Bad idea or a great way to get slow pikey scum and geriatrics away from our Urban Racetracks?
Seems pointless to me. We already have a pay for road usage scheme which is virtually foolproof. It's called "Having to buy petrol", and the more you drive, the more you pay. Scrap tax discs, stick 25p per litre on the cost of petrol and use 5p of it to fund free (and compulsory) school buses, and you'll soon get rid of most non-essential traffic.
Rubbish. Unless you were to raise petrol by an order of magnitude, people will continue their usage pretty much unchanged. As for 'compulsory' school buses, haha, no really, hahahaha. -- _______ ..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom) \`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing) `\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10 `\|/` `
I'm all for it, but only if they don't charge me for driving on the roads I want to drive on when I want to drive on them, OK? If they do do it, it needs to be well thought out, so they don't drive drivers off of the main roads onto the smaller back roads where the bikers are. I still don't see why they don't just massively increase the price of petrol, so the link between usage and cost is made a lot clearer. People would choose to travel when the roads were less congested because they would get more fuel efficiency
Just "school buses" would be good in a lot of places in the UK from what I was told when I was there the other week. Seems that a lot of the bus companies wont run 'em anymore as the kids trash the buses etc... In fact there's a couple of large secondary schools near my parents' place and as well as there being no school buses, the normal buses don't stop within a mile of the schools between 2.45 and 4.30ish pm in term time. But back tot he OP, I like toll roads. The M6 Toll is, or rather was, always relatively empty when I used it, unlike the A5 which ran almost parallel and I don't mind paying to use the roads over here as, except on the one day when it seemed like *everyone* was going to Paris at the end of August, they're pretty empty 'cos the locals are a bit pikey when it comes to everyday travel..... Plus, of course, our train service is cheaper and better than the UK *and* there's nowhere near as much medium and long-distance commuting as there is in the UK[1][2] Dave [1] Well it's like that in these parts, I can't vouch for other bits of France [2] There seems to be the mindset of either getting a job near your home or moving to be near your job, something that, from my experience, is viewed with incredulity in the UK....
Indiscriminate. Doesn't recognise that use of some roads needs discouraging more than others - over to you 'Red Ken'. There is a secondary school in these parts that is over-subscribed for places 10-1. They will not accept applications from households that are not in post codes that their free school coach service serve. It's the school run of ridiculously short distances to drop kids who could perfectly well walk that annoys me. I walk my lad to school every morning. A childminder picks him up in a car, but at least there are usually three other kids she takes as well. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z | | Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 | +-------------------------------------------------------------+
Should get rid of some thrifty D-reg Volvo types. I don't like the sat-tracked idea of it but reduced fuel and road duty would be nice. Not that those treasury bastards would reduce either. And I bet they won't hold a referendum to see what we want. Shirley that's the idea of democracy. Oh well.
If like the M6 Toll road it's a new road, in the style of French Autoroutes then I'm all for it. If like the proposal to implement a congestion charge zone in cities such as Nottingham and leeds they plan to effectively charge people for their daily commute into the city, where suitable public transport options clearly don't exist, they can go **** themselves.
Indeed, and I think it holds true for all but Paris. Having said that, around here there are probably several thousand people a day commuting from France into Basle, many of them from 20-30 km away, like us, or even more. Which gives them a 'commute' of 30-45 minutes. The roads can cope with this much over a couple of hours, and there are several alternative routes, which helps. But comparing French roads with UK one, I'd say the biggest difference must surely be due to differences in population density - in all but the largest cities most people live fairly well spaced out, but in the towns themselves pop. density must be much greater than that in most of the UK due to nearly everyone living in apartment blocks. Which means that a huge number of people are able, and seemingly happy, to live within a tram/bus/cycle ride of work, whereas in the UK it's simply not viewed as practicable. -- _______ ..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom) \`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing) `\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10 `\|/` `
You've never seen American high schools then where there is a car exclusion zone? Works pretty well over there, and they *love* their cars.
Should get rid of some thrifty D-reg Volvo types. I don't like the sat-tracked idea of it but reduced fuel and road duty would be nice. Not that those treasury bastards would reduce either. And I bet they won't hold a referendum to see what we want. Shirley that's the idea of democracy. Oh well.
Should get rid of some thrifty D-reg Volvo types. I don't like the sat-tracked idea of it but reduced fuel and road duty would be nice. Not that those treasury bastards would reduce either. And I bet they won't hold a referendum to see what we want. Shirley that's the idea of democracy. Oh well.
I think this is the first time ever you've said something I agree with. I'd extend this to also limiting the amount of HGVs allowed on roads during daytime and weekends.
I've driven in the US some, at school start and finish times, and can be sure that it's far from universal. When it is done, it's mostly just no cars on campus - the roads around are generally unaffected. And they also have plenty of space, and their high schools are not generally in densely-populated or high traffic-volume areas; even if they are, they still generally have dedicated campus areas. -- _______ ..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom) \`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing) `\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10 `\|/` `
Which all points to it being *more* sensible to implement when you *are* in a densely-populated or high traffic-volume areas, surely?
People living on main roads would love this idea. I suppose they will just have to get used to the constant rumble of heavy lorries going past when they are trying to sleep. The KERR-BANG of that wobbly manhole cover just outside the bedroom window is, of course, a courtesy detail.
To a certain extent I can see this, but it would certainly **** up food retailing supply chains, pushing them back to about 10 years ago.
I live on a main road. very very few HGVs use the road I live on - it's the bloody night busses that took a bit of getting used to. damn - I knew I was missing something.
A la master race. HGV, with a few exceptions, are banned from 1200 Sat 'til 2359 Sun. Roads are the domain of the 'worker' at the W/E.
