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.

Our bus drivers round here are bitter horrible old men, i try to avoid the bus i would rather walk a mile to the train station.

just replied edam.

I remember that, Edam! Good scheme. Re P&Rs, I think they can be good but the Powers That Be never seem to come up with the right answers. One was proposed for our town, into Aberdeen but the buses would only go into the town centre. Most people here want to go to work on industrial estates around the edges of town, not the centre! P&R's also don't address the shopping bag problem ie having bulky purchases that you have to lug around town instead of dumping in your car or collecting later. They should have some sort of Left Luggage facilty.

One idea I think would be good is for employers to supply transport for their workers, a bit like the school bus. It would also have the advantage of stopping the long hours culture we have - "Sorry, it's 5.30, got to go catch my bus now!"

Here's a pros and cons article.

Mmm, I was thinking that about the shopping, suedonim.

Of course you could just buy less each trip!

Do NOT like the idea of the government knowing your every move in your own car. And who's going to pay for the boxes? Charging people that much to make once or twice trips a year to see their families is ridiculous - the friggin' trains here are a fortune and almost impossible to get on and off of on your own with a buggy.

But Lakeland Ltd has so many tempting goodies Janh!

I never use public transport. It's just too dangerous with 2 young children. You're completely dependent on the kindness of strangers to get you up and down the stairs and on and off trains. Public transport is designed for able-bodied, unencumbered persons who are not carrying anything heavy. For anyone else, it is currently a nightmare. And it is extremely expensive.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I don't think this is about congestion at all. Most of Britain's roads aren't congested for most of the time. This is about monitoring everyone. The government will know exactly where our cars go all the time, which might come in handy for them.

If they want to stop congestion, the answer to is decent, affordable public transport which doesn't treat the infirm, disabled and parents as if they're pariahs, and staggered working hours. There is simply no need for 20 million people to start work all at the same time.

ambrosia, don't worry, BMI are now flying to Cornwall! I kid you not!

NO NO NO WAY

I dont mind the tax being put on the petrol, but totally disagree to be charged per mile. Firstly, I live in a small village with 1 bus a day, there is no way that I could get DD's to nursery etc or to do a weeks load of shopping using public transport. Secondly, we also live quite a way from relatives, we use motorways to get to them and it would cost a fortune. If public transport was good enough perhaps it would be an option but quite frankly it isnt. DH pays a horrendous amount of money to get the train into London and to pay for parking at our local station.

At least if they taxed petrol more you have an option of running a more fuel efficient (sp) car and save money. But we pay a horrendous amount in tax on petrol at the moment anyway.

Typical that they wait until they get into power again and then announce this......

We have also just come back from holiday South Devon, it wasnt a particular cheap holiday compared to going abroad but if they introduce this it will work out more expensive, that will certainly put me off going on holiday in this country.

And surely this will add costs to everything, haulage companies are bound to pass the increase in charges on and at the end of the day that will hit us.

I think if our public transport system was good enough, it would make it a slightly easier pill to swallow but I believe that for the vast majority of people the public transport system is just not up to scratch.

Tempted to agree with you Caligula. We are already the most spied-upon people in the world - more CCTV etc. than any other nation.

I've been to Kent today on the train.

It took three hours (from west London) and cost me £25.80. Was a relatively hassle-free journey both ways, involving two tubes and one mainline train.

I was on my own (well, albeit with a pregnant tummy!). I wouldn't attempt it with 14mo DS and pregnant because I'm not mental.

I have been to Oxford by coach with DS (when he was about 10mo). The driver helped with the buggy and made sure we were sitting down before moving off, something that the bus drivers round here don't do.

And DS nearly got squashed in the doors on the tube (he was in his buggy, which I was half off with - fortunately the doors shut on my shoulders) - I emailed them and they said that the driver mustn't have seen me () but that he was probably just adhering to the 10-second stop to go policy they have during rush hour

I think that road pricing is a bad idea. Where will the money go anyway? On improving public transport? Don't make me laugh. On making roads better - again, my sides are splitting.

If they showed willing and told us how they are actually going to make public transport more accessible (lifts at stations, helpful bus drivers, tube drivers that don't try to cut you in half with the doors, for instance), then I might believe they were serious. But this just seems like they want to take more money from people - because while there will be some people who can use their cars less, of course there are, there are an awful lot of people who live in places that mean their place of work is simply not accessible by public transport.

If this charge came in we would overnight go from being a comfortably off 1 and a half income tax paying family into one living off benefits.

Dh is a teacher. He has to travel 40 miles down the M6 in rush hour to get to work but as he isn't based at just one school he needs his car to travel from school to school during the day. He often has to visit 3 or 4 different schools in a day. His job is specialised, his bosses are currently trying to recruit someone else in the same position and have had no applicants. Not only would it cost dh more to get to work than he actually earns but the children would lose out.

I work for a heating company that is reliant on sending men in vans with tools and equipment all over the place. We have to and the cheapest price wins tender for contracts. If it is not cost effective for the men to do their jobs then the company will downsize or even fail totally and the office staff (me) will also have to go.

And no doubt MP's will be exempt from charges on account of the fact they're soooo essential....

I don't see it as a tax-raising exercise - more a way of putting off doing anything now whilst paying lipservice to the problems we face. Why on earth unveil plans for reducing congestion in 15 years time (or is it 2015?) when by that time, if predictions are correct, gridloack will already have occurred in some areas?

I'm partly for a system which makes people think twice about using their car when an alternative is available. The problem is, it is the short, local journeys which people need to be encouraged not to be making by car.

If I knew it was going to cost me X amount each time I got in the car to drive 1 mile into the town centre, then I'd more likely get on my bike, walk, use a bus (if the service were cheaper and frequent) or at least condense my errands into one journey.

The government have much to do to turn people off their cars and turn them onto alternatives like cycling or buses. Perhaps they ought to unveil plans to build more cycle lanes (continual ones that don't suddenly end!), more places to lock a bike and bus lanes, at the same time as unveiling plans to turn people off driving their cars.

More companies need to be encouraged (by incentives?) to adopt flexible working patterns. When I had the option of flexible hours, I always chose to drive at the quietest time I could find. Everyone would.

Part of me thinks that such a policy might start to make people look for work closer to their homes or homes closer to their work places. I know this isn't feasible for everyone, initially, but it might start to turn around the long-commute culture. On the otherhand, I think the government have done nothing to discourage people having to drive miles from their local community to access amenities of work or leisure by allowing the building of out of town business parks and shopping centres.

It concerns me that this policy is not an environmental policy. There will be no incentives for people to drive smaller, greener cars if fuel duty and tax are done away with. If it is expensive to cross the country via the motorways during daytime hours, more business men/women are going to use domestic flights and families who typically holiday in Cornwall or Scotland may be tempted to fly off abroad if the cost is then comparable or cheaper.

so theres going to be a black box in every car - and how is this going to be enforced?

if its when you buy one, there will be one in, then i can tell you now - i wont be the only one driving around in some clapped out metro i got for £100. which would be totally environmentally unfiendly.

i dont mind one bit putting tolls ont he motorways - as long as its not a fcking piss take. £1.34 a mile is.

i agree about the shorter journeys.

this is an exercise in extortion. and i hope it kills the labour party.

they have tolls in france - now all the french ums can tell me whether they think its expensive - but i didn't think for the amount of miles we travelled that it was particularly.

i am also asuming that the frnech don't pay fkcing road tax?

i think very soon i will have my wages paid direct to the fcking govt. bstards

custy! althou I do agree with the wages thingy! (dh was shocked yesterday when I told him that 32 % of his wages go to the government - bless him he didn't know!)

Apparently, if the govt go for the satellite option instead of the black box, all you'll need to do to evade clocking up the miles is to wrap a bit of silver foil round the ariel!

This scheme has been announced without being properly thought through. As I understand it, you pay more if the road is crowded. How do you know when setting off, that everyone else has also decided to set off at 2am to beat the charge & you are still stuck in a queue?!

I live in Ashford & from here, the only way to get anywhere else in the country is to use the M20. It used to be completely empty, then the Channel Tunnel happened & now it is busy 24/7. Presumably the £1.34 per mile will apply 24 hours?

DH drove to Devon last week. He set off at 9am and got back at 9pm. He only had to slow down once in the whole journey, and that was for roadworks. Congestion? This is an exercise in money-grabbing.

good post tallulah. it got me thinking - the only time i get held up on the motorway is becuae someone inconveniently offed themselves during my journey or there are road works - there have been road works on the M42 for over 3 years............3years. M6 road works........M25 heathrow airport......road works.

other than that it takes me half an hour to get our of the town where i live becuase of congestion.

i think this......all kids who go to school locally should have to walk or ride a bike - especially in senior school - there is no reason in ordinary circumstance where you need to go in your 4x4 just to pick up your kid from senior school. - ofcourse there could be extenuating circumstances and exeptions. same school children who live locally could get the bus for free.

also when i rule the world ...tomorrow there will be no lorries in the second lane of the motoorway and no old people in 2lt engine cars

and if the irony is that you have to pick up your child in a car because of road safety fears everyone will be given a tandem with a baby carrier on the back

Sorry if I am repeating anyone here but don't we already get charged per mile. With the tax on fuel the more you travel, the more you use, the more you pay. Has no one thought of that?

I think this is yet another stupid idea. I live in a small town with terrible public transport, in fact the public transport is a bit of a joke and hardly reliable. If Labour had done what they said they would 8 years ago and sorted the public transport then maybe this would have been a good idea.

Yet again the less well off will be punished as much needed journeys are deemed too expensive. The fact that they won't charge more for larger cars proves this.