Road Pricing - Good or Bad?

[suedonim]

Seeing as we're having a car-related day on MN (pavement parking, insurance etc) I wondered what Mumsnetters thought about the plans for Road Pricing.

I think there is going to have to be a lot more money spent on the public transport system before a scheme like this will work tbh. Outside of the major cities the buses are unreliable and expensive. It costs me £1.40 for a 10-minute bus ride into town, and with no guarantee that I will even get a seat. The so-called 'service' is so unreliable that I'm actually considering taking my driving test so that we can use a car instead.

munz, the road charges would only be that much on motorways in the rush hour, and the suggestion is that the price of fuel would come down, so it wouldn't cpst anything like that. Don't panic.

And the "poor commuters" don't all have to drive, you know. As NQC said, if all those people in cars on their own took turns with one other person it would halve the number of cars on the road.

But, Janh, they're not going to adjust for gas-guzzlers, according to A Darling.

Public transport is no alternative for us - we don't have any, except for three buses on a Thursday between 9.50 and 11.20am which only go to our small town, not to where most people work. (And no, I've no idea who thought up that bizarre little scheme!)

Actually, I think doing nothing about congestion is a valid option. If it ever gets as bad as they say (and gridlock has been predicted for years but still hasn't happened yet!) and people don't like the hold-ups, they'll find alternatives. For now, the promotion of car-share and lane schemes could be useful.

We could also use our roads more efficiently. In Jakarta, whose traffic problems make the M25 look like a picnic in the park, the authorities have some novel ideas. The one which impressed us most was that of having one-way systems in which the direction of flow was reversed at certain times of day, or having part-time one-way roads, according to the rush hour. It sounds complicated but was simple and cheap to implement, with signs showing the times of travel in which direction.

so what it is then if I don't want to travel during the rush hour time/ peak times (i'm assuming something like 6am to 8pm) then I won't be charged - excellent as I don't mind working around rush hour althou I personally would rather not be travelling on the motorways when it's dark etc in winter times.

the £80 is what is it to fill the tank now, which is already a huge amount (althou granted we do have a 50l tank)

we have to travel on the motor ways if we want to get there in a reasonable time frame (m4 for my parents and mainly M1 or M5/M6 for DH's).

I don't think ppl would mind using public services so much if there was a better service, for example in our area busses run every hour and trains every two hours (althou they're on a circuit) iycwim so one goes your way every two hours.

Oh, well, then they should, suedonim! Shall we all write to our MPs?

Is it Singapore where they drive alternate days depending on their registration number? Rich people just get 2 cars with different reg's but it narrows the options for everybody else!

The poor commuters do have to drive, you know! It assumes eveyone lives near someone who they work beside. Otherwise you're going to have an awful lot of extra journeys made by people going to pick up their colleagues so they can share lifts.
It also assumes that everyone lives realtively close to their work. Not so.
If it is meant to encourage more public tranpsort, they'd better think of a serious alternative to diesel running buses and trains - a massive cause of pollution.
But this is nothing more than a tax raising exercise.

Oh and I've forgotten the black box thingy - the govt could keep track of where we all are at any given time. Paranoid? Moi?

How about lots more park and rides?

My DH is a contractor and can be working all over the place. At the moment he has an hours drive to work. The bus and train aren't an option and nor is car sharing, as no one at his work lives by us. So thats our tough luck?

I think they should sort out better more reliable alternative transport before giving people no option then pay this new system.

Also, how much will it cost to have all these black boxes at every road? How much will the admin cost? Will you get a daily, weekly or monthly bill? What happens if you don't pay? etc, etc. Sounds an absolute nightmare.

But, on the other hand if they stop the road tax, you save a hundred and odd quid a year, so that could go towards it and it also stops those people who haven't paid any car tax from the privilage of not doing so, unless they don't drive their car on mainish roads.

yes I like park and rides in town centre areas they're an excellent idea saves the hassel of parking. althou again how would u get to the park and ride spots if u don't live int he centres for example our nearest P&R is 60 miles away so we'd have to drive on the M4 to get there.

What really gets me is that there is a proven, workable method of reducing congestion that relied entirely on carrot, not stick. But no-one in transport policy seems to remember it!

It happened in South Yorkshire in the 80s and inspired Ken Livingstone's Fares Fair policy in London. S Yorkshire's policy of making public transport dirt cheap, frequent and reliable cut traffic congestion hugely and reduced the number of accidents. It cost ratepayers about £20 a year but saved many times this in reducing traffic accidents, deaths, injuries and traffic jams. Independent research compared S Yorks to W Yorks, which is identical geographically and demographically, and confirmed these huge benefits.

Sheffield is the UK's sixth biggest city but had almost no congestion - certainly nothing like it is now. I travelled 30 miles a day to and from school for the princely sum of 5p each way IIRC. Transport was so cheap people only used their cars when they really needed them. I lived in a very small town yet we had buses in every direction at least once an hour.

Compared to today's traffic nightmare it was nirvana. Sadly abolished by Maggie when she threw a fit of pique and got rid of those irritating Labour metropolitan borough councils, including the GLC. So why does no-one in power ever try to build on the success of S Yorks? We could solve these problems without making everyone's lives worse so why isn't it happening?

And they cut the duty on fuel? Isn't that part of the deal?

For people who have low mileage, for people who can drive outside of rush hours, for people who live in rural areas, motoring would actually get cheaper. The only people "hammered" by this will be the ones who routinely clog up the western end of the M25 and the M1 & M4 every Friday night (without fail).

is that the people's republic of south yorkshire, edam ?

The People's Republic of South Yorkshire re-asserts itself....

Indeed it was. And the transport part of it was excellent. Downer was we had David Blunkett running Sheffield, but hey, at least we passed him on to a grateful nation .

too generous!

IIRC there was only one Tory MP in the whole of S Yorks (in the posh bit of Sheffield), known locally by a very unflattering nickname that I couldn't possibly share because it's probably actionable...

ps does sound like an excellent idea, just the PRSY phrase always makes me giggle. must be because i'm from NORTH yorks.

oooh, e-mail it to me

public transports all very well but when the bast**d bus driver sits there and watches you struggle with a screaming baby in one are and a changing bag and a push chair in another whilst trying to get your money out its a different matter

What about all those white vans and the like? Can't see any of those drivers going on the bus

HC, did you get my email?

Getting all nostalgic for PR of S Yorks now... beautiful scenery, lovely houses, great sense of humour and gorgeous accents as well as fab transport. Wonder if it's still as good? My family moved away so don't really know, except that traffic jams in Sheffield are as bad as they are everywhere else.

Ah well, in those days we had helpful bus drivers. God, I sound about 90! But they really were. Used to help little old ladies off the bus and all that.

Furball, my fear is that White Van Men will take to driving at high speeds down little roads just to avoid congestion charges, could lead to some of manic driving in new rat runs.