Tolls 'could pay for new roads'...

michaels

We don't do hypothecation of taxes in this country - NI no where near pays for what it is supposed to, income tax doesn't just pay for defence and police etc etc.

To me it would be reasonable to pay more for motoring if the extra went to maintain/improve the road network. Private tolls are probably the most likely method by which increased charges for using the roads were actually spent on the roads.

Petrol taxes are not ideal as they hit those who are forced to drive (those living in the countryside where comprehensive public transport makes no sense) and they do not properly address the 'externality' of congestion where people choose to make a journey because they do not have to pay for the amount that their being on the road slows everyone else down.

We are happy that for example iphones are expensive so not every one can afford them but not willing to suggest that those who pay more might benefit from a better road network even though that is accepted in 'socialist' countries like France.

(As an amusing aside, in the US where the States are generally broke they are switching 'car pool' lanes which were reserved for sharers to reduce congestion to 'premium' lanes where those who pay a subscription are allowed to drive whatever the occupancy of their car whilst the 'plebs' sit in the congested lanes....)

wymondham

So in summary this proposal is unnecessary as there is no problem with raising funds via existing means, it's just not spent on the purpose it's collected for....

simples!

Have a Great Christmas everyone!

Kennyboy66

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I'd agree, to a point.

The M6 is pretty much the only example we have, bar bridges.

The point at which it get's messy is when the M6 toll becomes the M6 itself. This is my worry over toll roads...when they just become the normal roads and the old route is made so bad or long winded that you have little choice but to pay the toll.

Let's face it, the M6 toll hasn't been that successful, neither financially or in terms of it's aims (to reduce congestion) so something will have to be different to make us choose to pay.

Significantly less people use the M6 toll road now than in 2006

Peaked at 54k users a day.
In 2011 it was 42k per day.

However, who has lost out bar shareholders ?

You can choose to pay - or you can stay on original M6 which will have less users on than if the toll road didn't exist.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

Bring on a toll road to link the M6 and M5 and avoid Birmingham - or toll road to run alongside M62.

Road_Hog

Just great.

Do you know, that less than 25% of your road tax, goes on sorting out the roads, building new ones.

Road tax, what a fabulous idea, everyone that drives a car has to pay towards the maintenance and building of new roads. Except they take the money and don't repair the roads.

Now they want to charge you again (toll roads), for the roads that you already pay for.

Now, who did the government ask for advice on this?

"because just such a study was presented to the three main political parties in 2009 by the investment bank N M Rothschild"

I bet they'll will have their finger in the pie. We pay for the roads and they charge us again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/9153266/Privatised-roads-Drivers-have-had-enough-of-highway-robbery.html

pqrdef

In the interests of balance, the view from the lobby in the other corner. (SERA is linked with the Labour Party.)

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmtran/103/103we29.htm

"road users fail to pay the true road costs by a very large factor"

grizzly1911

Road_Hog wrote: »

investment bank N M Rothschild"

I bet they'll will have their finger in the pie. We pay for the roads and they charge us again.

Whilst viewing/participating on these threads an d, following links etc the Rothschild name seems to pop up quite frequently. Do they have, or are they a major part of a controlling interest in the NWO?

We have already ditched our utilities in order to prop up the state but the likes of Greece are being told to sell theirs off as one way to keep the tally man happy for a bit. Who picks up these utilities and asset strips them only for us to pick up the tab 20 years down the line again as is happening with energy and water here?

Are roads going the same way?

prowla

I am opposed to this - we are a small country and we don't need to build whole new roads; we need to improve the current system.

We all pay road tax and fuel duty, so why be asked to pay yet again?

Going4TheDream

MacMickster wrote: »

I really don't see the problem with this idea. The use of toll roads would be voluntary (as with the M6 toll).

The construction of new roads would create jobs, and the roads themselves would ease some of the congestion on our overcrowded road network, making it cheaper to transport goods around the country.

Has the M6 toll eased congestion? Not really, nothing has changed.

Surely the sensible idea would be looking at how we can reduce the number of cars needed on the roads along side improvements to existing routes?

MacMickster

Going4TheDream wrote: »

Has the M6 toll eased congestion? Not really, nothing has changed.

Surely the sensible idea would be looking at how we can reduce the number of cars needed on the roads along side improvements to existing routes?

I would say that it has. Over 40,000 vehicles per day pay to use the M6 toll. I doubt that they do this just to demonstrate how wealthy they are by driving up and down this stretch of road for the fun of it. I suspect that they are on journeys that they would have made anyway, and choose to pay the toll to avoid the congestion on the main M6. As has been pointed out already, if not enough people use it to make it viable then the only losers are the shareholders.

Car useage in this country is decreasing anyway, as the cost of motoring increases. You can see the effect that taking a relatively small proportion of cars off congested routes by observing how much easier commuters find it during the school summer holidays.

The national purse is currently stuffed full of IOUs. The government does not have the money to carry out the improvements needed to the road network. Asking private companies to fund the building of new roads, which they can then charge drivers to use seems like a no brainer to me.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

prowla wrote: »

- we are a small country and we don't need to build whole new roads; we need to improve the current system.

No, that's incorrect.

We need some new roads. The motorway network in the UK as originally designed has never been completed.

We ALSO need to upgrade most of our existing roads and massively increase capacity.

We all pay road tax and fuel duty, so why be asked to pay yet again?

Exactly.

Toll roads are the wrong way to go, we already pay nearly 10 times more in motoring taxes than the government spends on roads.

All motoring tax revenue should be ringfenced, and the govt forced to spend it on road maintenance, upgrades and new construction.

No need for tolls, that would be motorists paying for it twice.