Youve seen the media item whereby Douglas Alexander is apparently proposing to set a national tariff/template for cities who want to introduce road pricing, to avoid differences in pricing across the UK.
The media are spinning this as if its the first step in an inevitable scheme where we forgo road tax in lieu of a pence-per-mile scheme, wherever you go. They say (this is the funny bit imho) that itd be administered by a satellite tracking system fitted to every car, linked the inevitable computer thatll debit your bank account.
Whod like to to be in charge of administering that? Imagine the data theyd have to process? The costs in running thatd surely outweigh the cost of government doing away the road tax and not road pricing!

If anthingll make me vote Tory, this would be it...

why cant they just stop fiddling. people just accept it will be busy in cities. who cares.
it has got nothing to do with lowering congestion just raising the cost of driving.

I dont think its financially viable, and I think theyre doing the usual lets suggest something really nasty so people will be relieved when we only put Ã,£10 on a disk & 10p on petrol" thing.

Although they could just do the fixed fee thing like London.


/They need to spend some money on buses, make em a little nicer and better value and have timetables that arent just for show.

There is the potential scenario of places like Tokyo, which are totally grid-locked, to be avoided. Its the idea that theyd like to price motorways and other roads that incenses me.

Would be easy to implement with todays tech, and probably reasonably quick and easy to administer with a simple database.

However, making it haxxor proof would be pretty hard.

Also, are you going to tax the car on carbon emissions, or road wear due to tire type--heck, lets go all the way and also factor in length of vehicle for urban traffic jams.

Stupidest motor vehicle law Ive encountered was Washington States yearly road tax being determined by the blue book value of your car. So everybody in my small city drove clunkers.

if you live in the middle of London, Manchester or Birmingham you likely think that the entire country is gridlocked at rush hour.  If you live outside of a big city then youll know snarlups only happen in particular areas.  I can get from one side of Preston to the other in under 30 minutes at rush hour.  Off Peak its more like 15.  The main issue is really that people in London wholl support this think the world ends at the M25.

it would involve IT, and the government

they have enough on their plate at the mo (NHS)

so NO!

itd be pretty crap having GPS on each vehicle kinda way of doing it

they have enough cameras... USE THEM!

Quote from: maximusotterWould be easy to implement with todays tech, and probably reasonably quick and easy to administer with a simple database.

Not with our government in charge it wouldnt...

QuoteAlso, are you going to tax the car on carbon emissions, or road wear due to tire type--heck, lets go all the way and also factor in length of vehicle for urban traffic jams.  

Weight of the vehicle should be a factor.

Quote from: maximusotterWould be easy to implement with todays tech, and probably reasonably quick and easy to administer with a simple database.

Look at it this way, the new NHS Computer system is already overbudget, and its nowhere near complete.  The Pensions system is ****ed, as is the Benefits Agency.  The ID Card scheme isnt going to happen due to the sheer technology and cost involved (consultancy stages are ~3 years late, and the budget was blown 12 months in).

The UK Governments have never been great at IT projects, but the present one couldnt put a simple access dBase together for under Ã,£5mil

who loves big brother and voted yes?? you really think it wont be abused.. i laff at you

Quote from: CeathreamhnanThe media are spinning this as if its the first step in an inevitable scheme where we forgo road tax in lieu of a pence-per-mile scheme, wherever you go. They say (this is the funny bit imho) that itd be administered by a satellite tracking system fitted to every car, linked the inevitable computer thatll debit your bank account.

Im not in favour of a satellite tracking scheme but I am in favour of more toll roads/congestion charges.

Citys like Birmingham,  etc.. could prob do with a London style congestion zone in the center - tbh.. no individual not on business "needs" to drive right into the center of any city (obviously exceptions made for disabled people as is currently done in central London).

A few more toll roads like the M6 could also be built (in addition to the existing motorways) - im not advocating introducing charges to existing roads just new ones.

however any charge per mile/sat tracking road tax scheme is a step too far & despite what the media like to make out of these stories it isnt inevitable as the opposition to such a scheme would be huge.

on new roads maybe but im not f**king paying on roads i have already paid for with my road tax to be built.

indeed were already taxed to buggery on fuel and for road tax surely thats enough? at nearly Ã,£1 per litre of fuel that must be enough of a deterrent to drive places we dont need to?

Why not just up fuel tax again? surely that would make more sense than spending billions on a system thatll probably never work.

Its not just because they want more money but they want more controll.
Speeding, tax/insurance cheats, duty on different diesels wont matter as much, police can trace you quickly etc. Government can kiss my ass.

had enough of our governments now TBH really pissing me off. Every single politician is a waster and we should just spend more money becoming more democratic and having referendum stations instaed of voting arsoles into power.

good god man you cant put fuel tax up as people wont be able to afford to go to work FFS

its not us thats the problem its the flaming gvmt not spending the cash properly and blowing cash on stupid things

theres no need for us to be taxed any more, all it does is go up and theres NEVER any improvment!