planned vehicle tracking &road pricing policy

[Dee Sa]

Please go onto this site http://petitions.PM.gov.uk/traveltax/ and register your vote with Downing St against this proposed plan. pls ask your friends to do. many tks Dee

[rja211077]

why should i? i think a pay as you use system can only be fairer than a flat (or near flat) rate.

the petition creator states that it is 'unfair on those who live apart from families' - conveniently leaving out the fact that the current system must, therefore, be unfair on those who live near their families!

and why should poor people be any worse off than they are currently? one has to assume that poor people travel less, so surely they'll be better off

the petition needs a much, MUCH stronger argument to convince me to sign it.

and this is not a lobbying forum, it's a Q&A forum.

[maxi2]

The tracking of vehicle movements 24 hours a day is the tip of the Big Brother iceberg. Sign up today.

[rja211077]

i didn't want to get into the privacy debate. that wasn't even mentioned specifically as a downside in the petition (though the use of the word sinister did imply it).

but since, you've brought it up, i believe that, like CCTV , the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. if you've nothing to hide, why should anybody be interested in where your car is (apart from the legitimate purpose of calculating your tax)?

[Compostella]

I'm signing

Purely for the reason that when the government dresses something up as being fairer, I usually end up paying more.

[jake-the-peg]

I don't think you'll end up paying more or less. If they don't do this it'll just get whopped on petrol.

But I do think the privacy argument is strong.

You may think you have nothing to hide - ever broken the speed limit? This technology would allow them to automatically send you a ticket the moment you go over the speed limit.

You think traffic cameras are a pain - wait till you've a transponder in your car relaying your travel back for analysis!

[Electrochem]

The sad fact is that there are too many cars on the road for the present road network. Our motorways are overcrowded and cities are grinding to a halt. The unfortuante thing is that public transport has been neglected for too long and is very expensive. Children no longer walk to school if it's more than a few hundred yards away (my brother walked 5 miles a day to school and back, myself 3 miles).

My preference would be that a small surcharge was placed on fuel. This would mean that you pay more if you use the roads more. It would mean that everyone would have to pay to use the roads and that no one could get away without paying road tax. It would also mean that the people who own gas guzzlers would pay more.

[Impret-Sir]

Sign or dont sign, does anyone really believe that this government will take any notice of what we, the public, actually think about anything? we get the policies they think we should, and nothing else.

[boro1986]

One for rja what about the folk my self included who have to do 80 mile round trips to work

[jake-the-peg]

Playing Devil's advocate for a moment Boro

Typical suggestions would be:

Move closer
Car share
Use public transport if it's there
by a hybrid car (they'll doubtlessly be exempted)

If the charges are time related - see if you can get your company to let you come in earlier.

I guess people will use some variation of all of these

[steve2010]

do you all really believe this goverment will be in power to bring this in,i doubt it

[maxi2]

If rja211077 isn't happy about this being a lobby issue why does he/she take the trouble to respond? Clearly, plenty of others have some valid and positive viewpoints on this important issue which, in itself, raises plenty of questions.

The longer we have to endure this pathetic moneygrabbing excuse of a government the more we can expect issues such as this to be raised with associated (but probably futile) petitions.

If you don't like a question on here then move on - don't bitch about it.

[kwicky]

I see there are over 1/2 million protestors about this unfair tax. The few officials that do believe in it say the question is so badly written anyone would sign up to it. But we all know the question dont we, 'tax or no tax'

[boro1986]

Jake fair points to respond
1. as a soldier i move regular so the home i own is the one i use i cannot buy a new house every few years
2. We do a car share me and a friend who lives near me
3. public transport would include a train and a bus and the busses do not run tis early
4. I am for a hybird cars but very expensive at the moment
5. I would love to start earlier and finish earlier but they tell me when i work

[Toureman]

It's just another TAX, as the airline charges are, if our government wants to stop us doing something they just slap a tax on it to make it more expensive.

they do not tackle the problem properly.

Sign up now.

[eagol]

So, if you think the government should go ahead with this scheme - here's an easy answer. Sign the "Don't Scrap the Tracking Scheme" petition... here
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TRACK-CARS/