Can pay-as-you-go driving ease congestion?

Question

Today a government commissioned report headed up by the former head of BA, Rod Eddington, will reveal that a pay-as-you-go scheme is the only way to ease congestion on the UK’s road network. This idea is likely to raise concerns that yet another stealth tax is aimed at the UK motorist. However, if the scheme genuinely reduces congestion then most heavy road users I am sure would pay. For those that have experienced the new M6 toll road, it is motorway-cruising nirvana. However, can more be done with our existing network before we commit to drastic and costly changes?

Here are my thoughts: http://www.what-car-to-buy.com/News-Reviews/15/can-pay-as-you-go-driving-ease-congestion

Answer 1

Not in the long run. The cost of living will just go up which will then lead to an increase in wages so people can afford it. Charging us to use the roads is a short term fix. They would be better at concentrating on a long-term solution- getting better public transport! If we had more frequent busses that ran on time which go a variety of routes and if we had better train services then that would ease congestion and be more environmentally productive and it will serve everyone.

Answer 2

No it won't work!! It will take some users off the road, but congestion will still exist, but will just not be as bad. Take the central London congetion charge for example, it has taken some users off the road but congestion still exists. We live in a society where people have become heavily reliant on their cars; if the government wants to reduce congestion they need to start educating people because I believe there are too many people on the roads who do trips that are unnecessary. For example people who take their kids to school when they live only a mile away or so. Or going to visit a friend/family when they live a short distance away. Or people using their cars to go to work when their job is not too far away. I can understand if people have long journeys to make then a car is an effective way of getting around, and I have nothing against people who use their car in a sensible way.

Also another idea is why don't car manufacturers design cars for use by one person. Because there are many people who use their cars to just get themselves around. I am sure if they design something stylish it will hit off and thus could help alleviate congestion.

I don't drive, but another thing I hate about all these charges they introduce to car users is that they say the money will be used to improve train/bus journeys and improve the roads. But I am sorry I don't see any difference. To me it just seems that all this money is jsut being used to create more jobs and more 'fat cats'. And what makes me laugh is those new bendy buses - what is the deal with them? They take up more room on the roads thus create more congestion!

Answer 3

It's been said that if P.A.Y.G. does go ahead, by around 2015 the rate would be approximately £1.40 per mile. Assuming this was on a major commuting route, a driver doing the average annual mileage of 12000 miles could end up paying in excess of £15000 a year just to get to and from work (and that's without the petrol, insurance, etc).

Yes it would ease congestion, but only because no-one could afford to go to work anyway.

Also, once this all kicks in, people will find other 'non-taxed' routes to get around, therefore clogging up the local roads and causing even more congestion that way.

Answer 4

I can't believe that they actually BELIEVE that charging for the roads will suddenly take all the cars from the roads and leave the country green and fresh!

Yeah, right, When you look at what motorists already pay: Road-tax, fuel tax, speed camera tax, MoT (now over £50), over-inflated parking and so on and so on!

What will happen? Will everyone ditch their cars and buy bicycles? Or will the extra money just be found from children's food budgets and from the money normally used to buy insurance etc? I know what I think will happen!

Another example of stealth tax, it will not achieve it's original objective, but it will raise yet more money for the Treasury to waste!

One toll road works because there are other FREE roads to use, how does it work when you pay whatever road you use?

What can be done with our existing roads? Take the Freight off of them and put it back on the railways, improve the railways and make ALL buses FREE! Just to start with I would say.

Answer 5

I'm sort of in favour of this - if people can see a direct link it will make them think about alternative forms of transport. I lot of journeys are less than two miles and should be walkable/bikeable, so I think a pay-as-you-go system to discourage these journeys would be quite good.
However, I have a couple of concerns:
1. Will this be as well as the road tax we already pay? They're talking about £1.50/mile on some stretches of road and I think if they want this AND regular road tax, it's going to cause bad feeling.
2. What effect will this have on people in rural areas and market towns where public transport isn't as good as larger urban areas? In areas such as Norfolk, the rural population is older and has less money than younger people living in towns. Travelling is already a problem and a road charging scheme may disadvantage them further.
3. Is this going to be another stealth tax? Any money raised through this proposal really should be ring-fenced for improving other methods of travel.

I'm also not sure that I agree with his thing about building more airports/ runways. I don't see how this will help - congestion on the way to the airport plus pollution from more flights.

Answer 6

There is no need - one in ten cars are on the road illegally. Just removing them would ease a heck of a lot of problems. Also tougher immigration controls...has anyone noticed how many PL plated (Poland) cars are suddenly on our roads? Whe the hell are these bleeding hearts going to realise that we are a bl**dy island, and this town just ain't big enough?!?
Yes the M6 is a beauty but it would cost the commuting user something like £1500 a year and then the increased cost will have to be paid for through increased rates, be it to the employer or to the consumer.
I remember when the congestion charge was introduced drving in very central London was marginally improved, then they increased the charge from £5 to £8 and now they're doubling the size of the area it affects. Any minute now it'll be £10 a time.
At least though, I can choose to avoid it, unlike the poor residents who are fined £200 per year per vehicle for daring to live there.
The thing with pay as you go though is that your car's only got to roll forward on it's handbrake and they'll be sending you a bill. Our human rights issues are at stake before we even get to the terrifying question of how can we stop them just charging us whatever we like and then putting it up every six months (because believe me, when they see the money rolling into their coffers...)
I like the car colour etc idea, but this has been done in another country and now everyone owns more than one car, and I would too, because I have to go to work every day! I may live in an area that has incredible public transport links, but it also has an incredible crime rate too and there is no way on this earth that I am running the gauntlet of druggies, muggers and rapists to please some chauffeur-driven beuroprat.
Yes, congestion is a pain, but only to those of us who have already paid out to maintain, tax and insure the vehicles that we are legally licensed to drive, while people who shouldn't even be in the queue pick their noses...
Oh man, I've got to go and lie down now.

Answer 7

Personally I would have thought the head of BA was a specialist in planes and not cars, so why is he heading the enquiry?

The M6 Toll is a waste of land. Nobody used it, and it's taken up a lot of prime land. Yes toll roads work in Paris and some other places across Europe, however the places that incorporate this do not have the massive level of taxation we already suffer.

The only way to ease congestion in this country is close our borders to migration (we are too small a country with no infrastructure/ or availability to infrastructure), and invest in public transport and car pool lanes.

Road tolls - pay as you go, are stealth taxes to be embezzled for labours next political campaign.

Answer 8

We already pay as we go, it's called road tax!

Why not raise the driving age, or get rid of four wheel drive vehicles in the cities, or, force one car one home, because some of us just can't afford extra road taxes and yet have been good clean/safe drivers, across decades. Yet we have to endure that our roads get more and more dangerous with foreign vehicles and foreign drivers, all using their own countries codes of behaviour, and making it more dangerous for us.Cutting up on the inside lane may be ok in Europe, but it doesn't work in the UK... since that's our emergency lane and blocking it as an overtaking lane, means in emergency situations, people die!

It's time illegal drivers and fake licences, along with non insured people, were seriously weeded off our roads. I know of all four people who illustrate these instances, within 100 yards from where I sit, but if I raise my head and report them, nothing would be done about it and I would be thought a sad mid life lady!

Last night I reported a local fourteen year old youth revving a car up across our lawns and past my wndow outside my block of flats and driving full pelt through the pedestrian walk way in the dark, where anyone could have been killed, as they left or entered houses. Yet, nothing was done after my call and the police never came back to me about it! So what's the point of reporting illegal drivers anyway?

Those of us who have obeyed the laws and never made a claim, like me, with 33 years clean driving, or, who do not use our vehicles to excess, but need them for our health (I have arthritis and can't carry heavy shopping) can't afford to be priced out like this, since we live alone and have no other way to live our lives without our cars. And we also have a right to use our country's roads, without spending all our pension on the right to do so, over and above our annual car tax.

What a selfish world this is, when the wealthy can merely just laugh and shrug their shoulders and cough up any extra fees, and keep their many vehicles, while we, must choose to pay and go a little hungier for the privilege, or, give them up, and become isolated and helpless.

Answer 9

Lets tax the poor yet again shall we?

So introducing road pricing will bring in £28bn a year for the government? And this helps the environment how? Seeing as the public transport networks are all now PRIVATELY owned, can you see the government handing out cash to these private companies to improve there networks? I think not...

If there really were a genuine alternative to driving everywhere people would use it. Even with the introduction of road pricing, i cannot see how it will stop people using there cars as there is no other viable alternative yet in place.

Answer 10

The roads will stay as they are.
When the crude oil appears to be running out all those patents for "fuel cells"; "batteries"; "motors" and types of "new fuel" will soon be in full production keeping the roads clogged up.
By then the government hope to have the new "road toll" system in full tax raking functionality.

Just think about what you are signing up for before blindly going along with it because it seems like a good idea at the time.

It's not about conjestion charging - It's about raising tax when the Government cant get it from the people charging batteries on their wind turbines and solar panels in their gardens.
Our government finances are like a house of cards and motorist taxation is 2/3 of the bottom tier.

Besides which I want to keep some of my hard earned money to buy myself something nice.
The people in power want to use the money that I cant afford to kill or convert people in other countries who want the same as me but share another belief from the fat monkeys across the Atlantic.

An added bonus for the people in power is knowing where we all are with our ID cards and transponders. So you better convert to New Catholic or else the government will be needing extra taxes soon to pay for concentration camps.