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Leader: Toll lanes – just a new tax in disguise
Monday 21st November 2011, 1:00PM GMT.
In coming up with an idea to help ease the jams on Britain’s roads, the Government will get a cheer from motorists. It is a cheer which quickly fades away when you see the idea that is being considered.
It is for dedicated express lanes alongside busy sections of motorways and trunk roads. To have the privilege of using these routes, you will have to pay.
Pay extra, that is, because motorists are already clobbered by a whole range of direct and stealth taxes. Running a car is a major household expense. Cars are mobile tax generators for the Government.
These toll lanes would be toll roads in disguise and by another name. Drivers would be billed per journey, with the profits going to the private sector.
There does not seem to be any particularly good reason to think that these lanes would be effective. Creating them in the first place would be hugely costly.
Presumably there would have to be some sort of barrier to stop normal traffic weaving in and out and taking advantage of this fast-track motoring for free.
And, if the Midlands toll road is any guide, relatively few drivers would be happy to endure the hit in the pocket which would come with using them.
There are, in contrast, simple and cheap ways which could be tried to make traffic flow more easily. Do traffic lights need to be in operation at every junction for 24 hours a day?
A great leap would be made if government, both local and national, stopped barking up the wrong tree and pretending that their remorselessly anti-car attitude will force motorists to catch the train or bus, or cycle or walk.
Like it or not, out here in rural Shropshire and Mid Wales, we need our cars.
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I don’t think this is anti-car – it’s pro people with sufficient money to jump traffic queues.
Isn’t this just another case of ‘to those who have, more shall be given’…….
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Genius. One only has to look at the success of the M6 toll to realise what a foolproof plan this is.
Oh, wait… the initial tolls were a little on the high side, weren’t they, so it was underused. That meant it drew in a lot less revenue than forecast. The solution? Obviously the charge was reduced to stimulate demand. Oh, wait again… no, they went against established economic principles and *raised* the charges instead. The result? Even less traffic and little effect on revenue.
Something needs to be done, no doubt, but a good starting point would be to make sure everyone uses what we already have efficiently before throwing money at the problem. As I said in another recent topic, many drivers fail to use lanes 1 and 2 properly, resulting in under-utilisation of the available space.
A massive campaign of education – and lane discipline enforcement where necessary – would be a lot more cost effective and would have repercussions for years to come as it enters the collective psyche of future generations of drivers. Demonise the lane hogs! We know it works; just look at our collective attitude towards seat belt use compared with a few decades ago.
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Weel said (again) Jake. Or how about legalising undertaking? That would certainly increase the usage of lanes 1 & 2.
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“Drivers would be billed per journey, with the profits going to the private sector”. Now that’s an unusual policy for the Tories to come up with – using publicly funded assets to make money for their rich friends.
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A better solution would be that if you are insured it covers the tax to use normal roads thus cutting the cost for rural users. Then have just one tax to travel on motorways that all vehichles icluding the millions of overseas trucks and cars must pay to use the motorway system. This system has been proven in Switzerland. They just carry out on the spot fines for no compliance including speeding.
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Make the most of it now whilst you can. As I have been trying to point this out to the many for years. When every car comes fitted with a GPS system, or as I like to put it (Big Brother in the dashboard) all HMRC have to do is tap into the database and bill you £0:01per mile.
With an average of 10,000 miles per year and 30 million cars registered on british roads that works out as 3 billion for the treasury without them trying.
I do wish people would understand that in their race to have the next little black box they are in fact unwittingly buying into Huxley,s 1984.
As for jumping the queue that is nothing new if you have the money. Education and health care are prime examples but you have to look at the bigger picture. You’re clearing the decks for those that who are not in such a hurry.
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Last Time I read it 1984 was written by George Orwell not Aldous Huxley, Huxley wrote Brave New World.
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Huxley’s 1984?
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Humble apologies. Note to self. Proof read.
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It will soon be like the old soviet republic with ZIL only lanes( the cars used by high ranking politicians) and us plebs sitting in traffic jams even though we pay an extortionate amount of tax as motorists, which they do not.
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Could be a lot closer than you think Jeffrey. I read a report somewhere stating Olympic VIPs will be getting the use of special lanes next year, so they’re transported quickly through the streets of London.
If that’s true, then might we now be looking at the thin end of the wedge?
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will never be able to compete with a free at the point of use road, look at the M6 toll,
this only works with bridges and tunnels and short cut routes which genuinely save time, this is a good idea in those cases and in principle its a good idea to pay as you go not through general taxation but this wont work if all the surrounding roads are free
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No way will I ever use toll roads.
(And wasn’t it George Orwell’s 1984?)
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Above post.
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