A transport committee has put forward that road pricing should be re-examined to deal with congestion and rail reliability should be monitored. The committee examined the DfT report from 2007 that showed that local authorities were not keen to apply for road pricing schemes (something you should applaud your local borough for).
Now, correct me if I’m wrong but if local councils don’t want them it’s probably because their ‘local people’ don’t want them either and think that being able to drive wherever they like, whenever they like, is one of their civil liberties. This shady committee, whoever they’re comprised of, sound a little bit menacing. It also sounds like the government might well try to force this upon local councils, whatever they do.
The committee, apparently, has grave concerns over the numbers of drivers on the road who lack vehicles with proper registration, tax or insurance. Well, correct me if I’m wrong but looking at congestion isn’t going to alter this – having more police on the road and strong sentences for those who commit these offenses might, however.
I’m personally not sure if there’s an answer to congestion – in fact in some ways it’s an inevitability. Whether we stand for road pricing is another matter. This will undoubted bring with it higher costs (when we pay some of the highest costs in Europe for our cars) and then there’s the security issue. Do you want the government able to track your every move? What if they lose your data? The government wouldn’t do that would they?
I’ll grant you, the usual argument that public transport needs to be improved remains true. Soon, I’m going to be taking public transport to work. This is out of necessity as there are no parking spaces. Will I be annoyed? Well, I won’t have to pay the shocking petrol prices. I bet fares for buses will still go up though as they’ll be using those so-called congested roads and routes…
Leave a Reply