We asked a number of groups with different points of view to give their opinions on how best to tackle road congestion. These views are their own and are presented here unedited to help inform the debate.
Peter Roberts, creator of the petition, lives in Shropshire
Mr Roberts created the petition, which said: "The idea of tracking every vehicle at all times is sinister and wrong. Road pricing is already here with the high level of taxation on fuel. The more you travel - the more tax you pay. It will be an unfair tax on those who live apart from families and poorer people who will not be able to afford the high monthly costs. Please Mr Blair - forget about road pricing and concentrate on improving our roads to reduce congestion."
Read Peter Roberts’ views
Our road network struggles today with the demands placed upon it.
This manifests itself as congestion when people travel to and from work.
Outside these times, congestion is generally minimal and mainly found around badly designed junctions, roadworks, or where the free flow of traffic is compromised.
Our government propose introducing a road pricing system to increase the cost of congested roads coinciding with your travel to and from work. This journey is not optional for most people and increasing the cost to work will have a minimal impact on congestion.
There are many alternatives to a complex and expensive road pricing system. Initially, our government must address the design of our roads with the ambition of increasing capacity and flow rates. Today, most road engineering appears designed to reduce capacity and reduce traffic flow. We see dual carriageways reduced to single lanes, traffic lights on free flowing roundabouts and bus stops pushed out into the road preventing cars passing when the bus is stationary.
Before we even consider this massive, complex and hugely expensive road pricing system, we should offer a comprehensive network of free school buses, staggered school opening times, decent park & ride schemes, tax breaks for people working from home and encourage commercial vehicle movements outside peak journey times.
Road pricing is an intrusive and highly expensive way of modifying transport choices. Its cost needs to be recovered before any benefit from taxation and adding additional bureaucracy to an already complex scheme is wasteful and unnecessary.
A simple form of distance pricing is to incorporate road tax into the cost of fuel. This removes the possibility of evasion and increases tax on inefficient vehicles. It’s an effective, inexpensive and acceptable way of using price to affect travel choices.
Please visit Traveltax for further information about the alternatives.
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