Plans to price the poor off the roads
As the anti-roads pricing petition turns one million, The Times reports Transport Minister Alexander saying that he knows best and the public will be ignored.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "Mr Alexander's arrogance is only matched by his ignorance. The congestion and road pricing projections on which he purports to rely are laughably incomplete and hopelessly ill-conceived."
"In particular, they ignore the fact that congestion costs time and time is money. They tell us that 'congestion costs business £20 billion pounds a year'- if that's not a congestion charge - I don't know what is. Businesses manage scare resources and if they can cut costs they do. And they have. Many have already moved for better road connections - an effect that has created business parks, retail parks and the M4 corridor."
"If they set road prices at a level high enough to reduce congestion, even by a tiny bit they will have priced the poor off the roads. It's ironic that a Labour government would back such a proposal."
"Anyway the primary journey choice regulator is travel time. If they reduce congestion by pricing the poor off the roads the rich will find that they have time to travel and rebalance the system restoring congestion levels."
"I find it incredibly difficult to believe that the government believes it's own words on roads pricing, and I am reminded about Blair selling us the war in Iraq long after he'd done a deal to support Bush. Who has done the deal this time? Is the barking mad road pricing plan based on an EU funny handshake?"
Info on tax below:
Democracy in action?
The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.
On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecutionwith your monthly bill.
If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible."
