Petition For Road Pricing?!

• 27th February 2007 at 22:40

Hot on the heels of that petition against road pricing, there is now a petition for it. Yes, that's right, there's a petition for road pricing, and it even has signatures. But they won't be getting mine, and I won't be linking to it either.

I probably stand to gain from a road pricing scheme, as most of my miles are off-peak, on little quiet roads and empty motorways, but I'm still against it. It's the big brother principle of being tracked, and not knowing how much your journey is going to cost. Or getting delayed in a meeting and having to pay the full whack for getting stuck on the M25 in rush hour, as if the delays weren't bad enough. How are you going to charge customers for that? And no matter what the government proclaims, on top of that your driving patterns will be available to police; the insurance companies will want in; etc etc.

They say it would be fairer because those who travel greater distances would pay the most, but I thought that's how petrol duty worked? And if you're not getting taxed by the gallon (sorry, litre), maybe I'll just swap to a nice big 4x4, then I can just roll over the fields to avoid the jams. It's not like they're not already getting enough money out of those of us who drive - in the last financial year I paid £750 in fuel tax alone, and I only did ~11000 miles.

If improved public transport could get me door to door from Cheltenham to Sevenoaks in 2 1/2 hours for £20, then I'd be all for it. I currently face twice that time and price, excluding taxis, but it's not just the money - it would be virtually impossible for me to carry my bags, boxes and equipment across 5 or so vehicle changes. Public transport can't even get me to the supermarket and back, and just the thought of the queue at Sainsburys - hundreds of people loading their weekly shopping on and off buses - makes me giggle.

It's a pipe dream - public transport can't and won't be able to replace private transport, and it can't even get close, no matter what hair-brained scheme they come up with. It's for people who are too young or too old to drive, or those who live in or commute into large cities. I don't see why people who don't fit into those categories should be forced to foot the bill for those who do.

If they could make public transport a viable alternative then it would be lovely, but it would require far more money than is going to be raised by any road pricing scheme. Especially if you consider that if public transport was indeed brilliant, people would switch, the government would lose a substantial amount of income from petrol tax and road tax, or any road pricing scheme that was introduced. And when starved of money, they'd just quietly cut back again, and if not from public transport then from somewhere else. Where this week? NHS is on it's knees, armed forces are stretched to breaking point... ahh, never mind, those schools had too many computers anyway.

I'd also be interested to see the effect on the commercial transport industry, the industries that depend on them, and the cost of living as a whole. Not to mention places like Cornwall, who depend on the tourist industry - if getting stuck in a 5 hour traffic jam on the A30 wasn't bad enough, are visitors going to put up with localised time-sensitive congestion charges too? And if not, what exactly is the point of a road pricing scheme touted as a solution to congestion?

If it comes people are going to pay, and it's not just going to be the drivers.

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