Road Pricing

It has featured redeeming qualities from time to time.

 

Yeah, I used to work with a bloke who commuted from Gloucester to
Maidenhead every day in a Corsa. Absolutely insane. Now I'm just on the
edge of the City and work with people commuting in from places as far
away as Bedford, Andover and Worthing, but they all use the train. The
guy from Gloucester could have used the train, but it'd have cost a
fortune, he lived on the edge of town so the journey to the station to
get a train would have been a nightmare, and he'd have had to change
trains at least once each way.
These days he's seen sense and bailed out of the long commute and last I
heard he was looking for a job near home. Sensible lad.

TBH, Bristol to, say, Stockley Park is hardly impossible by public
transport, but not phenomenally convenient - I see two key problems:
people (such as my mrs) are fixated on the idea of driving everywhere,
and the public transport alternatives are frankly shocking. If there was
any hint that additional road taxation was going to be ploughed back
into public transport infrastructure I'd be all for it, but I don't see
that, I see it financing shit like Trident.

It'd take a large dose of joined-up thinking to sort this problem out,
and I have no faith, no faith at all, that any government is capable of
it. There just isn't the political will to crack that nut.

 

Yup just like housing costs outstripping the general ability to buy, it's
fixable but no UK govmint is going to be big enough to do it

 

I think my main objection, which applies to so many of these invasive
government schemes (rubbish weighing, etc) is that it's set up to
penalise through tax, rather than offer an economic carrot as an
alternative.[/QUOTE]

While I am not a particular fan of what seem to be endless "punishments"
for every infraction of some minor regulation I wonder about the extent
to which people really respond to economic carrots.

From the "loony" columns of the papers there is talk about paying
children to attend school - I beg your pardon? They should simply just
go or else suffer the consequences now and in the future of their
truancy. Why on earth do they need an economic carrot? Why do I need
to have an economic carrot to dispose of my rubbish? I equally resent
the concept of a fine for not disposing of my rubbish according to some
mandatory scheme.

There is little guarantee that these incentives or taxes will actually
work as intended anyway. Society has simply gone stupid by believing
that these additional "methodologies" are required at all.

The issue of personal mobility and transport is a very complex one which
is why I think it will be a very difficult issue to resolve. Some loony
will take the government to the Court of Human Rights if they perceive
that road pricing will somehow restrict their mobility. This will, of
course, conveniently ignore the fact that people make a myriad of
choices about their mobility each and every day and automatically factor
in direct and indirect costs as well as the tax burden and the
availability of alternatives. Hopefully any sane judge would kick out
such a case.

A quick check reveals that you can do it in about 90 mins by train from
your nearest town centre station which I accept involves a walk or a
short bus ride from your place. I have no idea about the Tunbridge Wells
end of things but I do know their bus services are a bit sparse.

There are loads and loads of people who commute loony distances by train
everyday or who have complex multi mode, multi link trips just to get
from where they live to where they work. It's just how it is -
especially when the car really is not a viable option in Central London.
There are plenty of other towns and cities with similar issues but where
people have less public transport choice and are more prepared to endure
insane private transport trips instead.

 

Yup: a 20-minute walk into Sutton. Then up to London Bridge, I think, or
Clapham junction. Heading in diametrically the wrong direction.

Then out to TW. Then another 15-minute walk to the office. So two hours'
travelling and I haven't even bothered to ask what a season ticket would
cost.

By bike: 45-50 minutes, door to door.

By car: add another 20-30 minutes. Basic cost: a gallon of fuel each
way.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/117504.stm

Perhaps we'll see a shooting war between the MOD and the DfES.

--
platypus

"Merely corroborative detail, intended to
give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise
bald and unconvincing narrative."

 

Nah. You can get to Redhill from Sutton and then a train to TW from
there.

 

My view also. And worse, its regressive taxation as most of these sort
of schemes are. But we shouldn't be surprised - we have a Labour
Government, nannying and tax/spend is what they do. Same old, same
old.

 

Anyone recall Ken's idea of totally free transport in London? Not that I
care for the chap, but it was a hell of a way of persuading people to use an
alternative. Bit like recycling: make it easy, like it is round my way, and
people do it.

Ali

 

That dear old chap, Bear tugged on his pipefull of old shag and said:

Ban everyone except me from the roads at times I want to travel.

It's so simple - as I leave the front door you get Terry Wogan to
command the others to pull over away from the road - he then plays some
jolly music and tells a few amusing anecdotes until I get to my
destination.

 

That dear old chap, Bear tugged on his pipefull of old shag and said:

Is the Woganmeister going to be able to keep up with all this?

 

That dear old chap, Bear tugged on his pipefull of old shag and said:

Not if it happens before Eurovision...

 

Snipers. Anyone failing to make decent progress gets a round into the
cabin. This will encourage the dawdlers and keep the diffident off the
roads, and thus lessen the weight of traffic and speed its passage.

--
platypus

"Merely corroborative detail, intended to
give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise
bald and unconvincing narrative."

 

I'm not sugesting I have the answers, but clearly neither have
NuLabor.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Champ

Poor shot.

I'm with AW. We have the status quo. The government have expressed a
desire to change that. We believe that the idea they have for change is
a bad one.

I'm perfectly comfortable with saying that if no-one has a demonstrably
better idea that is acceptable to me, then I would prefer them to leave
it alone.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Bear

Reckon? I seem to have been hearing that prediction for years. At least
twenty.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

He was slow as ****, never checked his tyre pressures, and could have been a
menace to livestock for all I know. Would you venture out to conduct your
vehicle diffidently around the streets with such a person looking down a
rifle at you and judging your performance?

--
platypus

"Merely corroborative detail, intended to
give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise
bald and unconvincing narrative."

 

And being supercilious helps, does it?

 

I'm ambivalent about the method they're proposing, but firmly believe
that they wouldn't plough the proceeds into improving the public
transport infrastructure. One glance at the state of railways in
Scotland is all it takes.

 

It's not an answer, it's an excuse, and a badly thought out one at
that.

Get over yourself.