If you think it couldn't happen outside the UK, think again...

What is 'road pricing'? The UK Govt says road congestion is bad and only going to get worse, which they say is bad for the economy, and bad for the environment. They say the cost of more/better roads and better public transportation is very high, but besides needing money for those things, they say that charging drivers based on road usage based on location, time, and amount, is the way to go.

They would do this by putting a GPS-like box in the car that would report to the govt EVERYWHERE EVERY vehicle goes. With this data the govt would charge each vehicle owner (presumably) based on that usage. Rates would vary to encourage and discourage driving at various times, locations and distances.

The govt 'claims' this 'monitoring' would not be used to catch speeders or other purposes, only to reduce road congestion.

They're looking for an implementation maybe by 2014 from what I can tell.

For those in North America, if you think this can't happen, think again. I believe it was a North Western states (Oregon maybe?) that was (is?) contemplating the SAME idea.

For more info, but mostly vague bureaucratic double-speak on the UK proposals, click here:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/roadpricing/debate/faq

Here's the govt summary of the latest study:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/road...roadpricin4003

If this kind of idea bothers you, you need to let your politicians know about it.

 

If this goes into effect, i guarantee that the gov will "see" that my car never leaves the garage.... b/c thats where that sensor will stay. Big brother better keep his nose the hell out of my business...

Invasion of privacy STARTS with crap like this. Promises that it wont be used for (insert something)... kinda like how satellite radio promised to be commercial free...

 

dont we get to vote on this?.. lol, i know everyone in america would vote this idea out of existence if they had the chance..

 

Easy to say but such a device may well detect tampering and report that too, which would no doubt invite fines or worse.

Well this is far worse than commercials on satellite radio!

But we should NOT trust the govt to not use data like this for stuff other than 'road usage'.

 

The government isn't nearly as smart as hackers/mechanics who hate the government... there are ways

 

No hacker has decoded the Toyota engine ECU.

No hacker (to my knowledge) has broken a debit card PIN pad.

No hacker has even broken into the Lexus nav DVD.

I agree the govt can be stupid at times, but not always.

 

But they already have done it with piggy back ecu. Why mess with something and break itwhen you can easily work with it.

Not sure what broken a debit car pin pad does but they can alrady steal your pin number and clone your card right off your ATM machine, and then withdraw money from your bank account any day they want. Its already been done, ABC, NBC news are running those stories all the time.

Oh the hacker has already broken the copy protection on DVDs (a couple months after DVD came out) And yes Lexus nav disc is a DVD.

In a related story, HD Dvd and Blue ray which claims they have all these high tech proctection system bragged about it impossible to compromise, this system has already been defeated before it even went on sale.

I doubt the governments system will stand a chance

 

Maybe if the GOVERNMENT buys my car it would have some backing. INstead, I buy my car and
get taxed
then I buy gas
and get taxed
and I pay for the roads
with my taxes
and then I pay toll roads
another tax

And now, they want to charge me to DRIVE where I want? Hang them all.

 

The main problem is not traffic per se, but population growth and sprawl. To get at the real root of the problem, they need to stop issuing so many building permits and control the number of people coming in. Otherwise, all it does is penalize the drivers who are already on the roads.

We unfortunately have done the same thing in this country....allowed virtually unlimited population growth, building permits, and sprawl....and it has gotten us into a real mess as well.

 

With increased life expectancies and a ballooning retirement rate, countries have no choice but to bring in immigrants and create places for young working TAXPAYERS and families to live and they have to be in commuting distance of where the work is so they can't live just anywhere. Plus if communities are built in less built up areas, pretty soon someone's getting upset by building in a park, farmland, a forest, etc.

But I agree with you that often problems are compounded by clusters of homes and townhouses being built where the traffic is ALREADY bad. But it's also caused by building further and further out into suburbs/exurbs and people then having to commute huge distances to a job, which is completely inefficient.

There isn't really any silver bullet I don't think.

 

article saying bad on the economy is kind of a dumb arguement. Wanna see bad for the economy, how about when no one wants to drive anywhere therefore not buying anything. America isnt like euro where many things are within walking or biking distance

 

In Mexico, they want to put a chip in every car as part of an anti-theft idea.

 

What they will do to get around this is pull a "Microsoft". They will integrate this system with the "black box" functionality (which will probably become mandatory at some point in the future), so that you would have a hard time getting rid of it. Kind of like MS saying that IE is part of the Windows OS.

 

based on time, location and distance? That's kinda stupid. Why do you think parents drop their kids off at 8ish? Cause that's when school starts!

Do you expect parents to drop off their kids at 4am in the morning cause it's cheaper?


This programme isn't designed to "reduce traffic congestion" as they say. It might lower the number a bit but it's the side effect of higher prices. We know the reason is to get more money to fill their pockets. Now, if I see major road improvements (and I don't mean adding more lanes. I mean improving the quality of the road surface), then I'll be willing to pay. But as such, the roads barely last 5 years before they're no longer smooth. Also, whenever they tear up a patch of the road, it's never patched back properly. They're always bumpy. Is it the equipment, the personel or the material that makes it hard to match the surface of the patch with the surface of the road?


ok, my rant stops there.

 

The big brother mentality in the UK is getting out of control...