23rd February 2007, 02:28 PM
Road tax has been frozen for smaller engine sizes, but increased for larger engines as one means of trying to get people to buy smaller- engined cars. However small does not always means efficient.
The Government are still putting forward the idea of road pricing as one where there will be winners as well as losers, which suggests that part of the current taxation system will be amended (road tax, fuel duty etc) leading to a reduction in motoring costs that will then be offset by the charges incurred through road pricing.
Road pricing is aimed at reducing congestion rather than overall car usage, and therefore will not have a great effect on emissions, although there could be benefits in the pricing of goods if journey times are reduced. Essentially the argument is that there is sufficient capacity in the current road network if only usage could be more spread-out rather than concentrated into peak times.
Toll roads may ease the burden in some places but can have knock on effects. The M6 toll is great as a car user because the HGVs have been priced off it during the day and consequently carry on clogging up the main M6 through Birmingham. Incidentally this toll is reduced at night and therefore could be seen as 'road pricing', i.e. encouraging goods movement at off-peak times.
In southern Spain toll roads such as the Mediterranean Highway are similarly prohibitively priced for HGVs during the day, so tourists in their hire cars can speed along from the French border to Barcelona and onwards to Benidorm, whilst watching long lines of HGVs crawling along the parallel road network that crosses through the centre of every town and village.
Road pricing will only really make a difference in this country if we start to change our working practices so that there is no 'rush hour' - but perhaps it represents the catalyst that will cause this change to happen. One advantage for the Governmeent is that it would not be dependent on improvements in public transport.
Beamo
The Government are still putting forward the idea of road pricing as one where there will be winners as well as losers, which suggests that part of the current taxation system will be amended (road tax, fuel duty etc) leading to a reduction in motoring costs that will then be offset by the charges incurred through road pricing.
Road pricing is aimed at reducing congestion rather than overall car usage, and therefore will not have a great effect on emissions, although there could be benefits in the pricing of goods if journey times are reduced. Essentially the argument is that there is sufficient capacity in the current road network if only usage could be more spread-out rather than concentrated into peak times.
Toll roads may ease the burden in some places but can have knock on effects. The M6 toll is great as a car user because the HGVs have been priced off it during the day and consequently carry on clogging up the main M6 through Birmingham. Incidentally this toll is reduced at night and therefore could be seen as 'road pricing', i.e. encouraging goods movement at off-peak times.
In southern Spain toll roads such as the Mediterranean Highway are similarly prohibitively priced for HGVs during the day, so tourists in their hire cars can speed along from the French border to Barcelona and onwards to Benidorm, whilst watching long lines of HGVs crawling along the parallel road network that crosses through the centre of every town and village.
Road pricing will only really make a difference in this country if we start to change our working practices so that there is no 'rush hour' - but perhaps it represents the catalyst that will cause this change to happen. One advantage for the Governmeent is that it would not be dependent on improvements in public transport.
Beamo