Posted on 08/07/2006 6:41:01 PM PDT by blam
Move to speed up pay-as-you-drive
By David Millward, Transport Correspondent
(Filed: 07/08/2006)
The country's first pay-as-you-drive road pricing scheme could be in operation within four years after the Transport Secretary urged Cabinet colleagues to find room for a Bill in the next parliamentary session.
Douglas Alexander's pitch for a legislative slot is the strongest signal yet that a major overhaul of the way in which motorists are taxed will become a reality.
Without the necessary powers, the 2010 deadline for a pilot study set by Alistair Darling, Mr Alexander's predecessor, could slip.
The Department for Transport has been looking for a region to act as a test bed for road pricing. It wants a number of councils to combine to operate a pilot study.
It is unclear where the trials will take place or what technology will be used. Early contenders include the West Midlands, Tyneside and Greater Manchester. Whitehall has offered companies £10 million to develop the necessary technology.
At present there are two options. The first relies on a small radio transmitter fixed to the windscreen which is read from roadside gantries.
A bill would then be sent to the driver. This has been tested on a small scale in Southwark, in central London, and in Stockholm.
The alternative would be to fit cars with a black box which could be tracked by satellite.
The introduction of congestion charging and road pricing for the areas surrounding two of London's airports, Heathrow and Stansted, is also under consideration. The former is more likely, because of better public transport links.
Is that in addition to the already heavy taxes placed on UK's petrol products?
Pitchforks and faggots?
"Stand and deliver!"
You can bet your life that none of the existing taxes on fuel or vehicles will decrease at all.
Couple this with the proposed scheme to photograph licence plates from bridges & overpasses and store in databases and it's yet more control being introduced by the government.
We have this now in the U.S., only it's accomplished through random criminalization.
If you Brits treasure what little is left of your personal privacy, you will stop this before it goes any further.
Shoot, the Brits are leaving.
i cannot imagine it isn't. from what I can tell, double-taxation is not questioned in the UK. As I understand they already have high personal income taxes as well as paying VAT on many purchases, so exorbiant fuel tax AND road tax would make sense.
folks who want a national sales tax to supplant the income tax here had better insist on the 16th amnd. being repealed.
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