Should road tolls be introduced as a wide spread pricing policy and why?

Answer 1

NO, we are being ripped off enough as it is.

Answer 2

Absolutely not! Tolls were first introduced as a way to pay for the construction of the road, once paid for, the tolls were supposed to go away and regular taxes would cover maintenance. The governments discovered tolls were a cash cow that could be endlessly milked from drivers pockets, so once the tolls were in place they never went away.

Some politicians, Leftists, Greens, see tolls as a way to control people's driving, like high vehicle taxes and high fuel taxes. Ream out their wallets and they can't afford to drive to work, for business, unless they raise their prices, which hurts the common man. The common man can't afford to work anywhere he has to drive to, so he's unemployed. If the shopping centers are more than a short distance away he can't get there because of the expense. Shopping centers close, auto manufacturers close, tourism stops. Don't say public transportation unless you mean "universal on demand, portal-to-portal transport" because rail and bus lines don't cover every village and country home. There isn't a major highway system in any large city that doesn't suffer from rush hour traffic.

Make the multi-lane highways toll roads and people will clog the side streets to avoid the tolls. The next step will be to block the side streets to force people to use the toll roads. I doubt if I am alone in viewing toll roads as another grab for power and control by those who think they know how you should live better than you do.

Answer 3

This is a somewhat "scaffolded" question (and why not? for example)!

No, not really. For the simple reason that it will be another - and a very bad and significant one - case of rationing resources along class lines.

Those for whom price is no, or little object, will of course love it - they can afford to use nice, uncongested routes. And it is precisely these groups who are pushing for it. As a portion or percentage of their incomes it would be an insignificant sum and more often than not would not even be paid for by them, but other people - employers, say, and ultimately customers. Who are probably the poorer ones banished to the smaller and very highly congested non-toll routes.

For these latter people, the toll charges represent a very large proportion of their income.

There are other reasons. Small towns and villages for whom the taxpayer has shelled out billions of pounds over the years to get bye-passes around would again become very un-bye-passed indeed!

It has, however, never been the sort of argument that UK people considered too seriously though, I will grant you. (Us 'regular folk' do seem to enjoy subsidising the well-off!) Heavy Goods Vehicles, for example command a road-tax fee of a few thousand pounds while causing routine damage to the highway that is counted in the tens of thousands of pounds per vehicle, per year.

In short, this damage - and, ultimately therefore, the profits of private organisations are subsidised by everyone else, regardless of whether or not they have shares in those haulage firms, or consume / purchase many or even any of the products transported by them.

In any case it would make no difference for the privileged, in the long run because as we all know by now: crap always expands to fill the space provided. Toll-paid or otherwise.

NB: It's 'widespread'. (A wide spread is what's on the tables at a street party.)

Answer 4

If the Government abolished the Road Tax system that's already in place then road tolling is acceptable, but to be, in effect, charged twice (or more) for the same goods is criminal. It would be far more effective to put the tax onto the fuel and abolish all other forms of road charging. Then those who actually utilise their vehicle more than others will pay a bill that is line with that usage. any other system outside of this is crass and unfair and the government is taking the p*ss.

For instance, if I use the M6 toll, as I'm being charged to drive down this private bit of road then surely I don't need to have my car taked while I'm on it? No? No, I still need to have it taxed - who's conning who here?

With the amount of vehicles that are on Britains roads at present and the road tax that's gained from them, the roads and the improvements that are now well overdue should mean that we drive on a perfectly flat surfaces, but we all know from the mathematical argument that the money isn't being spent - so if it's not being spent on the roads then where is it going? And now they want us to pay more............er, I think not!! My car's up for sale mate because I've never been one to appreciate having the p*ss taken out of me.

Your choice.

Answer 5

As everyone seems to have the same answer, which is stop the road tax and put it on the fuel, so if you want to have a big so called gas guzzler so be it, im sure there are some small cars out there driven by people who want the car to go as fast as its possible that are using as much feul, I have a vectra with a so called eco enginge and on hard exceleration I can get that down to 7 to the gallon, which I know is nothing to boast about but just putting my point over. but on the other hand I do about 4>5,000mls a year and the rest of my millage is done a company van which is about 25,000mls a year so if pay per drive came in to force the extra charge would be put onto the job and as there is about 150 vehicles on my section that's a lot of extra cost put forward, We carry out works for network rail so in the long run theses charges I think would be paid for by all the train commuters. And we are only one company that has many company vehicles so not only would large contract prices rise but also small contract prices like; house builds,roofing, painting and decorating etc. as these people would be looking at a way of reclaiming travelling cost in some way or another.so when someone decides to make the descion evryone including those green cycling/train and bus travellers will still be paying at some point, It sound a good idea in someones head but i really dont think so. companies like; BT, Tesco, COOP, Sainsbury, Gas, Electric you get the idea will incure all those extra travelling costs and put it on the price of there products.
If for example you have an emergency Gas call out on the road they will normally send out about three large vans and a couple of small vans, who would pay the bill for travel? the gas board? I think not!!
Congestion will always be a problem, you can ease it but you will never stop it. I have noticed over the years there isn't even a rush hour anymore it busy all the time on the roads but to ease it on the so called peak times may put HGV's to the inside lane only like on continant, I've actually seen 3 lorries abrest on the south M25 and they were all english plates, should have seen the traffic behind them it was like a rolling block.

Answer 6

Not without the tax on fuel being removed completely. As it stands the idea is just another stealth tax, of which this government is very good at imposing. The result would be a doubling of the tax burden with no appreciable improvement in the standard of the roads. Most of the delays on roads outside towns is due to road works or collisions blocking the road. I remember from one of the goon shows in the 50's a statement about "the governments new dig up the roads plan for congesting traffic scheme", no doubt one of this crown of chancers has heard the same thing.

Answer 7

I don't understand the logic of road tolls as a general policy. I can see why one may pay for a new road built to avoid a city or speed up a journey but just to charge people because they travel from A to B (or even further) is only a politician's way of raising extra revenue without having to provide extra facilities. A con, I would say. If the idea is to get people out of their cars, where are the new trams/trains/buses/trolley buses/monorails/underground systems. It's not a con, actually, it's an expensive joke.

Answer 8

Road tolls must not be introduced as they are a political twisting of truth to justify higher and higher taxes.

We already pay a high price for driving on our roads in the high taxes which are a form of tolling. Tolls only hit the poor. The rich put it on expenses. If you can afford a £30,000 car you can afford to run it including tolls. If you have a £10,000 car it probably eats up most of the earnings in the household just to keep the owner in work as there is no viable alternative to the car to get to work on time or back home in time for bed.

UK Public Transport is no longer "Public" and no longer a "service" which can be relied on. It is a cash cow for a few bloated directors who have no interest in "Public Services"

Buses do not run at convenient times and to useful places like near my home, trains are overcrowded and very expensive and are miles from either end of my journey anyway. Park and ride schemes are few and far between and usually too small and expensive. Buses do not connect with trains.

If we had an integrated cheap transport system such as in many continental cities people would take the tram/bus/train in preference to using their cars.

As far as pollution is concerned yes we are gassing ourselves but do not come on with the incorrect arguments about global warming. The arguments are a political scam to grab more taxes as the science contradicts that argument about us causing global warming. Speak to independent non political scientists and you will get a different picture.

Answer 9

We are a small country with narrow motorways that are not equipped to withstand toll booths for starters; We are heavily taxed driving 97% of the vehicles on the roads around the British Isles whether thats excise duty (road tax) or fuel tax.

And noting the government say they only spend 1/16th of such taxes to go to improving our roads I personally think to toll roads is just another way to kick us up the backside.

Take a step back and you're all see we are a tax-rift nation that uses these taxes to bolster the rich and devide us into groups with hidden stealth taxes, so I say no to road tolls.

Answer 10

I'm against Road tolls. I drive 3000 miles a week and I pay roughly 658 dollars per week in road use taxes. I see no reason to pay more than that, as collectively people like me contribute 1.68 BILLION in road taxes. Toll roads are most often PRIVATELY FUNDED HIGHWAYS. a Business that makes money from you driving on the road they built. This saves the state from having to maintain them, and the companies even HIRE the state to enforce the speed laws on their highway. Road/fuel taxes will never go down, nor will states give them up to private enterprize... the toll roads are just a way for them to have their cake and eat it too....

Answer 11

They shouldn't, people use roads because they want to get to work and to the shops. Road tolls will harm business because they will charge the most on the busiest roads.

They say it is to reduce congestion but that is rubbish because when the roads get full they can't get any more congested. If the roads are congested, people won't take the car, problem solved. People will adapt, we don't need governmental blundering to try to put something right which isn't wrong.