[UK] Thirsty cars face new toll in road pricing scheme

cyclopath2001

From 'The Sunday Times', November 7 2004:

Thirsty cars face new toll in road pricing scheme
Dipesh Gadher, Transport Correspondent
GAS-GUZZLING cars that take up the most space on roads ought to be charged more than smaller, more fuel-efficient ones under a national road-pricing scheme, says a report commissioned by the government.

Researchers at Leeds University also believe higher tariffs should be imposed on parents taking their children to school and on motorists using busy holiday routes during summer weekends.

The findings emerged as an influential committee of MPs called on the government to charge higher levels of vehicle excise duty (VED) — road tax — on the most polluting cars, including 4x4 vehicles.

In a separate report published today, the Commons transport committee urges ministers to do more to support the development and manufacture of cleaner and safer cars, including offering more grants to encourage drivers to switch to low-emission vehicles.

The Leeds recommendations form part of a study ordered by Alistair Darling, the transport secretary, to lay down a framework that drivers will find fair and acceptable for a national strategy to charge motorists every time they travel on a road.

Darling has made it clear charges are needed to tackle growing levels of congestion and has suggested that such a scheme — based on satellite-tracking technology — could be in place by 2014.

Under proposals submitted to the Department for Transport earlier this year, motorists could be charged up to £1.34 a mile to use urban and trunk roads. However, the team at Leeds said: “If the price signal is too weak it will not achieve its objective but if it is too strong it may stir up such opposition that the whole scheme has to be abandoned.”

Justifying higher charges for bigger vehicles, the Leeds report says: “If the system was supposed to help to reduce congestion, it would be difficult to defend charging a small car the same amount to use a holiday route in mid-February as a large 4x4 towing a caravan is charged to use that same route on August bank holiday.”

Peter Bonsall, professor of transport planning at Leeds University, who led the research, said: “Caravans take up twice as much road space, so perhaps they should be charged twice as much as smaller vehicles.”

Today’s report from the Commons transport committee, entitled Cars of the Future, calls for the existing price bands for VED to be widened. Motorists are now charged £55-£165 depending on the level of carbon dioxide emission generated.

The MPs’ report says: “A 4x4 can produce up to four times more carbon dioxide per mile than the most fuel-efficient small cars . . . owners of cars that produce high levels of carbon should be made to pay for the environmental damage they cause.”

The committee also urges the government to show greater political will in developing technologies that could prevent drink-drivers from starting their engines and dangerous motorists from exceeding the speed limit or driving too close to a vehicle in front.

“With appropriate leadership by the government, these vehicles could be on the road within 10 to 20 years,” says the report.

OfflerCrocGod

Common Sense in other words.