£1. 34 PER MILE ARE THEY KIDDING

[jtaunton]

Given that we are going to be expected to pay £100 or so for a credit card with our name and address on, how much is some sort of transmitting GPS interrogator going to cost ?

Obviously our track record in developing other leading government IT programmes on time and to budget also bodes well....

 

[big-all]

Unless of course they were going to scrap duty on fuel as well, but I won't hold my breath....

yes they are going to abbolish fuel duty as well[dont know about vat though doubt it]

other things to keep in mind this wont reward or penalise people with fuel efficiant or gas guzzlers

 

[jtaunton]

Maybe its all a big red herring, just to make everyone come round to the idea that tax on petrol is both pay-as-you-go, and takes fuel efficiency into account anyway. And then, when everyone is scared at having to pay an extra £500 or so with this GPS system, an extra £200 or so a year on our fuel duty bills will seem like a relief......

 

[pipme]

Darling's idea will be kicked into touch by the treasury... unless their revenues can increase ...
We, are in for the screwing of several lifetimes !!
They have already hit us with large step changes in costs elsewhere, now they believe anything is possible.

All the costs of 'narrowing streets' blocking towns and cities to dissuade drivers, soon they'll either be using our dosh to remove all that cr ap or put even more in place to create congested roads thence big taxes.

Just imagine the hassle over incorrect billing etc ... We know how people are treated over disputed congestion and parking charges, wait til it is hundreds of ££'s .. I cannot see any of their systems being fair and equitable .. robbers !!

 

[Big_Spark]

What about Civil Rights..if the Gestapo are tracking your every movement, where are your civil rights??

I'll say this hear and now, the moment this systyem is introduced, I burn my passport and leave these shores for ever.

Alastair "Not anyones" Darling can shove his scheme up his rear passage.

I am doing a Job in London, that requires a round trip of 111.8 miles per day, however as the roads I use are a combination of B, A and M roads, using the published figures, this round trip would daily cost me £63 plus the cost of fuel, so before I have earnt a penny I have to give half to the Government almost..then there is income tax

I have only two statements for the Government if they seriously consider this..

Emmigration, or Terrorism, their choice.

 

[andy]

I have only two statements for the Government if they seriously consider this..

Emmigration, or Terrorism, their choice.

its **** the way the government treat you. all their interested in is money. not whats best for the country.

they go on about road congestion and what do they do? make roads narrower. add speed ramps. and them speed ramp things where one side has o give way to another. add loads of small islands on the middle of roads. this is susposed to improve traffic?

 

[Big_Spark]

You know the real reason why they are introducing this..So they can Pay the Effing Africans more money so they don't starve so they can then come here to recieve Dole Money, other benefits from us, and then take Jobs...

I'm really not that cynical of course

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Stop complaining... bunch of mardy ar***se spoilt brats....It`s better than living in Russia....

Least the Russians knew they lived in a police state.

 

[AdamW]

I burn my passport and leave these shores for ever.

You might want to do it in the opposite order Anyway, they'll just track you by the transponder that MI5 stick under your skin at birth.

It is a blatant revenue generator. As it is, some tiny percentage of fuel duty and road tax actually goes on the roads. I suspect that road spending will not increase when they get a bit more revenue.

We need more road and less hippies. Would it really be that much of a bad thing to make the M25 6-8 lanes each way, the M1 4 lanes each way and so forth? It would be expensive, granted. Bridges and services would get in the way. But perhaps they could divert money from wasteful causes and actually spend some road duty on the roads? And think of all the unemployed peole who could be put to work as labourers. We're already paying them to do nothing, why not actually benefit from paying them?

In the meantime, the government can spend a bit of money on research to come up with clean, renewable energy-powered personal transport. Let's face it, even if BP has the answer already, they're not going to share it until the oil runs out.

More roads, clean transport. That's what this country needs.

 

[Big_Spark]

Adam, I don't think more roads are the answer, I think we all need to rethink how we use the roads we have. The quality of the surfaces need to be addressed for starters, but also we need to see a marked imrovement in subsidised public transport.

The Government need to invest heavily in Working from Home for sections of society that are able to benefit and where it is practical and also to encourage tax breaks for companies to invest in the technology to achieve this too.

Lastly, the Government need to invest in technology that will allow vehicles to be driven by computer on Motorways and A roads automatically so that more vehicles can fit onto the carriageway but still improve safety. This does exist and has been trialed in the US.

Lastly, we need far more Police Patrol cars on the major roads, forcing drivers to act courteously, drive intelligently and not hog lanes when there is room in others.

Building Roads is not the answer, all of us that use the roads have a responsibility to use them effectively, and it is in our financial interests to do so, but what the Government propose is criminal.

 

[AdamW]

Ah, I mean more road rather than roads. I think the routes we have now are pretty good. It's just the capacity. For instance, the M25. As a home counties man yourself, you must get caught on it quite regularly. I do, I treat it with a great pinch of inevitability. If I'm driving on the M25 and the traffic slows to a stop, I don't even care. It always happens.

At 11am on a Sunday morning, the M25 is not being used for people who could be working from home. It is people going to visit family and friends. Now, every Christmas for the last 5 years we have had a video-conference between the half of the family in England and the half in Canada. It's good, but it doesn't replace direct contact. To keep with friends and family you need to see them in person

On the M25, despite large swathes of 4-lane and even in some places 5-lane, you still end up stationery or slowed to a crawl. OK, that would be reduced if people drove sensibly instead of tailgating and flashing brakelights (why do people join near Heathrow and make a bee-line for the outside lane, unaware that this is usually the slowest lane on the M25? ). I agree with you that the resource we have would be better used with more sensible or even automatic driving. But I'm not sure this would entirely solve the problem.

I'm sure a contentious point amongst many here would be that of long commutes. We know Jim goes 111.8 miles a day, IIRC Pip goes some 50 miles each way, I have colleagues who live 150 miles from the office, have weekday digs and go home every weekend. I even have a mate who lives in Middlesborough and works in Hitchin (although he is a site engineer so moves around). That's a lot of miles! If everyone lived near their job then we could save a lot of fuel and road miles. But, I can't picture that happening any time soon. In 10-20 years I'll be the one with the weekend home and the weekday digs, I just hope I'll be driving a glorified milk-float on clear roads when it happens

 

[B.O.B DOLE]

Well Well after all of your moaning about petrol rises now they are going to zap us with the satalite dish in to are cars.

SKY TV has been doing it for years we pay for tv licence for cr ap all day
there,s no ending to it we need to role some heads......

 

[kendor]

What about Civil Rights..if the Gestapo are tracking your every movement, where are your civil rights??

Not really they are tracking your cars movement.

 

[Damocles]

Someone just pointed out another darling side to this scheme. The government will be able to completely dismantle all those speed cameras. They know which roads you are driving along and what times you are driving. Thats so they can bill you correctly. But from that you can simply calculate how fast you are travelling. So travel 1 mile in 30 seconds? Oops! Speeding ticket in the post.

 

[doitall]

More work takes me all over the country at an average of 20-30000 mile a year.