Petition against road pricing

Podder

If it doesn't hurt it won't work!! I don't want to pay out more to drive, but I am realistic about the problem we have and believe it is the only way.

judderman62

saintjanet wrote:

Figures of £1.30 PER MILE have been quoted to travel in peak times ,that would cost me about £250 per week to go to work,that does not seem very fair to me!!!

If it happens and some of the figures mentioned are near the mark - you will all be paying for me to live.

Simple if it happens at those figures I will end up on the dole simple as - that amount it would cost me would be FAR in excess of my income minus uncontroleable outgoings: Rent, Council tax, car insurance etc

Fair my f***ing ar*e .

impy78

The problem with this road tax is that the government fail to provide any realistic alternative in most areas of the country.

I would be in favour of road taxes IF the funds were then used to better public transport links, but they just use it to build more roads. Because that's really going to help us to reduce our emissions, isn't it?

There is so much more the government could be doing to better the country and the planet. This is just an elaborate hoax to extract money in the name of the environment, when the two have precious little to do with each other.

If you want some real solutions instead of this fudge, have a look here - http://www.climatecrisis.net/

BritBrat

The words Poll Tax spring to mind.

How many will NOT buy a device or pay a monthly fee.

My guess is the majority.

Having said that, we do need a change our habbits but taxing never works.

They need to provide a more enviromental friendly public (thats public owned) transport service thats affordable and regular.

Then people will use it, leave it private and it will cost to much or not happen at all.

AMO

saintjanet wrote:

Figures of £1.30 PER MILE have been quoted to travel in peak times ,that would cost me about £250 per week to go to work,that does not seem very fair to me!!!

Up to £1.30 / mile over the next 15 years:
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12389-1185516,00.html

Basically, there will always be a lot of speculation about the cost. You could also interpret it as the maximum cost.

Bottom line is that if foreigners are paying more tax, at least it is fair. Look at the London Congestion Charge. It works out well and keeps traffic moving. Realistically everyone knows that whilst we can hear all sorts of rumours and speculation, whatever we are charged:
1. isn't going to be so high that there are major problems for businesses and employees getting to work.
2. is probably going to be less than what Londoners are going to be charged.

Besides, if we are being charged per mile, the taxes on petrol and the tax disc on the car will be adjusted proportionally.

AMO

judderman62

AMO wrote:

Besides, if we are being charged per mile, the taxes on petrol and the tax disc on the car will be adjusted proportionally.

AMO

Like **** it will :mad: When has any government in this country done anything other than take every available opportunity to shaft the motorist more and more at every opportunity ?

AMO

BritBrat wrote:

How many will NOT buy a device or pay a monthly fee.
Having said that, we do need a change our habbits but taxing never works.

The solution will probably be like it is in other countries. Buying a device is a convinience so that when you pass through tolled roads/motorways, you are automatically charged.

Without a device, the cameras will simply bill you and charge it to the registered keeper. This will then be more of a manual process and the rates will be higher. Some tolls will require the user to stop and pay manually.

All this works in other countries and works fairly. It's difficult to say whether the cost of motoring increases because:
1. its different in different countries depending on tax and country land resources.
2. The U.K. road network hasn't had the funding its needed in the past decade. There's a lot of catchup work.

AMO

AMO

judderman62 wrote:

Like **** it will :mad: When has any government in this country done anything other than take every available opportunity to shaft the motorist more and more at every opportunity ?

Look at it this way. We can continue to pay the same way we do now - which basically favours the drivers that use the roads the most, or we can look at ways to change that.

It's almost like paying for broadband. Some people don't like the traffic-shaping tactics of ISPs because they believe that broadband should be unlimited. Therefore, either the ISP uses traffic shaping or increases the cost of broadband for everyone.

I don't really care which way the country chooses, but I do accept that whilst the majority will pay more under the new scheme, it will be fairer because foreigners have to pay it and reduce the number of cars on the road so that when you go anywhere you don't get queues and queues which have been getting worse by the year.

Besides, for those that don't use the major roads, they'll probably not pay anything at all. So, school runs, shopping etc will be cheaper than it is now.

AMO

AMO

impy78 wrote:

I would be in favour of road taxes IF the funds were then used to better public transport links, but they just use it to build more roads. Because that's really going to help us to reduce our emissions, isn't it?
If you want some real solutions instead of this fudge, have a look here - http://www.climatecrisis.net/

In reality, money will always be subsidised other areas where there is no revenue generating capability. Pushing for a higher amount to be invested in roads should be made regardless.

I think its also fair to say that the link you provide above, specifically:
http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/index5.html
only can go so far and in all fairness, if the government clamped down on this as hard as they could the whole country would be up in arms. How many people do you know that could share their car? Everyone has different timetables and works at different companies. Its very difficult. We can do more, but its not a solution.

The good thing about pay per mile is that it means that those do a lot of business miles are more likely to look at cheap hotel alternatives and people looking for their next job will have to take distance into account more harshly. Overall, the effects of lowering commute distances / possibly working from home etc will contribute to reducing traffic.

Look at when the government changed tax discs so that smaller vehicles and more environment friendly cars paid less and more gas guzzlers paid more. I am not sure if overall more people paid more, but it was fair and also all the business users suddenly found that it was expensive to run some executive cars and changed them. I liked that.

I also have also seen how this has worked in another country and I have to say its very efficient and works well. They also use it like to stop people driving down into certain areas of town centre which they don't want clogged up. They don't want to stop a driver doing so, but they make it expensive and get drivers to use cheaper routes or drop people outside of town.

AMO

judderman62

AMO wrote:

Look at it this way. We can continue to pay the same way we do now - which basically favours the drivers that use the roads the most, or we can look at ways to change that.

It's almost like paying for broadband. Some people don't like the traffic-shaping tactics of ISPs because they believe that broadband should be unlimited. Therefore, either the ISP uses traffic shaping or increases the cost of broadband for everyone.

I don't really care which way the country chooses, but I do accept that whilst the majority will pay more under the new scheme, it will be fairer because foreigners have to pay it and reduce the number of cars on the road so that when you go anywhere you don't get queues and queues which have been getting worse by the year.

Besides, for those that don't use the major roads, they'll probably not pay anything at all. So, school runs, shopping etc will be cheaper than it is now.

AMO

You certainly make some good points there.

I think one thing that seems to be a misconception out there is that there almost seems to be a view that there are loads and loads of people out there making lots of unnecessary journeys and unnecessarily at peak times.

Whilst I can accept there may be some - school runs where walking or public transport may be realistic options, there are a great many of us who have little/no realistic other options.

Take the peak time thing - we travel at those times because most employers require us to work 0830-1800 (ish) - we have no say in this.

My journey to work is approx 30 mins (an extra 10-12 mins at the moment due to roadworks on the M60) If I was to attempt this on public transport it would take approx 2 hrs 45 mins and involve 2 bus journeys, 1 train journey and 3 lots of walking.

Clearly this is not a reasonable expectation.