Road pricing bill before Commons

[dang65]

Lets face it, your trips on public transport are an unneccesary luxury that you don't need to take and you should be taxed accordingly for it. Use a push bike to get to work FFS!!!

Uh, yes. I am taxed for using public transport. They make me buy a ticket, d'you see? If I used a bicycle then I wouldn't have to buy a ticket and it would be cheaper. But I choose to use public transport because it's more convenient and comfortable. I am allowed to do this. You are allowed to drive your car. You pay to drive your car. You accept that charge. I accept the train ticket cost. Unfortunately, the cost of car use is way lower than it should be, so you're going to have to pay more. Is anyone grasping this at all yet?

[Lucy]

I'm not really clear why 1.8m blinkered idiots going onto a website and clicking a button should have earned any sort right to force the other 60 million of us to put up with their noise, smell, speed, psychopathic behaviour, obesity and general destruction of the countryside and clogging of towns.

Owning and running a private car is an outrageous luxury which people have got away with for way too long, and a feeble road pricing bill will go nowhere near as far as it should.

It's Kim Jong Il !

[threaded]

The trains in rush hour might have lots of people on them, but the trains during the rest of the day are practically empty. If they actually included those journeys in the stats. then train efficiency takes a huge drop.

The only efficiency in railways is to do with the rolling resistance of the wheels, everything else is an illusion.

[dang65]

From what I've heard, most train journeys in rush hour times are running at near their capacity. How are you expecting to put more people on these already full trains. We can't start riding on the roof as bridges and the like prevent this.

I think the usual answer to this is that people should stagger their work times. A lot of people already do this to avoid heavy traffic jams. I seem to remember you mentioning that you do this yourself. It's a very similar concept to that. Identical in fact.

[Ardesco]

You are allowed to drive your car. You pay to drive your car. You accept that charge. I accept the train ticket cost. Unfortunately, the cost of car use is way lower than it should be, so you're going to have to pay more. Is anyone grasping this at all yet?

This is the problem with your misconception. We are saying we are happy to pay the existing cost, just like you are willing to pay the existing cost for your current ticket.

We are also saying we are not happy to pay more (and from the above i take you are not happy to pay more either).

One rule for you and another for the rest of us hey....

Unfortunately, the cost of car use is way lower than it should be, so you're going to have to pay more.

How do you reach this conclusion ?

Car drivers have a much higher tax burden than people who use trains. It is a simple case of you are against cars and think people shouldn't drive them and we should all subscribe to your strange little world where public transport is the only way....

[Lucy]

Road pricing is already legal.

This bill is merely to empower councils to do it without public consultation etc.

I don't mind user pays, it certainly beats the alternative. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's good. (Look at the state of the NHS)

[BoredBloke]

The last time I used public transport was a journey from Edinburgh with my wife and kids. Going was fine, once we had worked out which price we were supposed to be paying out of the loads available. However, the journey back was a nightmare.

We had booked our seats and got on in Edinburgh. By the second stop the train was full. They announced that they were removing the restriction on seating - so people could use the seats which were booked for others. This caused loads of problems when these people got on the train, only to find their seat taken. There were people standing all the way down the train - you couldn't move cattle in these conditions. We had a job getting off especially as we had to help my son. Even though he was clearly carrying his white stick people couldn't or wouldn't get out of his way so that he could get past. We couldn't get any food as we couldn't get to the buffet. Which they then closed because it had ran out of stock.

[BoredBloke]

"I think the usual answer to this is that people should stagger their work times. A lot of people already do this to avoid heavy traffic jams. I seem to remember you mentioning that you do this yourself. It's a very similar concept to that. Identical in fact."

Oh that's a new one. So how do you figure that will work then. Do you really think the client is going to be happy if I start arriving at 10 because it means that there is a seat free on the train. The example you picked for me could not be started any earlier. So the only option is to start it later - so I arrive at work later and have to work later - meaning I hit the point where the bus service drops it's frequency to 1 an hour.

Face it, for you public transport is a viable option for YOUR JOURNEY. But you and your journey are unique. But for ME and MY JOURNEY, at least 4 hours of walk/bus/train combination simply would not work.

[threaded]

But your argument is based on convenience, in dang69s world the lad with the white stick should pay more for the convenience of having a smooth path off the train.

[dang65]

Face it, for you public transport is a viable option for YOUR JOURNEY. But you and your journey are unique. But for ME and MY JOURNEY, at least 4 hours of walk/bus/train combination simply would not work.

If I was you then I would find a different way, or I simply wouldn't take that contract, or I wouldn't live in an isolated village in the first place. I'm not telling you how to live your life though. You've chosen that way (unless you're under some sort of court order to live where you do). But you do have to pay for that choice, same as people that have weekend homes in France have to pay to fly out every weekend (and I do know someone that does this).

So there's no point getting all irate with me. I'm not telling anyone what to do. I'm just pointing out that the roads are too congested and people that want to use them are going to have to pay a premium. I suppose another option would be to have a lottery or something, to decide who got to use the road. Or do what they do in Athens and have certain number plate letters allowed on different days or whatever.