UK Government announces plan for ‘Pay as you go’ road charges

[Bob]

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has announced plans for road charges, aiming at cutting congestion. The charges, which could range from £0.02 per mile on little used rural roads, to £1.34 on busy major roads would replace road tax and petrol duty.

Mr Darling said the change was needed “If the UK was to avoid the possibility of ‘LA-style gridlock’ within 20 years.”

Every vehicle would have a black box fitted to allow a satellite system to track their journey. The potential threat for extending this tracking to monitor speeds and also to trace where people are at all times, creating a ‘Big Brother’ type state. Mr Darling has acknowledged this, saying concerns would have to be addressed. He added "There are a lot of difficult decisions to be taken, but I honestly think road pricing could provide us with a way of managing our roads, of getting more out of it, which must be good for us as individuals as well as the country as a whole."

Shadow transport secretary Alan Duncan said he had concerns about the technology and implications for civil liberties, but added "I think it is a vision for the future ...We have more cars in the same amount of space so we do have a problem with congestion."

A pilot scheme could be carried out using volunteer drivers within five to six years, but a national scheme would be rolled out within 10-15 years.

[Bob]

Having done some maths, this REALLY worries me.

I commute every day into the centre of London. Now I believe the £1.34 per mile will be charged on motorways - but the roads into London are busy ones.

Currently, I ride about 125 miles a week - excluding leisure stuff. I reckon I do about 6,000 commuting miles a year. At present, road tax is £60 and I spend about £11 a week on petrol... which equals about £650 a year, give or take.

Now multiply 6,000 x £1.34 and you get £8,050 roughly - an increase of over 1,000% (without allowing for the removal in road tax and the reduction of fuel costs due to no petrol levy).

Suddenly, as I live in London, riding my bike would become prohibitive.

This is not good - let alone the speed controlling (next step after tracking speed will be external control of speed - and that is frightening), but taking away my sole means of transport, meaning I will have to rely on a public transport system already stretched to the limits?

I am not happy...

[crazylittleshit]

God dame that scares me

[SPman]

The creeping hand of Big Brother is alive and well......but don't worry,
It's all for your own good.

Honest citizens will have nothing to fear.

[bear]

Surely you'd have to expect that the charges for bikes would be less than a car?

At that price it sounds pretty prohibitive for just about everybody.

[Lou Girardin]

They may not charge bikes, as per London's congestion charge.

[Indiana_Jones]

Ah, sounds like labour revune collecting

-Indy

[TwoSeven]

I would agree with it - if they priviatised the roads they charged on.

Laws of economics and competition would soon sort out any problems. Roads that need to be public, should of course still be free.

[Bob]

They may not charge bikes, as per London's congestion charge.

Well that is the hope. However, I believe the reason bikes are not charged is that we do not have front-facing numberplates (the cameras only recognise front plates). If the road pricing is monitored by tracking data from a black box on the bike, then there is no reason why bikes should be exempt.

I'd hope bikes would be subject to a lesser charge - after all, the usual arguments of being lighter, causing less damage to road surfaces etc apply - but who knows?

Of course there is another factor in all of this - all of us law-abiding types will have our black box attached... but what about people who don't want to pay? Remove the black box and hope you get away with it. With less and less traffic police about, what chance of anyone actually being picked up for riding/driving without a black box?

[Lou Girardin]

Or the black box succumbing to vibration/moisture. Being a big hammer and the garden hose.

[Eurodave]

Well that is the hope. However, I believe the reason bikes are not charged is that we do not have front-facing numberplates (the cameras only recognise front plates).

Id like to challenge that statement .I had a speeding fine a couple of years ago, requested a photo & sure enough it was taken from behind.
It was down Linwood Ave in CHCH as I was riding AWAY from the camera

[Eurodave]

Oops, I opened my mouth & put my foot right in it!
You talking about riding in Pomgolia eh Guv'nor?

[bugjuice]

and that's why I hate the UK, it's government and the stupid people behind 'the wheel'.. so I moved here. Dumbasses.. can't stand the UK government. They're all dicks.

[Drunken Monkey]

Well they do plan to remove road tax and slash petrol duty to almost nothing. That would make it not too dissimilar from the RUC charges we charge heavy vehicles/diesel users here.
I think there is at least some merit to a km's based road-tax - it would mean people like me who have 3 vehicles to keep on the road will only have to pay for the kms we drive/ride in any given vehicle, not all three simultaneously. At the moment I'm paying $600+ a year to road tax three vehicles, of which I can only ever use one at a time. Seems unfair to me.

[Bob]

Id like to challenge that statement .I had a speeding fine a couple of years ago, requested a photo & sure enough it was taken from behind.
It was down Linwood Ave in CHCH as I was riding AWAY from the camera

Yup, talking Pomgolia.

However, as you mentioned it... Speed cameras - and bus lane cameras - take the rear plate. The Congestion Charge cameras in London take the front plate.

Reason being - as far as I am aware - that with the volume of traffic, they found out that trying to snap the rear plate did not work as the vehicle behind would often obscure the plate, but they were able to get the front plate very successfully.