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UK: Road Monitors To Directly Tax Cars By Mile
London Mirror | November 27 2004
MOTORISTS will be charged more than £1-a-mile to use their cars during rush hour, it was announced yesterday.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling is getting tough on drivers with the pay-as-you-drive scheme to ease Britain's traffic-clogged roads.
And he warned the Government would not keep building more roads to keep motorists on the move.
Under the plan drivers would have to pay £1.34-a-mile to use motorways and trunk roads at peak times.
Vehicles would be fitted with monitors which would be scanned by 'readers' fitted on road gantries and bills sent to people's homes.
Mr Darling insisted: "There is a limit to how much more road capacity you can create."
Other proposals to cut congestion on the roads include:
TIDAL FLOWS: The direction of traffic of one lane of a motorway is reversed to ease rush hour traffic jams.
HARD SHOULDER RUNNING: The emergency lane is opened up during peak periods to make extra room.
DYNAMIC LANES: Cats' eyes are used to change three lane motorways into four by narrowing lane width.
VARIABLE SPEED LIMITS: Maximums are lowered and minimum raised in rush hours to improve flow. The proposals come after a report said The Highways Agency has been "too slow, too timid and too cautious" in finding ways to speed up traffic.
The Agency, which runs motorways and main roads throughout England, was told to find radical "quick win" solutions to beat snarl-ups.
The National Audit Office also said it was "behind its overseas counterparts" in finding solutions to jams.
And it criticised transport chiefs for not knowing about big sporting and entertainment events in advance which often bring motorways grinding to a halt.
Highways Agency boss Archie Robertson admitted they had not done enough to ease the misery of jams.
He said: "We are already taking steps to address some of the issues identified but fully accept that we have more work to do."
He added: "I will ensure that where recommendations for improvement are safe and appropriate to deliver, we will take action."
The National Audit Office report said average traffic speeds had improved between 1998 and 2003 but they were still slower than 1995.
Traffic volumes on all roads rose by 14 per cent between 1995 and 2002.
Sheer weight of traffic accounted for 65 per cent of congestion, while things like accidents made up 25 per cent and roadworks 10 per cent.
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