Thursday 10th July 2003

Pay as You Drive

Be scared, be very scared - Govt plans for road charging are well advanced

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[DanH]

And there I was naively thinking that fuel tax was a pay as you drive scheme? Ah well guess Labour like to take as many bites from the same apple as possible.

[victormeldrew]

Yet another way we get to pay for what we're already paying for.

I believe the trucks will get a reduced road tax, but you can bet that when the road charges are added in the total will be a net gain for gov.uk coffers.

[porky]

I suppose we will just have to get used to this idea. It annoys me that car drivers are taking the rap again when the real problem is the abysmal state of public transport in this country.

Given this New Labour lot promised to cut jams and restore public transport, maybe the great electorate will tell them what they can do with these plans at the next election.

[cdp]

With road charging I would accept it under certain conditions (which the government would never meet).

1. Tax neutrality. Fat chance.

2. No "Gatso in the car" - i.e. you don't get points and fines if you exceed the limit. I can really see them going for that. Maybe automatic limiters would stop the speeding and then make up for it by an extra 2p/mile?

3. Nobody from government would be allowed to use the system to track the movement of indivuals. (Would Tony would really like a Police state? When he is out of office?).

The other issue I have is if they were to carry out point 1. How would they take into account the amount of CO2 the car uses? I have seen more than 30mpg average in an XJ8 and less than 7 from an Elise. This implies simply taxing on the car's CO2 rating would not work as the right foot is still the biggest influence.

Another issue I am wondering about is on bio fuels which don't contribute to CO2. The the duty is reduced for this reason but they still want so to "fund" the roads. So the implication of this is the fuel is used on a circuit shouldn't we be able to claim the road funding part back and only pay for the CO2?

[hertsbiker]

well you are all right. Just another means of hitting the motorist, get used to it.. the next lot will do it just as much.

Still, before the limiters become mandatory, have fun?

[LotusACBC]

Instead of accepting such nonsence, LOBBY IT. As the people of the world, country, state whatever, we RUN the country, WE make the money. So refuse it. If everyone just stands up and says we aint paying this shit, we wont have to. Soon theyll tax air im sure

[RearAdmiral]

Great. I wonder if the money raised will be spent on improving the road surfaces, or 'invested' in public transport, traffic 'calming' and speed enforcement measures... Grrrrr

[Alan420]

DanH said:

And there I was naively thinking that fuel tax was a pay as you drive scheme? Ah well guess Labour like to take as many bites from the same apple as possible.

Fuel tax hit a brick wall with the fuel protests, so now they're going to call it something else and get on with it.