Posted on 06/04/2005 8:55:42 PM PDT by quidnunc
The government plans to replace fuel tax with a new road charge on motorists based on the distance and time of day they travel.
Alistair Darling, the transport secretary, this weekend indicated that fuel duty will have to be scrapped in order to pave the way for a new road pricing scheme. This would dramatically cut the price of petrol — duty currently accounts for 47p per litre — but motorists would face a new charge of up to £1.34 a mile. Journeys at peak times and on the busiest roads would cost most.
In his first interview since the election, Darling said the changes were necessary to prevent roads reaching “complete gridlock”. He wants a pilot project to be approved during Labour’s third term.
The move, which is also likely to see road tax scrapped, would mark the biggest shake-up in motoring taxation since fuel duty was introduced in 1909.
“The idea of distance[-based] charging is that instead of paying the present form of taxation, you’d be charged on the distance you go,” Darling said.
“You are certainly not talking about a charge on top of another charge. You can’t have both. This would be a completely different concept, a completely different way of doing things.”
Fuel duty on petrol and diesel provides the Treasury with about £22 billion a year. A further £4.6 billion is raised annually through road tax.
Darling is confident that the technology will be in place within the next 10-15 years for a nationwide scheme. A satellite tracking system would monitor black boxes inside every car. “Top-of-the-range cars have got satellite navigation kits fitted almost as standard now,” Darling said.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
They are trying, it's called Agenda 21 or smart growth, which ever you choose, it is social engineering to the max!
Check it out;
http://www.freedom21santacruz.net/issues/constitutional-government/agenda21/index.html
Do you got a cell phone, if you do they can probley track where your at anyway if you are using it. I really don't have any problem with the government tracking where I'm at at any given time because I'm not up to any thing illegal, what I have a problem with though like you is useing my money to do it. Frankly I don't think the Brit's will let their government do this, at least with their knowledge. My guess is that they all ready are doing it on a limited bases for those that they suspect are up to stuff and own new cars. My guess is this is just another way to take more money away from the average Brit who is working, vs those staying home on retirement, on welfare, or etc. while making it sound like they are taking less.</p>
Obviously.
I frankly think it is a rotten idea. It will ensure that I will never visit the U.K. again. Car rental and fuel expenses are exorbitant already.
I drive around 1100 miles per year in combined between my 1999 F150 and 1994 Saturn SL2. My greatest concern is that the vehicles will live so long that I will have a need to repair them after repair parts are no longer legally required to be kept on hand.
Absolute idiocy! Logical extensions of this nonsense would be a tax on pedestrian traffic (number of footsteps taken) and a tax on oxygen consumption (number of breaths inhaled). The obvious motivation here is the huge opportunity for wealth redistribution and the surveillance/control of public mobility.
These fools won't be happy until only the party elite are allowed the luxury of private transportation, and the masses can be herded like sheep onto and off the trains and buses, with minimal disruption to the lives of the commissars.
I can't believe that you wouldn't mind the gov't knowing where you are at all times.
Keep in mind that "the government" means a bunch of people, many of whom are stupid, ignorant, self-serving, or mean you no good.
I'd prefer that the government didn't even know I exist. And I don't do anything illegal nor do I plan to. Except break a county rule about stupid building permits now and again, if I can.
Britain continues it's descent into Europe's Insane Asylum.
We need to pass state-level consitutional amendments forbidding this.
Except we'll be paying the "road fee" and the gas tax.
Now you know why they call them the "pedestrian masses".
"Most people would not be able to afford to drive any more.
Society would have to be totally re-arranged."
You aren't saying that the environmentalists had anything to do with this are you?
"this would put my daily commute at almost $150 a day. Who can afford that? "
Relax.......when they implement that here, you won't HAVE a commute anymore......
We drive about 50 mile per day taking kids to and from private school. That would be up to $100/day. Our only alternative would be to put them on the gov't school bus.
I think they do know where the money is coming from, and they're congratulating themselves on their sneaky way of getting it.
Ok, so no-one likes this idea, but I'm not seeing any actual alternatives put forward? Given the problems of growing road congestion that is going to get worse, and that lack of space means that building a bunch of new roads is not a viable option, what is the alternative exactly?
No funding for maintenance of rural roads. Therefore they go away. If they're only paying 2p a mile, they're not paying their fair share.
Rural roads in massive disrepair = happy environmentalist?
A sobering thought, indeed: "the end of the automobile as we know it as personal transportation that can take you anywhere".
The notion _seems_ preposterous, especially here in America, where one's car equates to the core of freedom itself.
It'll never happen, right? ..... right? Well, _could_ it happen?
We readily discount and sneer at such notions today, but the fact is, it can't happen now because the technology isn't perfected yet to make it possible. But what happens when the technology becomes available? What prevents it from happening then?
Here in America, at least, our individual and collective thirst for freedom serves to keep at bay [for now] those who would impose such restraints upon us. But the folks in Britain seem to have lost that thirst - freedom seems to be disappearing from their souls. For that reason, a proposal such as "tax each car heavily by each mile driven" to discourage their use might indeed go forth, once the technical obstacles are overcome. Maybe not this year, or next year, but one can see it creeping up on the horizon.
When that happens, it will indeed pretty much mean the end of the automobile for personal travel in Britain, excepting of course for those willing (and with the means) to pay for it. A harbinger of "things to come" elsewhere.
I'm reminded of the first "Mothers of Invention" recording from years ago, with the spoken refrains: "It can't happen here..... it can't happen here...."
Well, look at California and Oregon. It's happening. There are already proposals to use GPS devices to track the mileage on state-registered cars and then tax them by the mile, to supplant existing gasoline taxes.
I'm guessing those proposals will die before becoming law - at least for now. But the "first attempts" to get the camel's nose under the tent are already taking place. This is but a beginning; I sense we will hear a great deal more in the years to come. And if the scheme proves workable somewhere else (read: Britain), how long before the politicians, bureaucrats, and regulators (along with the anti-car wackos) shove it down out throats here?
Up until now, I've believed that - someday - the "petroleum era" would end as a simple matter of dwindling supplies, and along with it, the "auto era" (at least as we know it today) would change radically. Resources are, after all, become finite at some point, even though that point may be decades or even centuries distant. As an aside, back in the 1870's and 80's, who would have been taken seriously had he the timerity to suggest that in less than fifty years, coal would no longer be the dominant source of the nation's energy?
But again, that was an issue of supply or technology.
Suddenly, it seems that _TAXATION_ and regulation could become the force that drives the automobile off towards the sunset, with technology making it all possible.
But, as the song goes..... "It can't happen here..... it can't happen here...."
Right?
Cheers!
- John
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