The Weekly Question

Are more Airline Taxes and Pay as You Go roads Going to work?

Well I have just returned from Serbia and have heard that this wonderful government of ours have plans to raise taxes on Airline fuel duty, and to introduce in the future "Pay as you Go" roads, so the question for the week is will it work? Will it reduce the amount of cars on the road? No Chance!

The very fact that people travel in their cars is because they have to. No debate, no excuses, there are so many people now who would find it virtually impossible to get to work without their motors, I am one of them, and here is why.
In most parts (notice I said most) of the country the public transport system is inefficient, crowded, and too expensive, it can also be very unreliable. So people resort to using their cars.
There is also the fact that you feel a damn sight safer in your car than you would if you were on a tube, and a bunch of drunken louts got on spoiling for trouble.

Lets take each of the points in turn;

1) Inefficient/Unreliable Public transport system - How many times have you been waiting for a train that has been delayed? Or for one bus, and then two turn up because the 2nd bus has caught up with the 1st that was late?
How many times have you missed or been late for an appointment because the train was late?
These are all problems that still have not been addressed, and they will continue to be a problem until the funding for public transport is improved.

2) Crowded - Yep that's right, although it is pretty poor, the public transport system is pretty crowded, go on the London Underground, and it's not very often you will get a seat all the way to your destination. More than likely you end up with the armpit of the worlds worst washer stuffed under your nose.

3) Too expensive - 5 years ago I was traveling from Grantham to Stevenage in my car everyday, a journey of around 800 miles a week, so I decided to check the price of a monthly season ticket on the train. I was quoted £343 per month. Now you then add the daily carpark cost, as I was too far from the station to walk and it would for the month have taken the cost to over £400. Now when you consider that my petrol for the month was costing about £280, Add to that wear & tear, and the cost to travel by car would be about £320. So which one am I going to choose?? Not only that when I take my own car, I can go when I want and come back when I want, I am not tied to anything.

Now if the government do introduce this pay as you go cost, it will be a complete nightmare. The cost will be astronomical, fitting every car with a special device to monitor the cars position, and to how far traveled, is really a non-starter. policing it is going to be ludicrous, how are they going to do it?? For me it is a total no brainer by the government trying to appease the environmentalists.
If they want to get the people of the roads, there is only one way they are gong to do it, and that is to improve public transport;

1) Make the public transport network better available to all, and serving more places more often.
2) Make Public Transport cheaper
3) Don't just concentrate on London, there are other cities you know Blair!
4) Make public transport safer, for travelerller.
5) Encourage the use of public transport, by offering incentives to use it, such as tax breaks.
6) Improve the quality of the buses, trains etc, there are an awful lot of dingy trains, that are filthy dirty, and not in the least bit welcoming.
7) Reward good PT operators, for cleanliness, efficiency and time keeping.

In answer then to the question. No it will not work as far to many oftrulyuely cannot do without our cars, we are living in a society where we live further and further away from our work, and therefore until the government change their policy of hitting the motorist as much as it can, to updating and improving Public Transport, to get as many people using it as they can. Then they will always have a battle on their hands.