CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"Future road pricing 'inevitable' - RAC Foundation"
(10 posts)-
Posted 15 years ago #
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pretty soon there will be nobody on the roads except buses and bikes (trams will never make it, I'm predicting this now)
Posted 15 years ago # -
Note date thread started…
(My bold)
“
It said that, in order to stop debt rising, the Treasury may need to consider a range of potentially unpopular revenue-raising measures including widening the scope of VAT, road pricing, scrapping the triple lock on the state pension and wider user charges for public services.
“
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/21/imf-tells-uk-cut-taxes-jeremy-hunt
BUT
‘War on motorists’
BUT
‘Lab may be running UK soon’
AND????????
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
“They worked out that the drop in driving costs would lead Brits to drive an extra 50 billion miles a year. The obvious answer is to find another tax so electric motorists keep paying their share. But electric vehicles don’t use special electricity that you can tax. And a purchase or a registration tax won’t restrain gridlock. So you need some kind of per-mile cost. And that leads you back to road pricing.
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
I just don't get that British people think it's fine to have to pay for a loaf of bread, which prices some people out of the market, but roads should be free at the point of use?
Or put another way, why wouldn't you pay a modest fee to have uncongested roads, after already blowing £30k+ on a depreciating liability and instrument of debt?
Money determines who really needs a limited resource. (I don't make the rules, that's just the way it is, sorry)
Posted 1 year ago # -
"DELAIDs", the new name for SUVs:
DEpreciating Liability And Instrument of Debt
Posted 1 year ago # -
On a similar note I got a bit of a shock after taking a test drive of the new Octavia while my car was in being serviced. The salesman knew I wasn't planning on trading in as my current car is only 2 years old but we decided to indulge each other and he obliged and crunched the numbers. The monthly costs came out at almost £500/month for a car with the same engine/trim level etc that I'm currently paying less than £300/month for! Almost £36K for a fairly nice, if ordinary Skoda.
Absolute madness and possibly a sign that the days of PCP-financed white Range Rovers on every driveway are going to be a thing of the past sooner rather than later... DELAID reaction maybe? :-)In the meantime I'll be sticking with the mid-life crisis Leon FR for my 4000 miles a year...
Posted 1 year ago # -
Seems like a good idea from New Zealand*:
Transport Minister Chris Bishop has announced that all vehicles - whether they’re petrol, diesel, electric or hybrid - will eventually be paying for roads based on distance and weight through electronic road user charges
this revenue goes towards the National Land Transport Fund which funds the building of new roads and maintains the country’s current ones
This doesn't seem so good, perhaps divert most of the fund to public transport and active travel instead...
*A heavily car-dependent nation
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
@neddie - yes this will be the only way to counter the 'Jevon's Paradox' of too much cheap electric motoring with vehicles that are too large.
Online comments on the report cited on the cargo bike thread suggest that the freedom to use an EV more often than a regular car has no downsides and everyone will benefit. But of course road surfaces have a finite life and a vehicle of twice the weight should pay more for it. Comparing the increased 'convenience' of an EV to using an e-bike more is one of the weirder attempts to dilute the debate on private versus public transport that I've heard.
The fact is that over consumption is a threat to our health and the planet's.
Next generation topics revolve around the NHS in England prescribing weight loss drugs for people. It's time downsized vehicles were encouraged along with eating less and walking and cycling more.Posted 3 weeks ago # -
@neddie Other Places seem to have gotten all the politicians that are *actual* realists, rather than "realists"(ie, people who insist the status quo is some kind of irreducible, unchallengeable cosmic force that can merely be endured, never altered).
Just imagining a world in which road user pricing and Japan's "want to buy a car? prove you have a garage for it or bog off" policy for urban areas were everywhere. Probably wouldn't even need much cycling infrastructure there would be so few big motors stonking about the place.
Posted 3 weeks ago #
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