Every Road a Toll Road

Great Britain is looking at a couple of different proposals for "universal road pricing", making every public road a toll road via GPS and black boxes in vehicles. There are also articles by the main proponent of universal tolls, and an editorial from the paper suggesting higher gas taxes instead.

Comments

For those too lazy to read...

[weave]

Typical, loads of comments before reading the articles...

• U.K. already has the highest "petrol" tax in Europe and dare I say, probably the world.
• The proposal includes dropping the fuel tax by upwards of 12p a liter (that's about U.S. 65 cents a U.S. gallon).
• This is to discourage peak period driving. The duty on non-peak travel would be minimal or even free so during off peak times and rural areas, cost will be less to drive.
• The most expensive part of road building is to build for peak capacity. Those using the roads instead of transit during peak times and hence causing the greatest cost to support are being asked to pay their fair share.
• A better less opinionated piece from BBC News
• My opinion: UK is in a jam because their fuel taxes don't go to support just roads. It is used to pay for tons of social and other programs as well. If their fuel tax, as high as it is, was used to pay for roads, the M25 would be a double stack the entire length for example, and congestion wouldn't be so much of a problem. They are trying to get off on the cheap IMO... The privacy aspects of this are damn scary as well...

Re:What about the poor?

[Teun]

For years the Dutch governement has studied a similar system.
But they could not find an affordable and reliable technology.
So now they propose a charge for distance covered regardless wich road you're on.
Only the time of day will be recorded and influence the charges.
If the Brits pull this off it'll be nice for Dutch car owners like me, as I make at least half my kilometers on foreign roads I'm realy pissed off at having to pay Dutch tax while abroad!

As an info for the Americans reading, in Europe these schemes are generally sold on the "Environmental" ticket as they hope it'll get you out of your car into public transport.
And as the UK has one of the most backward train systems in Europe this is a challenge....