Road pricing blather from Borris 3

Jennifer Dunn Economics 101

On Monday the issue of road charging reared its head once again. But, no sooner had the story hit the front page of the Evening Standard, Boris Johnson issued a rebuttal:

“There is absolutely no scheme in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy to introduce road user charging in London.”

London’s motorists, panicked by the prospect of being hit by yet another charge, breathed a sigh of relief.

Just how did the claim “London motorists face a £1 a mile toll” hit the headlines then? The Guardian point out that within the Transport Strategy document was a proposal that said managing the demand for travel could be achieved through various pricing incentives. This included:

“road user charging if other measures at the Mayor’s disposal are deemed insufficient to meet the strategy’s objectives.”

Case solved then. The mayor optioned road charging as a possible means to confront the multiple demands within London transport- cut congestion, reduce emissions and find a source of revenue to foot the bill. Indeed, on face value at least, road charging could meet all those demands.

But the reality is that road pricing would not just be extremely expensive to implement, even more than the congestion charge. It would also probably end up as another burden on already overtaxed motorists. No one should trust that they’ll get the cuts in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) and fuel duty that could make up for any ‘pay-as-you-drive’ measure. Piling on another road charge on top of all the existing charges would just cement drivers’ already legitimate claims that they are treated as cash cows within transport policy.

Transport for London (TfL) is undoubtedly facing budgetary pressure, having inherited a debt worth £2 billion from “failed privateer” Metronet. But it is unjust to place the onus on motorists yet again. Previous Taxpayers’ Alliance research shows that taxes on motorists are already massively excessive compared to their impact on the environment.

If TfL want to tackle the current challenges with transport policy in London it is going to have to be more creative than repeating tired road charging ideas.

Jennifer Dunn

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The Evening Standard article implies that there is extra capacity on the underground “as fewer people [are] using the Tube.”
Public transport is preferable over private when it comes to efficiency, the environment and resource management.
The people I know who move to London give up their cars. They don’t need them is the reason they give, not that they are being forced out of them.
Motorists that refuse to come to that judgement willingly open themselves up to coercion by the pricing system.
Where public transport is irregular and woeful I understand the choice of the personal car. London has it better than most, if not all, other settlements in the country.
The Taxpayer Alliance is very much against the wasteful burning of our money, I would hope it’s just as sensible about the wasteful burning of fuel.
AdrianS

Whilst inner London has a great transport infrastructure the rest of the UK doesnt so road charging would not be appropriate for the rest of the UK.
The average car driver simply wants to go to work to earn money, very little ” Pleasure mileage”. Should they cycle to work or take public transport—- yes if you want to shorten the average persons working week to take into account extra travelling time.
If we keep taxing the motorist in thier effort to go to work sooner or later it will be uneconomic for them to work and this indirect tax will fall unfairly on lower paid workers. Equally this will limit many workers to a local only employment enviroment, through excessive transport costs , and will cause a reduction in their ability to earn which will push them closer to poverty and further reduce the tax yield for the goverment to spend.
As they said in Monty Pythons Life of Brian
” Nice one Centurion”
Paul Feild

Boris nice guy, but come on the congestion charge up by 25% it’s bl##dy highway robbery.
Let’s get the incoming government to abolish the GLA – it’s a waste of money on a huge scale!
Paul Feild