Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves. - William Pitt
The government's road pricing proposals would mean every driver having to purchase a tracking device for his car and pay a monthly bill to use it. The tracking devices will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non-working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.
On top of this massive increase in tax, we will be tracked. Somebody will know where we are at all times. They will also know how fast we have been going, so even if we accidentally creep over a speed limit we can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with our monthly bill.
As is usual with most unpopular government proposals these days, the road pricing proposal is accompanied by tales of doom and gloom if we don't do what the government says. We are told that our cities and motorways will "grind to a standstill" unless we pay lots more stealth tax. This is complete rubbish, of course, because if any road grinds to a standstill people and businesses will simply change their route, journey time, or even relocate. Thus the road will rapidly cease to be at a standstill.
The government, clearly trying to hitch a lift on the tin god of political correctness, also claim that road pricing is "green". In fact it is anything but green. Road pricing is likely to persuade people to find an alternative (and longer) route on inferior roads, thereby increasing fuel consumption.
Here are observations from one or two well-known commentators on driving and road planning:
Threats of "gridlock" are false. There is no long term gridlock anywhere in the world and there never will be. People will avoid travel long before they sit in gridlock. In this way congestion self-limits traffic long before gridlock. - Paul Smith, SafeSpeed
It seems to me that we already have a perfectly fair system of road pricing which is fuel tax. - Jeremy Clarkson
Our roads are vital economic arteries: the prosperity of a modern nation depends on the velocity of exchange. To be anti-car is therefore, in varying degrees, to be anti-countryside, anti-children, anti-women and anti-business. - Daily Telegraph editorial December 2006
The last time Britain had widespread road pricing, with the turnpikes of the 18th and 19th Centuries, the experiment ended in tears, with allegations of a crippling tax burden, self-serving, unaccountable bureaucracies and fears that free trade was being stifled. - Dr James Taylor, Lancaster University.
I don't know about you, but I'm not a spy. Neither am I having an affair or hiding a drug habit. In fact, I can't think of a single thing I do that is of interest to anyone else or how information about it might be useful. But I am desperately uncomfortable with the idea of my journeys being tracked and analysed by a faceless agency. - Richard Hammond
Tony Bliar has previously stated that "Doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing means that in 10 years, congestion will be 25 per cent worse."
He dreamt this 25% figure up, frankly, but it's perfectly true that doing nothing is not an option. So why has Bliar's government …
• cancelled bypass schemes, thus forcing traffic through towns?
• cancelled major road upgrades like the A40 into London even after land and property has been purchased and demolished?
• installed bus lanes thus halving the capacity of dual carriageways and doubling the length of traffic jams?
• closed side roads, thus preventing traffic dispersion?
• removed parking spaces, forcing people to drive round and round looking for one?
• splashed red, green, and white paint everywhere, narrowing roads and reducing their capacity?
• increased parking charges everywhere, including car parks associated with public transport facilities?
• closed subways and replaced them with surface crossings, increasing hazards for pedestrians and obstructing traffic?
• massively increased the proliferation of traffic lights in urban areas and on roundabouts, leading to stop-start motoring and traffic being halted when there is nobody to give way to?
And if doing nothing is not an option, what is the "something" that Bliar should be doing? He should …
• complete the motorway and bypass network that was planned 40 years ago,
• stop building inadequate roads such as the A14, and the A42 between Tamworth and Nottingham, both of which should clearly have been built as 3 lane motorways in the first place,
• improve existing roads, for example by completing the flyovers and underpasses for which space was left when roads were constructed,
• remove all bus lanes on dual carriageways,
• force councils to re-open side roads that have been closed off at one end, or have had access restricted in some other way,
• provide more parking spaces,
• return to the policy of separating pedestrians/cyclists from heavy traffic where possible by construction of proper facilities for both groups, rather than using vulnerable road users to justify the obstruction of motorised traffic,
• provide free parking at all park-and-ride schemes for bus users, and at all rail and tube stations,
• provide better facilities for bicycles on public transport including really secure bike-parks (nobody's going to cycle to the station if they know their bike'll be stolen),
• use reductions in stamp duty on house-purchase to encourage people to live closer to their work,
• legislate to encourage companies to increase the number of their employees who work from home,
• undertake large-scale studies into our transport needs and habits in order to provide us with the infrastructure and services we want, instead of penalising ordinary people for leading ordinary lives.
And we've saved the biggest and most cogent argument till last. It was revealed this week that in 2004 some 30,000 motorists lost their licences as a result of speed camera fines. The figure is expected to rise when the next lot of statistics is released. Meanwhile almost a million drivers are just one conviction away from being banned.
The vast majority of these criminals are in this position because of the growing number of speed cameras which the government has recently decided no longer have to placed at accident sites, but can be used for purely money-making purposes. But speed cameras can only catch drivers who have a current valid driving licence and have registered their cars with the DVLA and paid their road tax. An AA spokesman recently said "We're getting better at catching law-abiding drivers, and less so at watching the non-law-abiding ones".
Last year there were over two million drivers who didn't tax their cars, or insure them. Many of them don't have licences either. These people are totally immune to the law - they can speed or drive dangerously while drinking or taking drugs - because the law has not the slightest idea who they are.
Does Tony Bliar suppose for one moment that these two million motorists - who by their nature are the ones who will have the most accidents, commit the most offences and drive the most polluting cars - will abide by any system of road-pricing, especially one that depends on a black box in the car that can be disconnected? Dream on, Tony! What a w*nker!
There is a petition online, and The GOS urges all his readers to sign it. It's already one of the busiest petitions ever.
The GOS says: Lots of the material on this page comes from the Association of British Drivers - our thanks to them.
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