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19th February 2007, 12:15 PM
Sign up against the latest government plan to increase the cost of motoring in the 'travel tax'. In essence all vechiles would be required to have a receiver fitted which would log all miles traveled... Your account would then be debited accordingly.. Also, a nice way to keep track of your citizens } 
So far 1.5 million have signed up.
For more details follow the link below
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/
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19th February 2007, 01:48 PM
I already know where you live.. and have passed all the details to my masters in Whitheall .... bwwwwwwwwwwwahhhhhh ha ha ha ....
each of you will be recieving a small circuit board I want to insert into your head.
However... one has to look at the rest of Europe... I would prefer Toll roads... I want to go fast.. I pay... I want to pootle along... I don't. We do have to deal with congestion... so.... how do we do it. Can't say I am keen on the sat-tracking system...
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu
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19th February 2007, 01:58 PM
Posted by Muddy: Quote:quote:In essence all vechiles would be required to have a receiver fitted which would log all miles traveled... Your account would then be debited accordingly..
Well, that is one idea that has been mooted, but I don't think the government has actually signed up to that particular method.
However, road pricing is a good idea. In Britain we all use our cars far too much and without thought for the consequences. As a result, our cities are gridlocked and polluted and we are constantly pumping more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Personally, I would quite like my son to grow up in a world that is still habitable. Road pricing is just one possible means of making us think about the real cost of our behaviour and maybe changing it.
After all, when it comes to organisations, we have operated on the 'polluter pays' principle for quite a long time now - that is why, amongst other things, developers pay for archaeological work. Why shouldn't that principle apply to the population at large?
Personally, I normally commute by either train or bike (9 or 12 miles, depending on whether I use the nice long route or the horrid dangerous one). A few years ago, the travel time by car would have been about the same as for cycling. Now, however, congestion has reached the point where I can cycle in less than half of the time it takes to drive.
I also visited the No. 10 petitions website, and signed up to all of the petitions (several) in favour of road pricing.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
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19th February 2007, 02:15 PM
I agree - road pricing could be a fairer way of paying for motoring, particularly if fixed-costs like Vehicle Excise Duty were reduced or removed in conjunction with it.
.. and for those getting paranoid about Big Brother and being tracked, presumably youve all stopped using your mobile phones, stopped drawing money out of cashpoints and stopped visiting shops with cctv?
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19th February 2007, 02:30 PM
I saw an interview on BBC World at the weekend with one of the instigators of the petition. He claimed that if the government were to introduce road pricing the result would be that many UK motorists would be forced off the roads.
Surely isn't that one of the intentions of road pricing?
Any chance BAJR might start a petition [u]in favour</u> of road pricing. I would be happy to sign.
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19th February 2007, 03:34 PM
As someone who uses a car quite a bit myself (and perhaps more than I should) I am in favour of road-pricing as a way of tackling congestion and pollution.
I think there should be distinctions drawn between the different types of road-use and road-user (casual driver, commuter, business driver, transport and haulage etc) otherwise it has the potential to be extremely unfair.
However, I am in support of it and would be happy to sign a petition to that effect.
p.s. Tracking....hmmmm.....that's a much trickier ethical issue and one I am far less comfortable with, but I don't think it should be used to fudge the priniciples of a potential road-pricing scheme.
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19th February 2007, 04:13 PM
"and for those getting paranoid about Big Brother and being tracked, presumably youve all stopped using your mobile phones, stopped drawing money out of cashpoints and stopped visiting shops with cctv".
And stopped sending emails and faxes as well[8D][8D]
"Freedom of ideas is one thing, freedom of the purse is quite another". Edward Harris
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19th February 2007, 04:21 PM
Already signed it some time ago.
We already pay - far more heavily than in other countries. We pay road tax on a graded scale - in France, for example, there is no road tax. We pay heavy tax on fuel - more than in France, again - and thus already pay by the mile (or kilometre).
Apart from which, how is restricting the use of personal transport to the rich or better-off a fair and reasonable method of rationing?
What about those in rural areas with no public transport? What alternatives are being put in place BEFORE restricting private transport to the well-off and corporately funded?
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
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19th February 2007, 05:19 PM
I suppose this is where a line can be drawn where we say it can either be done appropriately and well, or done badly.
Firstly, I recognise that we already pay more than just about anyone else. Personally, I feel hard done by in this respect, however, would a further road related tax result in the reduction of pollution and congestion? If it would then I support it, but not unconditionally.
So, that said, if administered badly then it certainly could result in private transport becoming the preserve of the rich, something which I'm obviously against. But if set up in such a way that people who require transport have access to it, then I haven't got such a problem. How this can be done I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be prepared to rule it out on a possible (if intolerable) outcome, when the advantages could be great.
D x
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19th February 2007, 05:45 PM
Quite, Dave, I think that is the nub of my rant.
Using the bandwagon of climate change etc. as a blunt instrument to hike taxes up and still seem like the good guys is a pretty transparent ploy. If the intentions were genuine, there would be alternative measures in place, or being put in place but public transport is pretty much a joke. Some (usually profitable!) routes are fine, of course, other journeys less so. Leeds to London by train is great provided you book online in advance and travel after 11-ish, and there's only one of you, for example. But it takes me 90 minutes to get to Leeds from home by train, and 30 by car. Two of us, it becomes cheaper by car.
If the intention is to cut congestion on, well, congested routes, this is a different argument. Would it work, or would it just shove the traffic onto previously tranquil back roads? If it is to apllied to rush hour traffic in certain areas, it seems a pretty iniquitous tax to me. Nobody drives in rush hour traffic because they want to, it's because they need to. Will everyone be able to find an alternative - I doubt it, because if they could, they probably would have.
Freedom of travel is a great democratiser. Having invented it, it's pretty hard to un-invent.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
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