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DECEMBER 2006 NEWS

The Western Mail yesterday mentioned are own petition - "Motorists urged to sign poll petition". There are links to all the petitions at top of our home page - you must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petitions, but anyone can take part in BBC vote.

Tolls ploy
The opening of the Cove Lane Tunnel has been delayed. The NSW Nationals say that this is a ploy by the Government as the toll free honeymoon period will now be just before March's election - Sydney Morning Herald - "Tunnel launch branded as an opportunistic election ploy".


Saturday 16 December

Toll "Bartle"
A Missouri state senator is battling to have the law changed so that Missouri can charge tolls to pay for new and existing roads - Land Line mag - "Tolling sought once again for I-70 in Missouri". It isn't clear why the senator is so keen, though it appears that his constituents agree with him, as an official poll in 2004 said that two out of three people wanted tolls!


Friday 15 December

Troll tax
The chairman of Autostrade has attacked an Italian government proposal to tax tolls. He said it was "a one-sided decision" to change the concession agreement. There is nothing to stop any Government from introducing new taxes or raising existing taxes. It is however most unusual for the Trolls, as their concession agreements are usually secret and sacrosanct.

Nomination
Ken is being nominated. No, it's not for his tact and diplomacy - Spiked.

Tolls scrap
The people of Sydney are fighting over who should pay the most tolls - Telegraph - "Keep your handsoff toll Cashback". A pity that they keep electing politicians that will treat them all as fodder for the banks.
PS The "cash back" scheme is bureacracy gone mad. Drivers have to fill in a form to get their money back, and last year 198,000 drivers went to the trouble of doing so - though they do get an average of $Aus 450 back for their trouble. can anyone think of a harder way of collecting money and then giving it back?

California nightmare
There has been a lot in the California news about "HOT" lanes, including this - Inside Bay Area- "How much would an open lane be worth?".
HOT lanes are just a way of sneaking in tolls. They start by making new or possibly existing lanes as reserved for vehicles that have two or more occupants. Then they say that the car share lanes are empty, so why don't we let some driver only cars in, as long as they pay a toll. Then they say that two in a vehicle isn't good enough if you want to avoid the toll. When will Californians wake up and realise that the most efficient way of paying for roads is a gas tax; not a cumbersome, confusing HOT system.

Petition
There are now at least 6 petitions to the Prime Minister against one form or other of tolls. So we have now started one against all tolls - existing and planned.


Thursday 14 December

Toll increase consultation
The Government have announced the start of consultation on increases to the Darford crossing tolls - BBC - "Thames crossing tolls scrutinised"   DfT Press release including link to consultation documents.
The reasons that the Government give for keeping and increasing the tolls fly in the face of the facts. They say the tolls are a safety measure, but US research shows that approaches to tolls are the most dangerous places on the road. This is because of drivers slowing down for toll booths, searching for change, and possibly switching lanes where there is a mix of manned and automatic toll booths. The Government also say that the tolls control the growth of traffic, but the traffic has little choice, all the tolls do is to restrict the volume of vehicles that can cross and cause jams.
MPs from all parties have called for an end to the tolls, if this consultation is genuine, then the Government should listen to them.

Hottest?
Temperatures are at a record high, so they say - BBC - "2006 sets British heat records". This may or may not be accurate. We wonder how many people are aware of what the "Central England Temperature Records" are and who, where and how has beeen measuring the temperatures since 1659. We also wonder how many people realise that most of this series is deductions that were made by just one man. And do they know that the more recent temperature measurements are distorted due to urban areas growing closer to the locations where the measurements have been taken and that estimated adjustments have to be made. If you search on the web for "Central England Temperature" you will see that nearly everyone accepts these CET records on faith, a bit like the Ten Commandments.

Catch 22
Because of the costs of the Ohio River bridges project increasing to $3.9 billion, it is suggested that they and existing bridges linking Indiana and Kentucky may be tolled - Courier-Journal - "Tolls considered in bridge project". This is really Catch 22, as soon as the possibility of tolls arises, the costs of bridges and roads at least doubles.

Cash - less
Following yesterday's announcement that Transurban are to take over the Sydney Roads Group, it has now been said that all the roads will be eventually switched to a cashless system. The Government support this as it will reduce toll delays and thus "improve traffic flow". The main benefit to the Trolls is that the punters are not aware of how much money thay are paying - Sydney Morning Herald - "Bell tolls for cash on motorways".

Troll myths
The Associated Press have put out a story from the Trolls. They point to pollution problems in Asia and say that the answer is a road pricing system as they have in Singapore - International Herald Tribune - "Exploding growth in vehicle numbers in Asia posing pollution headaches". This is the usual disinformation, the root of the problem in Asia (and elsewhere) is a combination of explosive population growth and economy changes.
Singapore does have very high costs for owning a vehicle and has tolls. But it also has low taxes on fuel, particularly diesel. The result is that the average mileage per car in this tiny country is 12,500 miles a year - one of the world's highest. China also has a system of tolls, but no taxes on fuel. As China's GDP per head is rocketing up, do the Trolls really expect anyone to believe that this tolls system will reduce pollution in China?

"Drive less"
The Hartford Courant of Connecticuit comments on the fall in traffic in 2005 (which we reported on 6th). The editor says "There's a movement afoot to bring tolls back to Connecticut. The better way to extract a user fee from drivers is at the pump." - "Let's Keep Driving Less". Only problem is that the Trolls give people driving less or using more fuel efficient cars, as an argument for tolls!

Tolls PR
Florida has about 8 authorities controlling toll roads. One alone (the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority) has spent $1.6 million in last 4 years on PR, including holiday parties and ghost writing of magazine articles - St Petersburg Times - "What did board get for $1.6M on P.R.?".

Bus law 2
On Tuesday we reported on the Government's new "Bus Law". Today the Troll Times seems to agree with us that this would probably make things worse. So are we wrong? "Transport policy takes dangerous turn".


Wednesday 13 December

"Flawed model"
The federal government plans to double the tolls on the Harbour bridge in New Brunswick. Residents are calling for the tolls to be scrapped instead - CBC - "Bridge debt a 'mortgage you can never repay': Saint John MP". It is not unusual for the debt on a tolled facility to be more then it cost to build as most of the toll income is wasted in collection, poor administration and cosy relationships with contractors. But even if there were no debt, the trolls will never let go.

Sales push
Two more examples of the big Troll sales push - Spooner Advocate - "Open Road Tolling is a sensible funding option"   North West Progressive Institute - "The Discovery Institute and tolls". One thing is for sure, there is a LOT of money behind all this sales push.

Merger live
Though the European trolls are not merging for the moment, two Australian trolls today agreed a merger. Transurban are to take over Sydney Roads Group (a spin off from MIG) and become Australia's largest troll - The Age - "Transurban tops in tolls".

Social engineering
Not tolls, but another indication of what the car haters are up to, and what people think of it - Sound Politics - "Utopian social engineering at its worst".

"A tax is not a tax"
An article written from a trolls / mass transit viewpoint, but which also indicates who is for and against tolling New York City and the free bridges - Gotham Gazette - "Congestion Pricing And The Future Of NYC: Addressing The Objections".

Tolls halved
Not really! Just another of many instances of a switch to one way tolling so as to eliminate half of the toll queues and accidents - Star Ledger - "Northbound Barnegat toll booths to get the boot".

Merger dead?
The Trolls have called off their merger - at least for now - Houston Chronicle - "Autostrade Board Calls Off Merger".

Ken reaches out

Transport for London have appointed a new marketing boss, who's job will include - "Educating the public on London's Congestion Charge". Should be an easy job then, as most of the news media are happy to go along with a bit of fantasy.

New Year Present
Tolls in Malaysia are to increase by 60 per cent from 1st January. Under the agreements with the toll operators the Government has to guarantee them a profit. A lot of people are already avoiding the tolls. The high increase will be on the basis that more drivers will use other roads, but that a hard core of drivers will pay anything - The Edge - "Road tolls to rise by up to 60%".


Tuesday 12 December

The Great Plunder
"Only one-third of fees collected by state and local government from motorists goes directly to road construction and maintenance" according to 2005 statistics.
Gas taxes were $20.5 billion, registration fees and miscellaneous taxes $13.5 billion, and road tolls were $6.5 billion. The $40.5 billion is split - $12 billion on "administration and overhead", $13 billion road construction and maintenance, $6.5 billion on debt (mass transit as well as roads) and Highway police, $1.5 billion on mass transit, and $7.5 billion on social spending - Newspaper.com - "Billions in Highway Taxes Diverted to General Spending" (includes link to FHA statistics).
PS The above report may not be reliable, as it seems that the figures for both taxes and spending should be a lot higher. The figures were only released today, and all details are not yet available, but this is the main source.

Bus law
The Government has announced that it is to make changes to the law to give local authorities control over bus companies. There has been a mixed reaction from bus companies, what they really want is cars to be forced off the road through either road pricing or reservation of half the road space for buses. It is likely that the main effect of the Government proposals is that bus company monopolies will become established, with smaller bus companies not being allowed to compete.

Merger still blocked
There are still problems with the Trolls merger. The merger is being pushed by tollocrats at Brussels, but the Italian Government is doing its best to block the "fusion" - AGI - "AUTOSTRADE AND ABERTIS FAR FROM FUSION".


Monday 11 December

Tamar trial
Electronic tolling is to be trialled on the Tamar bridge - BBC - "Bridge toll tag scheme trialled". Experience in the United States is that electronic tolling systems can be dangerous. This is because the electronic tolls usually have separate unmanned booths and lanes, and accidents occur as drivers switch between lanes. This will be far more likely to happen on the Tamar bridge as there are a lot of tourists that use it. Instead of electronic tolling, drivers would prefer no tolling. Drivers will of course get no say, and the people will be kept in the dark.

Silence is golden

Perhaps Duggie had in mind the experience of Dave two weeks earlier - ABD - "Miliband admits The Inconvenient Truth".

Keep tolls

In Sunday's Florida Ledger there was a story about a toll income boom on the Polk Parkway. This raised the question about when this and other roads would have paid off their debts and become free - but the Tolls PR spokesman said - "That is an urban myth, that toll roads are paid off and become public. No toll roads have ever dropped their tolls.".


Sunday 10 December

Moral question
The Patriot News points to some difficulties with selling the Pennsylvania turnpike - "'Pike transfer may already be an impossibility". The piece ends "What are the economic and moral consequences of making a long-term lease or permanent sale of a major piece of public property to gain a short-term fix?". When it comes to tolls, there is no such thing as morals or even economics.

Different solutions to Irish congestion
Dublin has major traffic congestion, mainly caused by economic boom and increased population, but also "fuelled" by relatively low fuel prices, with some effect from delays caused by tolls. There are two reports on this today.
The Sunday Times solution to the problem is for the Government to buy out the toll roads. Being the Times they don't want the tolls removed, only replaced by electronic tolls.
The Sunday Post though quotes Automobile Association spokesman Conor Faughnan - ‘‘Tolls are a crude and clumsy way of raising money, and should be done away with. Rising motor tax may not be popular, but it would work better for this purpose. People who are driving to work are being demonised, and this is unfair as, for many, it is the only direct route." - "Gridlock - No easy solutions".


Saturday 9 December

"Kink in tolls process"
More on Thursday's story about new figures that show that a gas tax is better value than tolls - My SA - "Toll road argument thrown into doubt". Did anyone really need figures to prove that tolls cost drivers a lot more money and inconvenience than using gas tax or bonds repaid from gas tax? And does anyone think this study will make any difference to those who profit from toll roads and have lots of money to make sure that they get what they want?

Bold step
It seems that both the USA and Britain are again to go boldly where no sensible person would go. The new US Transport Secretary, Mary Peters, yesterday announced that she is setting up a carbon copy of Britain's Transport Innovation Fund to encourage American cities to introduce "congestion" charges and more tolls - DoT press release   DoT "Gridlock" site.

No roads
An example of what is going on in Britain, with plans for 50 thousand new homes in Oxfordshire, but no new or improved roads - Oxford Mail - "Congested A34 faces gridlock".

Radical plan for thousand pound a mile tolls
As this plan is not yet being promoted by the usual suspects, it is probably not yet official - Rockall Times - "Astounding plan to cut congestion at a stroke".


Friday 8 December

Scientific proof - "Tolls are good for you"
The New Scientist seems to have joined the Trolls as they say - "Charging motorists to use roads is the only way to encourage them to drive less.". They also suggest that the best way of doing this is to use the existing mobile phone network cells, and they say in Taiwan they have already demonstrated that this will work. As the Government readily accept what is told them about global warming by some scientists, we wonder if they are daft enough to believe that this would really work?

It takes two
The Nashua Telegraph reports on a campaign against toll evaders - "Police crack down on toll evaders with bad excuses". Two toll attendants hid in a booth. One caught and counted the money as it slid through the toll basket, and the other "kept an eye on the cars". Could this replace automatic machines?

Green news

Greenpeace have today issued a press release on the need to burn less oil. They have various suggestions, but taxing fuel is not one. Instead they advocate road pricing and congestion charging - "Oil and peace don't mix".


Thursday 7 December

Regression analysis
Some brave people in Texas are suggesting that instead of tolls they should raise the gas tax. Those who want tolls are shouting this down and say that the gas tax is "regressive" - East Texas Review - "Eight-cent indexed gas-tax increase can replace tolling".

A Tale of Two Cities
The establishment campaign to toll New York is hotting up. Heaven help them, as they believe the myths about the success of the London Congestion scheme - Streetsblog - "Road Pricing Worked in London. Can It Work in New York?".

More on pre budget announcement

The FTA have complained that the Government have not committed to doing something to stop foreign lorries being run on the cheap on British roads - TNN - "FTA Disappointed". For what it's worth, this is what was published yesterday - "Haulage Industry Task Group:summary of evidence".
Yesterday's pre budget announcement did have at paragraph 7.58 - "Further work is now being undertaken by the Government to explore ways of delivering more targeted enforcement on foreign vehicles. This could be done by introducing a database covering all foreign hauliers entering and working in the UK. One way this could be achieved would be via a ‘vignette’ - a time-based charge for the use of UK roads designed to make foreign hauliers pay for some of the damage they cause on UK roads. If such a scheme were introduced it is very likely to be administered through the existing VED registration process in order to minimise the administrative burden on domestic hauliers. The Government will undertake a detailed feasibility study into options for establishing a database, including through a vignette." Sounds like a good idea, but will it be allowed by the EU? And why are the RHA and FTA not pushing for reductions in vehicle excise duty?

Huddled masses
An article from Joe Stowers who reckons that road mileage (in US) would halve if people lived closer together - Fairfax County Times - "Density doesn't always mean more traffic".


Wednesday 6 December

Fuel tax up - More Tolls Lobby complain
As expected the Chancellor is increasing fuel taxes from midnight - BBC - "Industry anger at fuel duty rise". The tax is going from 47.1 pence to 48.35 pence a litre. By our reckoning and including VAT, this will mean drivers paying an extra £750 million a year.
PS There are some further reactions to the fuel price increase. Not surprisingly the advocates for tolls on all roads are saying that the fuel price increase will damage Britain and hit the poor -
AA Motoring Trust - ""Nobody is going to scrap their driving habits, simply because most people can't. People would rather give up spending money elsewhere than stop using their cars.
FTA - "Increase in fuel duty will undermine public confidence in a national road pricing system. This will remind all road users that the main aim will be to dip into motorists' pockets."
RAC Foundation - "The increase in fuel tax would be especially hard on low-income families, who spend around a quarter of their household expenditure on running a car. Many on low incomes are dependent on their cars."

Toll changes

There is pressure to move more tolls on the New York State Thruway - Buffalo Biz - "Call out to relocate Lackawanna tolls". What will they do when the toll booths reach the state line?

Brighton Groundhog Day
The Argus today says that "Motorist will spend more than 139,000 hours a year stuck in traffic on the A27 north of Brighton by 2025 if road pricing is not introduced." But if road pricing is introduced then wasted time will fall to 28,000 hours a year - "Pay to drive - or sit in traffic jams".
We must admit you can't beat the Trolls when it comes to figures, as they don't live in the real world. If a driver was on the road every hour of the year, that would be about 8,766 hours. It could of course be that they meant not one motorist but all drivers, but it also says that the daily traffic on the road is 78,000 vehicles, so that would mean that each driver was wasting less than 2 hours a year.
PS The Argus also had this report on Sussex businesses opposed to road charging - "Firms attack plan for road pricing".

Be prepared
The Orlando Sentinel says that a Florida toll authority has spent over $10,000 on designing ads for a toll increase that hasn't yet been discussed. The papers says that "Some question why the ads were commissioned at all, the authority's board risks looking as if its public deliberations are a sham."

Who pays?
The Birmingham Post gives the reaction of a local FSB official to the latest road pricing plans - "Public should pay road charges, not businesses". He says - "The original intention was for any road charging to be revenue neutral, but similar schemes have not worked out like that in reality and, if you think about it, they never would."

"Dysfunctional"
The Stagecoach bus company today said - "The big issue for government about this congestion charging is that local government structure in metropolitan cities is very dysfunctional." Not sure if even they understood what this meant, but it seems that it's not all bad as they also announced today that profits were up 34 per cent.

Tolls sales

When the Americans sell a road they usually get billions of dollars for it. By contrast the BBC today reports that a British council is selling a road for one pound (two dollars) - "Council set to sell road for £1".

Americans drive less
According to the Federal Highway Administration, Americans drove less in 2005 than 2004. Individually each American drove 1 per cent less, which is partly offset by population growth. It has been suggested that the fall is partly due to higher gas prices in 2005 compared with year before, and partly due to demographic factors - there are more old people and they drive less than young people.

Times heresy
We could not believe this, the Troll Times today has a piece from Alice Miles which is not supporting road pricing - "England's Brown and unpleasant land". Alice says -
"It’s not as if anyone would choose to drive in the particular hell which is the rush hour if they could avoid it. And petrol duty already taxes the amount, if not the time of day, a car travels, and more fairly than road charging because it hits harder the richer you are and the more hungry and faster your car. Road charging prices the poor off the road while enabling business to speed along the unencumbered networks untroubled by oiks and grannies in old Austins. If overall travel must be curtailed, then why hasn’t there been any serious discussion of, for instance, petrol allowances - an annual allowance that each person would be free to use or sell on to someone else? Let the poor make some money from their enforced stillness. Let those who manage without cars gain some benefit from their abstinence.".

Con in the sky
Last week the Australian flying knight said that the answer to road congestion was more tolls, congestion charges, and road pricing, whereas he suggested that we needed more airports. Perhaps on his flying trips to Britain, he should have stopped off in Bangalore - dnaindia.

Unique Irish Toll
Yet another toll road - the Port Tunnel Dublin - opens in a fortnight. It is unusual in that it is designed to encourage heavy traffic away from the city streets. Trucks can use it for free, while vans and cars will be tolled. One van driver is suggesting a blockade - Dublin People - "A pain in the toll ".


Tuesday 5 December

American drivers want tolls
At least they do according to a press release today from the American Automobile Association, who say that 52% of drivers want more tolls. The AAA have not released any details as to what exactly the drivers were asked. The same group of drivers put roads and transportation at the bottom of a list of possible priorities. The Oil companies will be pleased as only 21 per cent thought that gas tax was the way to finance roads.

No Tennessee Tolls
Nashville City Paper reports that Tennessee is to use more of the gas tax on roads. The Governor says that they will not bring in toll roads, though it seems he reckons he has no choice - "When it comes to where you would put a road in Tennessee that somebody would pay to drive on and they couldn't just easily take a road along side of it somewhere, it's not obvious about where that is".

Transport "punishment"
Brendan O’Neill, as far as we know had never written on any aspect of tolls, but today he has a long piece on Spiked arguing against last week's "no brainer" report - "Welcome to the stay-at-home society". You may notice a reference to the RAC Foundation, we thought this strange, but it seems that back in February 2003, they were actually arguing that there were answers to congestion apart from tolls.

Number One
There are 4 or more petitions against some aspect of tolls on the new site for petitions to Prime Minister (see top of our home page). The petition which says "Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy" is now the most popular petition with over 15,000 signatures.
There is also a new petition aganst the Dartford tolls.

Christmas Present
Transport for London have announced the usual Xmas suspension of the Con charge from "Saturday 23 December until Monday 1 January inclusive". Not quiet as good as it sounds as there is already no charge at weekends or public holidays. Though we shouldn't complain too much as all other toll operators in Britain charge 365 days a year!

No - GI - tolls
Opponents of the Grand Island, New York, tolls have set up a - web site - "Say No". The campaign now has support from the "Grand Island Town Supervisor".

NZ toll consultation closes
Radio New Zealand reports that submissions are now closed on the tolls proposals, with 20,000 individuals or organisations submitting their view. They also report that the New Zealand Council of Infrastructure Development, a business backed lobby group, wants tolls - no surprise there then!

More Florida Troll trouble
From tampabays10.com - "Crosstown board fights to stay alive".

Snake Oil sales conference
Yesterday there was a conference organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a Labour Think Tank - "Steering through change: winning the debate on road pricing". This is all part of the campaign to try and sell this snake oil to the people. It is interesting to see who the organisations are that are part of the sales team - the Transport Secretary, the boss of Transport 2000 , the boss of RAC Foundation and the boss of "Congestion Charging" in London.
PS The RAC Foundation may have been busy helping the Government tolls campaign and they have only just issued this press release.
PPS The text of the Transport Secretary's speech.

"Weather of Mass Destruction"
Association of British Drivers press release - "Pre-Budget Statement: Green or Brown?".


Monday 4 December

More on Car Party
We reported on the 8th November about the formation of a "Party for Drivers" who hope "to attract enough interest to be able to fight seats in the areas of black box charging trials and are also hoping to field candidates against the London Congestion Charge and Congestion Charges and Tolls in general.". They wish to "make this into a social cause for justice for the less well off who are being taxed off our roads". Today they are complaining about how the news media are ignoring them - freepressreleases. We know how they feel! The news media are swamped with news stories and press releases - unfortunately reporters usually take the easy way out, and they think that closed organistions like the RAC represent drivers and reporters publicise what they say.

"Toll systems cost more than they are worth"
This is according to Doctor Hans Grueber (originally of the Green Party) of Highway Robbery Incorporated. He also says - that the toll "choice is false, not based on any facts, and amounts to blackmail". A situation that exists world wide!   NZ Herald. The article ends - "Do we really want Lexus lanes v loser lanes? The problem with creating a hybrid between toll and congestion charges is that they are mutually exclusive. A tolls system tries to increase traffic on the road to make as much money as quickly as possible to pay back the loan. Congestion charges are aimed at reducing traffic. If tolls are such a good idea, why would Transit use deception to convince us? The answer is simple. I put $1000 cash on the table at the Auckland City Council meeting for the first councillor to come up with one good reason for tolls. There were no takers. There is no good reason."

Family friendly
Female First reports on how Ken's proposed £25 (nearly fifty dollars) daily toll will not just hit 4x4s - "Ken’s Congestion Charge Hike Will Hit Families Hardest".
What is also ignored by Ken and his allies is that if these cars have higher emissions then they are already paying more in fuel taxes. On the official "urban cycle" these cars get about 20 to 22 miles per gallon. Their country cousins though they drive more may pay less in fuel tax, as these cars on the official "extra urban cycle" average 37 to 39 miles per gallon.

New York Mayor says no to con
The New York Daily News reports that despite pressure from Trolls, the Mayor currently has no intention of following in Ken Livingstone's footsteps - "Drivers get brake on congest tax". Other sources say that there is a "big money push" behind this, and they are funding environmental and neighborhood groups to encourage them to back tolls.
PS Here is a pro tolls piece from Streetsblog - "Congestion Charging in New York City : The Political Bloodbath". Though this is pro tolls, Mayor Bloomberg may not be encouraged by the suggestion that Mayor William Jay Gaynor only removed the tolls from the East River Bridges in 1910 because of an assassination attempt.

Trucks 'n Tolls
The Tribune Herald reports that truckers will avoid new Texas tolls - My SA - "Proposed toll road could drive away truckers".
Also this morning, the Patriot News of Pennsylvania reports one reason for "massive congestion on the I-78 is that it is a major truck cutoff between points west and south to New York City, since it allows trucks to avoid all tolls until they reach northern New Jersey"

Bit more on "No - brainer" report

PS You have to laugh don't you, after all the hype about road tolls being needed to save the planet, this evening in stark contrast there is a story on the BBC about a report from "Oxford Economic Forecasting". They say expanding air travel and British airports "Would boost the UK economy by £13bn a year, outweighing the costs of climate impacts by 2030."


Sunday 3 December

Sunday views on "No - brainer" report

Hamish McRae, in the Independent on Sunday, gives a less than warm welcome to road pricing. On the other hand Simon Jenkins in the Sunday Troll Times is enthusiastic about road pricing despite (because?) admitting that "It will penalise the poor". He also puts forward a remarkable idea - "With rationing by price the available tarmac can handle more traffic, perhaps even 50% more, without too much pain." - "Let the taxman put the brakes on".
The Sunday Telegraph has an article "The nine-year jam: still no end in sight""" by Chris Grayling, the Shadow Transport Secretary. In general he is saying too little too late but he supports both some "road pricing and tolls in the right places: for example to support improvement projects such as the M6 toll road".
Also in the Telegraph, Sir Tel gives a TOGs view - "Wogan's World"


Saturday 2 December

"No brainer" - Texas style
San Antonio Toll Party view - My SA - "Toll road proposals will fleece Texas taxpayers".

German greenicity
We believe that British greens with their support for road tolls are simple minded dupes of the establishemnt, but it seems that greens elsewhere are just the same - Reuters - "German Greens refocus on environment to win voters".

Trolls in trouble
Florida Trolls are accused of maladministration, including paying $1.5 million to toll lobbyists - Tampa Tribune - "Audit Rouses Authority Critics".

Londinium
Archaeological discovery from the reign of "Tightass Hystericus", the well known non chariot driver - The Spoof

Saturday views on "No - brainer" report

The Daily Express is against road pricing and described the idea as "Toxic". Predictably the troll Times is enthusiastic about road pricing and looks forward to poorer drivers being forced off the roads, and preferably out of trains as well. Also predictably the green Guardian says that "Sir Rod quite rightly recommends congestion charging", and its only quibble is that it wants to make sure that nothing is spent on improving roads. Perhaps less predictably the Independent "welcomes radical action and that the issue of climate change has transcended the world of environmental pressure groups and entered the world of economics and business"
The Telegraph on the other hand is marginally against it - Editorial - "The car economy and the morality of driving"   David Millward - "Raising fuel tax could be the stick to beat gridlock"   David Millward - "Pay £24.57 a day for right to drive to work"   Simon Heffer - "Why we must tell the road-pricers to hop it".


Friday 1 December

A bit more on "No - brainer" report

Shares in various companies have gone up following the report - those to benefit include - bus companies, train operators, airlines and various companies that might administer road pricing schemes or supply equipment.

More news and reaction to "No - brainer" report

You can probably guess NAAT reaction, this was our press release - Road pricing would be the greatest folly that Britain's politicians have ever inflicted upon the people. The London Congestion Charge is a crude system compared with what is proposed for road pricing, but £5 of the daily £8 charge is spent on administration and enforcement. In addition there is the initial cost of implementing road pricing - estimated by the Government as up to £62 billion (Cost of road pricing implementation from Annex J of Feasibility Study of Road Pricing in the UK, published July 2004). Why would anybody want to waste all this money on tax collectors and spy cameras?

Drivers do not want tolls in any form. That was clearly demonstrated in the referendum that was held in Edinburgh in February of last year - they voted against tolls by a three to one margin. The views of drivers were also clear from recent Government sponsored research (Attitudes to road pricing from page 4 of "Consumer Behaviour and Pricing Structures", research carried out by Leeds University for Department for Transport and released on 17th March 2006). That research revealed - "the emergence of a preference for any road user charges to be collected via a surcharge on fuel tax rather than through a separate distance charge" - due to the greater complexity and a disinclination to have to pay 'yet another bill'. It also concluded that road pricing would probably fail to achieve its stated aim, as charges that varied according to the road and the time of day would be too complex for most people.

Drivers realise that they are already overtaxed, though they may not realise that direct and indirect roads taxes add up to £50 billion a year. The Government could reduce congestion by spending some of that £50 billion on improving the road system. If instead they continue on their present course, then they will eventually kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

We urge everyone to tell the politicians that this daft idea should be killed now. Road taxes are already too high - we want less not more. Tolls will "save £28 billion a year"