the right equipment will cause a big enough headache for them to back down hopefully. Also, what are the plans for Johnny Foreigner when he visits our roads. Or is that the way to avoid the charges - register you car overseas?

no change.. they do what they want (see the G.W.Bush model of democracy for reference).

/yes i signed too
//yes, i know America is technically not a democracy

Great - so that's the plan then - register your car overseas.

Alternativley, I have a cunning plan. I've thought about this for a long while, and here it is. Don't pay the charges. Yep, that's it, just don't pay them. So what are they going to do - throw us in jail?!

[imfinlay]

How about vehicles with 6v electrical systems? Or positive Earth? Wish I hadn't sold my old Ford Consul now.

Ian

[bunglist]

This government could also stop all these Fing Immigrants just coming into our country blagging off our systems clogging the place up, and generally costing the workers of this country shit loads.

Oh yeah forgot those human rights F#$* wits will always get in the way of any government putting there foot down on immegration.

[IPAddis]

* Closed subways and replaced them with surface crossings, increasing hazards for pedestrians and obstructing traffic
* Massively increased the proliferation of traffic lights in urban areas and on roundabouts, leading to stop-start motoring and unnecessary waits at the lights.

These are the two that really get me wound up. I mean duh, are they TRYING to make it worse?

Ian A.

[Epiphany]

That one of the best manifesto's i've read in a while. All those sugestions are spot on.

Gets my vote!

Edited by Epiphany on Wednesday 31st January 14:25

[irs]

I can see a buisness opportunity, I just need to find a way of prizing the little black boxes out of the cars and keeping them live, so when they are sat in the drawer at home, big brother will think I've not been out and about.... Now where's my zx spectrum pc...? and box of spanners gone?

[havoc]

IPAddis said:

I mean duh, are they TRYING to make it worse?

Ian A.

You've only just worked that out? They saw a 'solution' that would give them additional power over the electorate. They just needed to create the problem.

#1 was terrorism - what better way to foment REAL muslim terrorists than to make them feel persecuted and feared from the start by scaremongering about lots of 'fake' ones.
#2 is transport, at least it certainly appears that way.

[AlexRWD]

Such a simple solution to the overcongestion of roads - just get the 2 million bloody untaxed cars off the road!

www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=15776


Chances are these are all the scum who don't bother to insure their cars either, making the rest of us have to pay higher insurance to cover all their uninsured claims

Why is it that the law-abiding citizens have to repeatedly bend ovr and take it from the govt in order to help those who don't follow the law?

[SlimJ]

Great manifesto, so blindingly obvious really to what the solution is.

But it does pain a picture to us that the government are just trying to make motoring even more of a hellish nightmare than it is at the moment, and try to solve the problem by taking more money out of our pocket!!

We have had some big redevlopments in my home area (Thanet), but have they improved the roads to cope with the extra demand? Have they f**k, but they have put a few more sets of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings just to add to the carnage...!

They wonder why no one shops in town centres around here, not only are they crap, full of cheap pound shops, but they charge you for parking... crazy!! Does no one in the council/government have an ounce of common sense?!?!

[scoobiewrx]

irs said:

I can see a buisness opportunity, I just need to find a way of prizing the little black boxes out of the cars and keeping them live, so when they are sat in the drawer at home, big brother will think I've not been out and about.... Now where's my zx spectrum pc...? and box of spanners gone?

I don't think that will work because the ANPR system due to be rolled out UK wide will read your number and put you somewhere else. When all the info goes into trafpol computers and is matched up they will see you where away from home and will question why your GPS tracker says you were home. I have no doubt they will catch up with you in time and do you!!

Maybe they'll have to open a gaol specially for motorists. The register your car abroad sounds like a good idea, wonder if it will work

Roll on the Revolution!!

[havoc]

scoobiewrx said:

irs said:

I can see a buisness opportunity, I just need to find a way of prizing the little black boxes out of the cars and keeping them live, so when they are sat in the drawer at home, big brother will think I've not been out and about.... Now where's my zx spectrum pc...? and box of spanners gone?

I don't think that will work because the ANPR system due to be rolled out UK wide will read your number and put you somewhere else. When all the info goes into trafpol computers and is matched up they will see you where away from home and will question why your GPS tracker says you were home. I have no doubt they will catch up with you in time and do you!!

You're assuming the computers will (a) work individually; (b) be able to talk to each other; (c) exchange the right data.

I think it's far more likely that law-abiding John Smith will get done because of an 'impossible' computer error.


Equally, if thousands of people do this it'll choke the courts to a standstill...and if someone like me is seriously considering it (law abiding sober accountant), imagine how many others are...

[scoobiewrx]

havoc said:

scoobiewrx said:

irs said:

I can see a buisness opportunity, I just need to find a way of prizing the little black boxes out of the cars and keeping them live, so when they are sat in the drawer at home, big brother will think I've not been out and about.... Now where's my zx spectrum pc...? and box of spanners gone?

I don't think that will work because the ANPR system due to be rolled out UK wide will read your number and put you somewhere else. When all the info goes into trafpol computers and is matched up they will see you where away from home and will question why your GPS tracker says you were home. I have no doubt they will catch up with you in time and do you!!

You're assuming the computers will (a) work individually; (b) be able to talk to each other; (c) exchange the right data.

I think it's far more likely that law-abiding John Smith will get done because of an 'impossible' computer error.


Equally, if thousands of people do this it'll choke the courts to a standstill...and if someone like me is seriously considering it (law abiding sober accountant), imagine how many others are...

I do agree with you and likewise i am law-abiding individual, but will consider anything to get around this potential GPS tracker bullsh1t problem I still think eventually they would catch up with you. I'm sure someone will come up with a fix for this issue though....in time.

My fix however will be to bugger off abroad before it comes into use