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The new tax is just another way to screw the motorist even more,with more drivers than ever on our roads the govenment are taking billions in pounds and not giving any back via road repairs or resurfacing.Does anyone really think a new tax will be spent on the roads?I think not.

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I don't disagree with taxing us motorists, we do need expensive road networks, accident support etc.
The two main issues I have with taxing by tracking is that my privacy will be definitely invaded on an increasing basis as various Goverment Departments get on board and the stick will come before the carrott, we will be heavily taxed before the public transport system is improved to make car use less attractive.

Lets face it the government DON'T want us to stop driving our cars, the revenue they generate from taxation on motorists and haulage companies etc is far to high to risk losing. I think that if the money they take in tax was soley dedicated to the funding of an efficient, reliable and cheap to use transport system then a lot of motorists would think twice about getting in their cars but the fact remains that we all rely on our cars and despite the highest fuel costs in the world, the extortionate road tax and all the other stealth type ways to make us contribute to the treasurers coffers we will still drive them and the government know this and rely on this.

Think about it a moment, say every motorist in the country were to switch overnight to fuel cell technology where the only emission is water do you think the government would say "hey thats great, what a way to help the environment" would they hell they'd slap a tax on liquid hydrogen to make up for the loss in revenue on the petrol and diesel tax.

There will never be a cheap way of motoring in this country and I think that the road pricing policy is just another stealth tax on the soft taret motorist.

If the government could gaurantee a reduction in fuel and road tax and ensure that all revenue generated is put back into the transport system in this coutry then there may not be so much resistance to it but I doubt that will happen and we'll be forced to pay even more to drive our cars.

Raised taxes to improve the NHS, not working, raised taxes to improve eduction not working, raised fares and taxes to improve public transport not working. Does anyone in any party really believe that more taxes will improve our roads. I do not think so. Tax tax tax is this the goverments answer to all our ills?

If they were to do away with road tax and put 1 pence on alitre they would be quids in even more, we pay enough tax on fuel as it is, so just leave it as it is, no CON charge, no road tax another CON, and no more tax on fuel another CONand as for 4x4 owners, lets have a drive slow through london every day, sod the expense of £8, and that P***K, KEN wants to up that too, well I SAY "UP YOU KEN".

Post number 31 is the only way to go!!
But of course the government will not go that way because it would cost them the most.
My journey up the M3 today was horrendous. Congestion caused by all the large lorries and particularly by 3 huge cranes. Why these vehicles can't travel the motorways in the early hours rather than during rush-hour is beyond me! No wonder there is congestion.
I would travel my daily 70 miles each way on public transport - if it were in place, reliable, frequent and not so expensive. Come on Westminster, get the infrastructure in place first and it will be used. Show your commitment to green issues and invest for the future. When we see you are genuine, I'm sure we will follow.

I voted against the pay as you drive tax system.
My circumstances are that I am a mature student (and also a widowed mother of two), in my final year of a degree. Because of these circumstances, I drive in for my lectures, and the nearest college of HE is 40 miles away from me!

It is difficult enough to be a mature student as it is, looking after a family, without an income as such, and an additional tax would just cripple anyone in a similar situation, making a degree completely untenable!

As far as taxing major roads, people will use minor roads, so it will simply shift congestion into smaller rural areas that are unable to cope with such traffic.
If the railways were actually worth using people may be able to consider ditching their cars, but my experience of using public transport is far from desirable too. If I was to take a train to college, I would need to drive to a village about 7 miles away to leave the car (hence, would still need it), but the current timetable means that I would miss my lecture as the first train to Taunton arrives after 11.00 in the morning!

These road policies are so short sighted, and the consequences of recent policies are really not being fully considered.

Tax should only be on petrol. Therefore a gas guzzler pays more as they damage the environment more. Also if you drive more you pay more. Makes sense.
Why isn't the current thousands of pounds of tax money used to support public transport? The railways have been reduced to a joke (see latest crash). Buses? Out of London or a big city you're lucky if you can afford one if they turn up.
I work and live in the country, public transport is not an option.
Finally, how would ever increasing costs decrease road use? People are there because they need to be. Pricing them off the road would only strangle the countries growth and prosperity as it could no longer function as-is.
Thanks for the opportunity to rant!

By car, work is between 45 and 60 minutes away, usually 45. However, to go by public transport this would easily be doubled. There used to be a direct train from Belper (where I live) to Nottingham which took about 30 mins. This was cut however and now the jouney takes about an hour with a change at Derby. I would then need to get a bus out of town to where I work which takes abiut 15 minutes. However, there was no direct train for the return jounery - ever.

Public transport is very good for people that live close to their work or for people in London. For everyone else it is pretty poor and expensive. I have no problem with using PT and would actually prefer it to fighting through the rush our traffic each day, but the infrastructure and services available simply do not make it a viable option. If there was a decent service, then I would have no problem with the road pricing as there would be a cheaper and less stressful alternative.

As an aside, I really don't know why they are bothering with the road pricing sheme - for me, it would be far easier to slap 50p (or whatever) extra tax on fuel. No invasion of privacy or "Big Brother Watching" or yet another government department to administer the new levvy - nice and easy. This would have exactly the same effect as road pricing and would drive people to buy more eco friendly cars.

I have a sneaking suspicion that at the most, only 50% of the monies gathered from the new "tax" will make it's way back into public services, with the rest being used to pay off the massive cost of the olympics (of which only Londoners will benefit in the long run) and to prop up the ailing NHS.

Like the vast majority of schemes this government has put in place, this is another that is poorly thought out and will hit regular families the hardest. Rural communities will suffer as people move into the city so be closer to work.

I drive to work in my "unsociable metal box" but I also collect 2 other work mates on route, we car share. We are doing are bit and I find it rather frustrating to now be told we might have to pay extra for the privilege of driving to work. If the public transport over my way were better/cheaper then maybe this would be an option. The road toll is an extra tax on the people that commute to work, a bit like having mobile speed camera's on your commute - lets squeeze some more pennies out of the hard workers!

We are all in agreement obviously. We already pay correspondingly more for the miles we travel within the fuel tax. As soon as public transport becomes successful the prices are hiked up to curb people travelling. However, even if the price of public transport were cheaper, it still would be impossible for me to get to work on it. This new proposal can be added to the long list of other sneaking, underhand, self serving, money grubbing practices constantly being thrust upon us.

Global warming is a natural cycle of the earth the same as the ice ages.
Any goverment or individual that says transport is the cause of this is misleading the public it is only another way of extracting taxes and for covering up their failures to foresee and plan for the expansion in travel that automatically takes place when the wealth of the individual increases.
in ancient Rome Julius Caesar banned all trade ox carts from using the streets of Rome during daylight hours this immediately eased the congestion in the streets.
Maybe we should ban all commercial vehicles from the roads during daylight hours this will ease congestion.

It is not the fact of changing the way in which we are taxed that we should be concerned about but how to ensure that all road users are paying their dues and ensuring that all vehicles on the road are safe. There are far to many untaxed, no MOT and no insurance covered vehicles on our roads. There must be a way of ensuring that all vehicles have at least this? A possible solution would be to have permanent camera's in every petrol station which could check the registration number against the national database (same as the police use) and not allow petrol/diesel if found to be not taxed, no MOT or uninsured.

From a large proportion of the comments here, one could be forgiven for getting the impression that they have been made by NuLab, knee-jerk policy makers. So little thought has gone into them.
1. The disabled often need cars or they will be housebound. I am disabled
and a non-driver; my wife is disabled and a driver.
2. Rural dwellers need cars to get to the remaining Post Offices and banks.
They do not have the option of using Internet-based services as BT will not
install the necessary infrastructure to allow them access to Broadband. Nor
will Tesco alow them to use their "You Shop We Drop" service.
3. Road Fund Licence WILL NEVER be abolished in favour of Pay As You Drive -
that famous TEMPORARY Income Tax is still in place. This will be a
permanent tax on the motorist and will be justified by its spurious "green"
credentials.
4. Congestion is an URBAN problem which can be addressed using the sort of
technology currently in use in London. The motorways are merely
extensions of the urban environment, linking urban areas together.
5. Public transport will never again be sufficient, nor sufficiently cheap, that
our dependence on the car will decline. It was the advent of personal
transport - the car - that led to the decline in public transport. National and
EU governments are so dependent upon the revenue raised from personal
transport use and manufacture that it will never be legislated against,
merely taxed, over and over.
6. Politicians are too short-sighted and self-absorbed to make the sort of
decisions that would reverse the dependence on the car. There are few
opportunities to tax public transport and get away with it. Investment in
public transport in this country can never happen with a Hitler/Stalin-clone
control freak as Prime Minister, whose Chancellor would rather finance a
war than build a railway.
7. Once the treasury has our money it will be used to fund whatever happens
to be flavour of the month. Should it be discovered that Global Warming is
a hoax - and the jury is still out - the taxes will remain: the politicians will
merely find a different justification for them.
8. Never will it be admitted that it is useful to Government to know where we
all are at any time - UNLESS the Government can prove the knowledge has
allowed them to prevent a 9/11 type terrorist incident. Should no such
threat be real and prevented then, like 45 mins and WMD in Iraq, expect
them to be made up, whatever the colour of the incumbent government.

Travel Tax, whatever form it takes is merely another tax, designed to extract
money from the populace to fund the lifestyles of the political classes, most of
whom these days have never had a toe in any form of productive activity. The current ideas are the result of a report written at the behest of the Treasury: a report designed to justify, in advance, any taxes the Chancellor might like to impose in the future, but which he had already decided upon in the past: He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune!

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It seems oddly perverse that the very people who complain most about drivers and their "unecessary" journeys, are the same people who believe that public transport will miraculously develop to fill the need. RUBBISH!! Public transport is rarely a viable alternative to the car. The disabled, residents in rural communities and the elderly are particularly poorly served by public transport. Bus and train timetables notoriously fail to enable people to be where they need to be, when they need to be there.
As most journeys involve more than one element of public transport, the costings and time involved is prohibitive.
The suggestion that satellite tracking of an individual, to then levy tax from that individual is a direct attack on privacy and civil liberties. I suggest the niave individuals who support this "highway robbery" would be unwilling to be personally tagged, let alone to pay for the privilege.
Those who use the roads most are already paying most. The fuel levy collected by HM Government is wasted and not directed at reducing congestion in an engineered manner.
The introduction of this mileage tax, would just move the "rush hour" to a different timeslot.
It will also create more illegal drivers. We already have too many uninsured and untaxed vehicles on the roads. This will created a new dander; the unregistered or incorrectly registered vehicle.
Blair and Brown have continuously attacked the road user to fund their overexpenditure.
Enough is enough ...................... Drivers are the largest tax payers in the country, let their voice be heard for a change.

Cars are here to stay. They are essential in many areas and for many travellers. Politicians never take a long term view and can never take there sticky fingers out of the honey pot. Sad to relate I think it eas Winston Churchill who first raided the then Road Fund Licence. Had he not and the others that followed like greedy sheep: then we would have the best and safest road system necessary to cater for demand. Those who chose to live in London can enjoy the Eye, the Dome, Wembly and the Olympics and pay for it themselves.

Mr Blair, I like the vast majority of motorist are totally disgusted at the prospect of road charges you are already charging the motorist more than his fair share of direct and indirect taxation and it is time you looked else ware to raise taxes I.E. big business who are without doubt making obscene profits this is after paying themselves greedy unjustified bonuses and grasping share options plus unbelievably high pensions and wages whilst operating tax avoidance schemes.

As to congestion I suggest you double the motorway system and all other major roads this will only take 1% of Britain's land take a stance against immigration this will alleviate more congestion to roads housing national health service and benefits system if this means that we have to leave the ECU so be it, but as we are major contributor I suggest you start punching our weight instead of being continually tied in knots by the French Germans and others.

Regarding pollution instead of trying to frighten people you start by telling people that after you and Thatcher oversaw the devastation of the coal, steel, rail, bus, post, plus all heavy industry and allowed what was left to be exported to India North and South America China and Asia all countries that pump out more pollution in a week than we do in a year I recommend that they get there house in order first then instead of going for the most expensive and dangerous option of nuclear energy I suggest wind wave clean coal and incineration of all waste, this can be done without significant polutition and gives back power BUT NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ALREADY GROSSLY OVER TAXED MOTORIST.
Finally I would like to say that I have been a lifelong supporter of the labour party and been paying subs until this year even though I have had grave reservations since your second term but I now cannot see any semblance of the labour party in your government therefore I am now going to join
thecarparty.org.uk
B ROBINSON
this was my reply to the load clap trap sent by Mr Blair in reply to the petition

I choose not to use public transport as I don't like it, that is my prerogative. Most of the main roads around where I live and work have got bus lanes on both sides of the roads which I can't use, I don't whine about that, nor do I whine about the fact that I can now use less of the public roads now (or risk getting fined) so why should I want to pay yet more money to have the privilege to drive my car. It's my car, I bought and paid for it, why should I spend yet more money on using public transport. My car takes me door to door from home to work, there is no public transport in place that will do that and a public transport journey will more than double the time it takes me to get from home to work and vice versa. Tell me then, what benefit would I get from being forced to use public transport because other people think I "should". People are getting more and more ripped off paying taxes on everything, no wonder people say this country is pandering to the poor, I've worked my backside off since I was 17 to get to this stage in my life and career and it drives me mad that my hard work means I have to pay more taxes so that other people can have an easier life!

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I think that the existing laws should be enforced before new ones are enacted. The current laws and taxes are perfectly adequate!

I have seen figures stating that up to 1-in-3 cars in London is either not taxed or MOT'ed or Insured. These vehicles are uncontrolled; some may be dangerous or driven by unlicensed drivers. Remove these cars from the road (I vote for zero tolerance) and congestion will drop dramatically, pollution will be reduced; many of these cars are older and poorly maintained - therefore less efficient. Do this and the problem will go away! The problem with this is that it will be unpopular and therefore not a vote winner.

Taxing law abiding motorists is an easy option, which does nothing to address the problem of unlawful motorists.

If you want to reduce the number of cars using the roads, and there are lots of very good reasons to do exactly that, then reduce the number of cars! All that is needed is a government with a backbone which is prepared to enforce the law!

I have 3 cars - all classics, all are MOT'ed, Taxed and Insured. I do an average of less than 4000 miles a year in total. I enjoy my cars very much. I use public transport for most journeys and in truth public transport is pricey and very seldom any fun.

We need to be careful that we do not end up with a system of public transport which is too time consuming, too congested and too expensive and having no realistic alternative.

So my opinion - enforce the current law.

So the big question vexing some folks is why do I as a motorist not get on a bus or a train to get to wherever I want to go instead of using my private vehicle. Very simple really, there is not a public transport infrastructure that allows me to do this.

For all the additional revenue taken in taxes from me as a private motorist scant little if any of it gets spent on "public" transport. By the way it isn't public as such it is owned by corporate bodies, for profit.

So in order for me to get to a train, I need to get in my car - oops, not allowed to do that - ok, so I get on my walking shoes and walk for half an hour up hill for most of the way, to a rail station and well blow me down, the train is late, has been cancelled, or one doesn't run at a time that allows me to get to the office in adequate time.

Now I have got on a train running late, its dirty, filled with foul mouthed youths (and mothers equally as fould mouthed - obviously only a few seem to teach their kids the benefit of the "f" word at the age of two, but it has and does happen). I get to my detsination at the other end and there is another half hour walk to the office. So all in all, on a wet winters day I have taken some hour and a half to do a twenty minute car journey at a cost that exceeds the cost of the petrol used - where is the benefit.

OK so it isn't always as simple as that - and thats the problem - those that shout out "use public transport" - it isn't as simple as that - it doesn't go past your front door or close by - large housing estates as raised by this government mean that we live away from public transport.

So get this - I have paid my taxes -overand over again and even after being taxed my net earnings suffer more tax through VAT etc. As part of this democratic freedom loving nation I choose to do what allows me to enjoy life - walking for an hour in the morning to a rail station and an hour back in the evening is never going to be my choice. This government knows that and as such this idea of additional taxing for those that make this choice is not one of reducing road usage but raising revenue.

What happened to better ideas such as Park and Ride Schemes -secure out of twon parking allowing you to get to your destination and pay to park with a free ride into town? Oh yes, it doesn't raise enough in REvenue for the Government - silly me for forgetting!!

If they want us to use public transport they first need to get a system in place that works if the system worked they would not need to tax people out of their cars they would do it them self taxing some one a ridiculous price to got to work is stupid and they wonder why there are no jobs and the ones that are available no one wants.

For any one living near me to get to work on public transport is a no there is no bus that will get to Swansea before 9.30am and the last direct bus leaves at 4.30am or you change twice and get home at 8pm and when you got 2 children you can see that it is impossible.

If they spent 100% of the current road fund and fuel duty on improving the roads and the public transport system then we would be world leaders in low congested roads, taxing us more just mean the rich are using them and the poor are walking.

I do feel that if you use the roads, you should pay for that usage - and that includes foreign drivers!

However, why is it that the motorist is target whenever no. 11 decides more revenue is required.

We pay heavy duty on fuel, we pay road tax, we pay VAT on fuel, we pay for VAT on cars and now not only are we going to be charged for the road usage but we going to have to pay for the privilage of having the tracking system installed!

Is it just me or is this country going to the dogs!?

If a pay as you go tax is introduced that reduces the cost to those that use the roads less, and increases the cost to those that use the road more, specifically by getting rid of the catch-all road fund licence, then I am in favour. I enjoy using my car and I am willing to pay for the priviledge of using it. I recognise that there are people who have to travel substantial distances for personal rather than business reasons, but they should benefit from the removal of fuel tax. As I understand it, the overall tax burden would not increase for the average user and those that use the roads less would pay less than currently. However, I would also expect to see serious improvements in the state of our roads which are frequently unpleasant to drive on even after they've been 'mended'. (A stretch of the M1 near Leeds immediately springs to mind!)

We live in the middle of nowhere.

We need four-wheel drive due to terrain & dykes.

We will not be victimized.

Reading some of the posted comments, I must live somewhere totally different to the authors of some of these ridiculous comments.
To get to work, not only is it cheaper but also more sensible and environmentally friendly to use my car. I say this as although my journey takes around 20 minutes, while my car was being serviced, I had to use public transport, not only did this cost more but it also took over 90 minutes, 70 of those minutes were actually on a bus, so is 70 minutes on a bus more energy efficient rather than 20 minutes in a car, especially as there were never more than 8 on the bus?
With my work schedule I only get 2-3 hours with my family now, if it weren't for the car I would get an hour if I was lucky. Of course a car is a necessity, certainley for me; I believe travelling to work must be tax exempt even if they do eventually start to track journeys.
Certainley seeing comments like "If the public can't be bothered to get out of their cars" makes me see red, as I typically make 1 or 2 journeys a month if that, that perhaps could have been on public transport.
I wonder if people involved in these senseless policies are also posting comments here?

Until recently I was driving 1000 miles a week, privately funded, in the most economical car I could sensibly use as a family chap, a Peugeot 406 HDI, giving 40 - 50Mpg, this was costing me around £100 per week in fuel. A mainly motorway commute, how could I be expected to fund a £per mile option, that threatened up to £1.30 per mile. I would be far better off financially on the social !!!!!!

As a pensioner I alredy get free bus and train transport for local travel only and it is very much appreciated and we use it regulary.And we also have a car for shopping and visiting ,this government proposal would be far cheaper for people like us.But for people who have to travel long distances everyday the cost would be prohibitive,commercial vehicles already pay vast amounts of tax and insurance ,I think we could be about to be RIPPED OFF once again .Anyway HAPPY MOTERING.

I would love to be able to go by bike, bus or even train, but I live 30 miles from work and that is roughly half way between my place of work and my wife's. We live in the countryside and on some roads it's too dangerous to even think about riding a bike let alone doing it, as for public transport.....The occasional bus comes through the village twice a day(if we're lucky)and the last train that came any where close, departed platform 1, 50 years ago. And yes we made the choice to live in the countryside but we wanted our children to grow up in an environment where they are stimulated by things other than electrical/electronic gadgets and to have the ability to be able to go for long walks / bike rides(on the safer roads).
If I didn't have the car and relied on public transport then, to get the bus I would have to leave 4 hours before I need to be at work, cycle to the nearest town along the narrow high banked roads, leave my bike and catch a bus, then at the other end it would either be a long walk or another bus ride this would cost a total of £10.40 each way.
However that doesn't work because my childminder doesn't start before 7am(fair enough I think) and I have to drop the kids of before going on to work and I start at 9 am.
The journey home would be as bad if not worse as if I miss the bus because of finishing work late then that's the last bus of the day going anywhere near my house and I'd probably have to get a taxi or see if my wife could come and get me,this would then be creating extra journeys.
all this for a journey which takes 40 mins by car and costs about £2.00........

Public transport's fine if you have it; here, in Greater Manchester, we do but where we lived previously for seventeen years - Lowestoft in Suffolk - public transport was poor and the roads bad. No motorways at all.
The proposed tax would hit those on lower incomes and pensioners hardest. Your average CEO would be fine, but not the single mother in a 2 up 2 down. Roads are not just for the affluent. We should all have a right to travel. Do away with Road Tax and put a bit more on petrol. But make more of an effort to catch the Road Tax dodgers first

OK everyone acknowledges that there is an environmental problem and no one is disputing that. Can this all be attributed to the motorist? I think not!
I would think that the lorries, buses, trains and aeroplanes contribute far more to the problem than the average car owner. So would using public transport be a solution? For a start there are not enough buses and trains at the moment to carry the existiing passengers. By adding more we are surely going to further increase the emissions from public transport. By using public transport more and teh car less we would purchase less fuel. Where would the government find the extra revenue to compansate for the loss in revenue? Could there be yet another tax for owning a car and not using it? As you may gather I own a car and use it every day to travel to work if there were better and cheaper ways to do so but at the moment I use the most convenient way.

Tony Blair and his political party are not bothered about any price increases brought in, we will pay any expences that they incurr through our taxes. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" I travel 32 miles to work and start at 4am not even a sign of any public transport. Sometimes my wife will need the car (can only afford to run one) she will drop me at work, then I travel by public transport to get home (2 hours 40 mins). If running a car gets so expensive I will be seriously thinking about quiting work and living on benefits (so many people seem to manage)

It would be amusing to see all of the comments left by those who obviously live in cities and towns and have a viable alternative in public transport, if it were not so painful!. I live in rural Cornwall, and I can tell you that I would love not to have to pay the fortune that my car costs to keep on the road, but there are NO viable alternatives. There should be a fairer way of taxing those who NEED cars to get to work/shops/medical services etc. to discriminate them from those who CHOOSE to use a car instead of public transport. As a parting shot, I do try to be green: I recycle, I have photovoltaic cells on my roof, I buy local produce to save 'food miles', and have a spring from which I get my water. However, get out a map and see where Penzance is in relation to the Lizard (in Cornwall), get yourself a bus timetable (there are no trains!), and figure out how I can get to and from work every day by public transport - then tell me I do not need a car!

A Bennet item 31 and David Serle on 71 has the right idea of just taxing the petrol. It cuts out another potential level of gov. beaurocracy and just clobbers those who use the road the most. Another idea is that if bulk and heavy goods were made to use rail and shipping more (even canals) it could potentially remove upwards of (my estimate) 30% of the traffic on the major roads. Its primarily trucks that are clogging up the roads..........not the cars. To estimate the amount of trucks on the road, just look what happens on the Kent roads when the Channel crossings get interupted and one of our major national roads become a huge "Truck Park"