Your Comments

I rely on my car i am disabled and have difficulty getting around.
I also think we should have the freedom to choose which way we want to travel.
If i have to stand and wait for public transport then i would never get done what i started out to do.
Also if i have to attend hospital or doctors or whatever then i wouldn't beable to go.
Why is it it's always the mororists that get hit?
ALso i take my aged mum to hospital and doctors appointments would she get there any other way ?

Yvonne Bell

Why can't we just get rid of road tax and put price on petrol then everyone using a car will have to pay ..you won't be able to dodge paying or your car won't run ..

The goverment are taxing us on our cars trying to make us use public transport. Ha, My Fiance works in Birmingham City Centre and does NOT drive a car!! Before Christmas she finished work at six and went to get the Midland Metro only to find that it was not running. She was directed to New street Rail Way Station only to find the next train was at 8:50pm? She thendecided to go an see if she could catch the bus, again only to find they were running late as well. In the end she had to pay £15.00 in taxi fare to get home and finally arrived at 8:30pm. If Tony Blair and his cronies invested ALL the money he takes off us hard working people and invested it ALL in public transport maybe more people would use it!! I for one will NOT be voting Labour in May!!!!!!

If the government wish to eliminate road congestion one good way would be to eliminate the excessive use of traffic lights which only serve to create convoys, congestion and pollution. One particular road locally has three sets of lights within the space of 150 yards. Two of them principally for pedestrians. Why can't pedestrians walk the few yards to the crossroad lights therefore removing the need for all the pedestrian lights as not all of them are necessary.
With regard to road charging what about the people who have no option but to use cars to travel to work. Not everyone works around the corner like the good old days. Also the shift workers? I dont know of any buses that run at these anti social hours.
For my wife to commute to work she would have to use two buses at the cost of £8 a day. No one really believes that the vehicle and petrol tax would be reduced enough to compensate for road charging or that it the extra levy would fund public transport. Not if they live in the real world. Governments have had years to use the vehicle taxes to put towards better transport purposes. Have they? NO!
Give us an economical alternative to private cars BEFORE charging us to drive in rush hour.

The administration of the Congestion Charge requires, contrary to our normal laws, your innocense and I believe that any Road Charging would be administered in the same way.

In addition I believe that it would be another stealth tax, motoring already being rationed by fuel duties. The civil servants required to adminster the tax will also be a burden on all of us, with their costs and escalating pensions.

In London their are alternative methods of transport but in the area where I live it is not so. In fact some of the villages around this town do not benefit from any public transport at all. Before there is any question of road pricing there needs to be an alternative to the car in being.

I am a disabled person, just like many who have made their comments known. The Goverment now and probably the next one, both paint with the one brush about going GREEN about using Public Transport, maybe they should make sure THAT PUBLIC TRANSPORT is a safer way to TRAVEL[eg Cumbria Rail Diaster} and cheaper for the less OFF? Maybe JUST A POINT TO MAKE!

I didnt sign the petition - given this governments history of listening to Joe Public I felt it would be a waste of time. By the bye, I drive around 40,000 miles per year in my job as a sales rep. Guess who's paying my congestion charges and those incurred by all like me, plus the majority of other vehicles on the road (HGVs, white van man, taxis, coaches you name it)? Why of course you are dear reader, whether you drive or dont, whether you like it or not. Either my employer puts up his prices to cover costs (= you pay...) or he absorbs the costs and lowers his profits (less profits = less corporation tax which will be made up by further taxes on you, again (oh and me as well). If they were serious about congestion they could catch and ban (five years for a first offence) the 1 in 20 who have no Road Fund Licence, or no MOT or no insurance. They could jail the unlicensed (same as for any other deadly weapon 5 yr minimum) That would be a start. Then they could bring in 5-yearly tests - driving is a priviledge not a right - and that would weed out the incompetent. If they charged a premium for the tests the money raised could go on public transport. Investment in roads in those parts of the country which have been massiveley underserved -e.g the North east where 10% of the population live and yet remain unconnected to the motorway network at all. This would encourage businesses to move there. If they were really green, they could bring back the fuel duty escalator but (1) they need to fix this in pence per litre at each budget to stop it getting out of hand should underlying fuel prices increase and (2) the should remove the duty altogether on bio fuels like biodiesel and bioethanol. If they did this most af the vehicles on the roads would be ruuning entirely on these fuels within the timeframe of their next replacement cycle (5 years or so) Increasing the escalator each year will put a huge incentive on people to drive the most economical (= usually least emitting) vehicles, and as little as possible. Congestion charging simply will not work, as most business-run vehicles would already avoid congested areas if they could (sitting in traffic makes me no sales).The only people it will impact are private motorists and particularly those on fixed incomes.

This tax is another way of ripping of the motorist in the UK. In the letter from Dowing Street after the petition closed a line from the prime minister stated " he would like to make the most of the current road system". Lets start by doing away with the rediculous bus lanes that are springing up in our towns for a bus service that runs every half hour, this alone would shorten traffic queues, but lets stop the queues from forming by putting a ban on the installation of traffic lights where roundabouts used to be which kept traffic moving,

I am in favour of those who use the roads most paying the most. I am however against the "Spy in the cab" concept that the Government appears to support. Quite simply, do away with the Vehicle taxation system and put all the money on petrol tax. This way, the more you drive the more you pay. If you use a car that uses a lot of fuel, the more tax you pay. If you currently do not tax your car, you will still pay the petrol tax if you use it.

driving is expensive enough any way. petrol prices here are so dear, road tax gets dearer all the time and where does this money go? ive never known the roads to be in such a state! the amount of pot holes is rediculous! my dads had to buy a new suspension arm due to bumps, one cracked my mums alloy and ive knocked my front splitter off and now we are going to get charged even more! public transport is also getting dearer yet my wage is staying the same.i thought labour was ment to be a voice for the people who voted. Mr Blair can say goodbye to my vote

Well isnt that nice another way for the governement to reach into our pockets and take our money? not only that we are no longer free to travel in our vehicles now unless some kind of satellite will be installed to calculate the amount of miles we've travelled so we can pay for that!! Big Brother is watching..be afraid..be VERY afraid...!!! How about the government stops taking part in silly wars funding unnecessary cause costing us billions of pounds that we, british people never wanted in the first place!

On one hand I can understand the motive behind trying to cut down on car uses due to the climate change and pollution of our planet.. but is this what the government really is about? is the tax really about the environment or is it about takinig the british people's money?

Transport in London is by far the most expensive in Europe and NOT necessarily the best! you mean to say that us paying almost a fiver a day ( wait its a tenner if you travel on peak hours!!) is NOT enough to fund the public transport as it is??? thats a joke..

How do other countries manage to run such a smooth public transport that doesnt cost so much whereas here in UK its so expensive and..well rubbish... to put it bluntly.

i dont like the idea of road tax, and even less the idea of being "supervised" by the government. ( im not say ing that cos i have 3 cars, i ont even drive ! i dotn even have a license!!) so here goes hoep you all agree with me!!!

As a disabled person I get a motability vehicle & most of my costs are fixed, my only variant is the amount of mileage I travel. Having traveled extensively in the world our motoring costs are pretty high. I can get cheap public transport because of my disability. Trouble with this option is that bus service is just about non existant & after 7pm. a total waste of time. Our local motorway network is very congested with commercial vehicles most of which are making unproductive journeys for half of their time i.e. running empty. Straight fuel tax does tax the use of the vehicle & rewards those who have smaller engines & or drive economically.

I am in favour of a change to the current system though not necessarily the curent proposal.

I live in a rural area where there just i no public transport. I travel ten miles into work down single track roads except for the last few miles. In the summer I cycle when possible.

I own a Discovery because I also have horses and need to move them using a trailer and also because in -more normal- winter, the roads here are often not passable in a car. (It is not merely a 'Chelsea Tractor.) However, with conditions now becoming more mild through the year, this is less of a concern.

I would like to use a more economical car for my commute, but however I factor costs, paying tax MOT insurance on two vehicles is far more expensive than owning a 4x4. If I buy a second car, my Discovery will still be costing me nearly £200 to sit on the drive most of the year. I'm currently thinking of buying a horsebox and a car in place of my Disco, but the financial implications are the same.

Now, if I was taxed on my travel rather than ownership, I could easily and would make the change. I can deal with the other costs!

I agree with David and Una (posts 1 and 2). People are far too lazy at the moment, even faced with the threat of global warming.

I think any extra tax the government puts on motoring is a good idea, especially if it were on the distances you travelled. Maybe that would make lazy Britain get off its derrière and walk or cycle somewhere.

Obviously, it's more money, so I'm not quite going to welcome it with open arms, but if it helps out the environment, then I'm all for it. If attempt to decrease are fossil fuel-orientated lifestyle now, we'll reap the rewards later when global warming isn't happening at the quick pace it is now.

I can accept that something needs to be done about congestion, I have been sitting in it all day. However, how does pricing help this? I go to work at 7:30 so this would probably not count as rush hour, but when I leave at 18:00 this would obviously count. I cannot leave an hour early, and certainly don't want to do any more hours. Most people will be like this, many people can't choose their working hours. Yes I am aware of flexi time, but this is not an option for many.

I used to drive to work every day (approximately 5 miles round trip) until the amount of vandalism I suffered got too much - on a public road never outside anyones house. The police have no interest in this at all. I recently bought an old moped to commute on and this costs me about £2.50 per week in petrol. Obviously it costs a bit in running costs, but it hardly compares to the £8 per day in bus fares (2 buses each way)

I drive a van everyday for work, doing around 80 miles around London everyday. What do you think will happen if we are paying £1 or more per mile? Either we put up all our prices dramatically or we go out of business. This will be true of all businesses. Maybe the taxes could go towards benefits for all the newly unemployed people!

Yes, during half term, the roads are much emptier. I think that school buses should be introduced much more widely, walking buses, etc, etc. These are the real solutions not just ever more taxes. Even now the government have said that they will probably reduce road tax and fuel tax if it comes in. if it has come down from definately already, it probably wont reduce at all if the new tax comes in.

If you want us to use the buses, make them usable! My colleague commutes by bus about the same distance as me (from a different direction) and it takes him anything from 15minutes to an hour. My journey takes 10 minutes every time. Make them reliable, more frequent and cheaper.

The fact is, I have a rubbish job and cant pay £8 per day for buses. I don't have an oyster card, but it would still be far dearer than the bike or the car.

The way I understand it, cars are responsible for
Finally who is going to pay to put the equipment in the cars? My car has no computers and only recently got a cigerette lighter socket. Will I pay to be tracked every mile I cover, what do you think?

A vehicle is an essential part of daily life to myself as being in the construction trade as well as a Dj.
My working hours can be very unsociable ( i.e. no public transport) and no public transport will wait for 1 - 1 1/2hrs while I load equipment to be carried at stupid hours of the morning and then transport it where it would then have to be unloaded.
If used the public transport would be of an astronomical cost and totally inefficient, not to mention not running at required times.
As a construction worker I need to carry endless supplies of tools and materials.
Many people would be in a very similar situation and therefore the cost of living would have to rise once again as these costs have to be passed on to the general public. Who would then have to pay twice in some situations.

I think that cars should be taxed on their annual milage, this would be easy to monitor and get the high milage to pay a realistic tax, and the low a fair amount of tax.It should also encourage drivers to use their car less,It could also be combined with engine size and carbon emmisions.
Steve Dallaghan

This would simply just be another tax on drivers. Driving and flying will become the preserve of the rich again - a backward step.

Public transport in my opinion is too expensive, dirty, and for the elder person sometimes a scary assault course. Timetables are never followed and i'm sorry but I would have thought it was the 'heavier vehicles' making the most pollution on our roads? Have you ever been at the back end of a bus when its pulling off!!!
So what happens when we have all submitted to the government and sold the car, walked to work and given up smoking....I can't help but wonder what will be next...surely the revenue of tax the government lose from these two alone would mean a great loss..so what will they tax next ...breathing????? and tag us so they can tell how many breaths we take at any time!! Yes i may be overreacting but how far will it go. Its about time we stood together as a country and our voices be heard and make a difference. Not just on one issue but on all decisions that will affect our futures ...which i must say is looking daunting, its the next generation i feel for.
One more thing...how many top politicians use the bus???? hmmmmm

The simplest way is to cease all notor vehicle charges and place a tax on fuel - the more you drive or the more your vehicle consumes the more we pay.
Just imagine the savings if we did not have to deal with DVLC. The Tax Disc could be replaced by an MOT and and Insurance Disc.

Do you not think the motorist is taxed enough already. It is just another of the government way of getting more money into its coffers. The idea it is motivated by congestion and getting people out of cars, rubbish! What are the alternatives - bicycle - great on a cold morning and evening - no real cycle path network to speak of in most places. The bus - not very reliable and is slow to get from A to B. Using public transport for me would add one and half additional hours to my journey to and from work. Not fun if you work 12.5 hours a day! Still could have a kip on the bus. The train - you need a second mortgage to get anywhere by train! So any other alternatives?

Car sharing - tried that - no one travels at the same time as me or goes in the direction I go.

A tax on fuel would surely be the fairest and a significant reduction in road tax. That way if we use the roads we are paying for it and you don'y need any of this fancy equipment and if you are a gas guzzler then you pay for it even more.

Plain and simply if Tax is to be paid according to how much we use our cars then the simplest solution is to put the cost onto fuel prices. In this way more revenue will be generated. How many foreign registered cars are there on our roads? I don't think tens of thousands is an exaggeration. yet none of these cars have paid their annual road tax, because it doesn't seem to exist on the continent. Germany, with a population of over 80 million can cope, and yet the government here thinks we need to spend to then be watched and controlled? give me a break!!! What sort of a mess do Mr Blair and Mr Brown want to leave this country in?

I work in the community with a nursing team but am based on hospital grounds. Within the last 12 months the hospital has started to charge us ten pounds per month to use their carparks, this equates to another hundred and twenty pounds a year tax that we have to pay. We need our cars to do our work as the area we cover takes in all of central cheshire. This is just another unfair tax on the working person. People think motorists are not taxed enough by saying we do not pay enough for the roads the motorists pay ample for road repairs it is the government who withhold most of the tax money collected.

Having just skip read a token number of entries it seems that there is an enormous divide between the "tax the motorist until the pips squeak" camp; "I've got a bike why haven't you" self-righteous camp; and "I need a car because of job/poor or costly public transport/health and mobility" camp.

There is also a lot of rampant prejudice out there. Reference to the recently demonised 4x4 is endemic in the psyche from Ken to local hand-wringing councillors to the outright jealousy of the name callers ( will I get a cash refund for my 11 year old Shogun when I am forced to junk it, of course not!)

Given that to do nothing is not an option wouldn't a bit of joined up thinking and a total transport 'plan' be useful - whatever that may be. The problem atmosphere that prevails in this country is one of 'tax and fine' for which the government from top to council bottom is responsible. Little wonder that so many people resent any move to be pushed in a direction in which 'we' collectively are reluctant to go. No solutions from me but time for a change? I think so.

I am sick of the phrase Public Transport when what is meant is Private contractors who transport the public at a profit. These contractors want their own private roads paid for by other road users. I do not want my road taxes given to private contractors under the guise of improving "Public Transport". In my area the lacal authority andtransport executive seems to swallow up the road repair budget totally on the buses. They actively encourage a policy of deliberately holding up traffic by the narrowing of existing bus bays so that the buses stop halfway across the road and then by siting a haven behind the bus preventing traffic movement. They also narrow roads to one lane wide and position a bus stop there. All this while the roads are in a terrible condition.

I am not against a method of reducing car travel but I am against a flat charge which will have no effect on higher earners and will badly affect both the poor and those living in rural areas.
An example: before I moved house five years ago (so that I could be near public transport) I lived in a small village. Were I still there, the nearest shop and post office would be over four miles away. The public transport system is one bus on a Wednesday and one on a Saturday. The return bus is 90 minutes later. For family shopping, a car is essential. This is a common situation. A flat charge will work by penalising the less well off.

Glyn Jones

Pricing less well off people out of their cars is not the way forward. In all the official statements about improving public transport in my home city of Bristol one factor is conspicuous by its absence - price. The problem is Bristol has one main operator (First group) and they abuse their near monopoly with lousy service and above inflation fare rises. As long as public transport is provided by organisations seeking large profits then road pricing should not be allowed

Just put it all on fuel:
insurance costs, road tax the lot then make it so you have to swipe your licence and enter your insurance policy number and Veichle Number plate into the pump

Then twockers (car theifs) can't fill up
The uninsured don't get served
People use more economical cars to do more to the gallon.
And most of all driving less miles means less fuel; so less cost.

I'd happly pay £2 a litre to take the motoring underclass off the road.

It is unfortunate that some people rely very heavily on their car. Some for instance live in Hull work in Manchester. Their whole modus operandi would have to change. The effect on the economy is therefore incalculable. The effects may be very large. The provision of many goods and services may no longer be viable. If it could be brought in over say ten years then they might have a chance. If in doubt - don't do it!

Like many others I do NOT live in a city or large town, we do NOT have decent rail links and the bus service is abysmal. It is therefore essential that a decent AFFORDABLE Public Transport system is put in place ACROSS the country - not just in the cities before anything like this is ennvisaged.
This tax will increase food & fuel costs regardless of income - and those with fixed incomes will really suffer badly.
All of our local hospitals are now being placed in our larger cities - and they only operate normal services during working hours & peak travel times.
Recently undergoing Cancer treatment we had to travel to Coventry, at peak times and pay over £45 for three weeks (concession) parking - let alone additional travel tax people would inccur.
Perhaps business should make more use of rail links (like Eddie Stobart) and heavy lorries should only be allowed to operate overnight - that would reduce congestion dramatically.
From research school holidays reduce congestion by up to 30% - so perhaps there should be a City/Town school tax for drivers who insist on dropping of the kids at schools.

I have sat through and read some of the comments left and all I can say is I do think it is a stupid idea to charge people of any community status to pay for the road, my family uses one car to get to work and to get our kids to school we don't waste are money we pay all our taxes, and I must say if the government was to take some of the money they get from these taxes instead of wasting it we would not be having this problem. We pay enough already in taxes and god knows what else, not to sound like a horrible person but there are to many time wasters sat on the doll drunk and getting stoned take it from them there the real earth pollution and I don't mean the genuine people who are to sick to work or who are really trying. And has for the toxins in the air they do have that new fuel but they won't make it easy for us to use it all cost money and for a small family like mine we are stuck. We are very hard working people and this country is not helping its own, but hey that's just my opinion. I have used public transport loads and if I am trying to get somewhere like a appointment or getting my son to school nine times out of ten im late what would have been a five minute journey in a car just took me twenty so if everyone gave up on cars the pollution would still be very bad cause of all the start and stopping and of cause the long wait while they change bus driver wake up people and see this has another way for the government to get our money.

All this business about reducing car usage in order to reduce CO2 emissions strikes me as a lot of double-speak.
Am I not correct in assuming that car fuel is a by-product of oil refinery - which is an essential process for the plastics and other industries?
If this is so, then it must be produced in consequence of operating these industries and, if not taken up by the motorist, would be a waste product that has to be disposed of. (I believe that this was so before the advent of the internal combustion engine).
If motoring usage is reduced, then the surplus would almost certainly be used to fuel power stations and would therefore still be converted into energy + CO2 anyway!
Anyway, methane is much worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, so we should be working out how to reduce this - perhaps by keeping cattle indoors and processing their byproducts by "cracking" them to get hydrogen..

Theres a lot of talk about putting more HGV's on the roads at night, yeah right. The trucks on the road at night are 'trunking'. Moving goods to depots for onward delivery probably the next morning, like TNT, Parcelforce and the like. They are getting the goods into the right places ready for this. There are not many deliveries actually done at night except the major supermarkets. Do you want a 13 metre (45 Foot) articulated truck delivering (Very noisey) at 3am or whatever, to your local newsagent/convienience store? I think not.

How ignorant. Cars are not luxury items, they are required. Sure, use trains if you want to get up in the middle of the night to get to work, and never see your family. The easy answer to congestion is to encourage employers to let people work from home.
As it happens, I can barely afford to live here as it is, and travel 2 hours every morning by car just to get to a job that means I might one day be able to afford a family with my wife. Until you understand what you are saying, don't you dare generalise about the car. Without mine, there would be 2 more people on benefits - as it is, I contribute over £2k a month in income tax alone from my well paid, car enabled, job. Hurry up David Cameron, get into power!

1.8million ? and he still goes ahead !
whats the point ?
dave

1161 - Clean air, global warming? Lets start with America, China, and Brasil instead of the British motorist. Taxes raised will only benefit President Tony Asrehole Blair and not do anything for the environment.

Posted by Colin Redfern, 28th February 2007 7:47pm
I with Colin.

We already get taxed to the hilt and only a fraction of it benefits the motorist. (We have waited 20 years for a much-needed second Forth road bridge. If the government want a revolution, further taxation of the motorist is the way to go. They will rouse a sleeping giant, and one roused it won't just go away. We have Europe's best case for a big REDUCTION in motoring taxes.

I feel that all short journeys made should only be done in emergencies.

more travel is done doing this.
people jump in the car just to pop 100 yrds to save them time, it is purely habit. I know I used to be one of them people.
I have now been cycling for 6 months.
I use the car only when nessersary.
But if I had to use it then I would not feel it fair to pay a travel tax.
As I only travel rarely and I get to be treated as like A Poluter, Yet those who basically use the roads indiscriminately all the time get to pay the same tax as me .
Is this fair
Put a Tax on the fuel, do away with the road tax all together,this is the fairest way to all.