Article: Motorbikes and Congestion Charging

[Silver]

Here's an article I've written for MotorbikeSport...

After the fuss that surrounded the Government's 'proposed' road charging scheme I waited with mild curiosity for Tony Blair's promised response to the mammoth online petition. Poorly worded as the petition was (as well as lacking any real salient points and even less justification), it did capture people's attention. This was demonstrated firstly by how many times I received an email imploring me to sign it. It was also demonstrated by the fact that 1.7 million people did just that. It was only the petition's deadline that halted its growth.

So, what is the issue? Well, there are two issues. The first is that as a nation we are increasingly bereft of space in important areas. Apparently we are the 48th most densely populated country in the world. This doesn't seem too bad, until you consider that great chunks of our nation are actually quite sparsely populated - large areas of Scotland for example, since England accounts for 84% of the UK's population. Therefore we have high levels of the population crammed into relatively small areas. And you look at some of the countries higher up the list and there's no great shocks why they're there - because they're tiny. Places like Vatican City, Gibraltar, Macau and even countries like the Maldives would only need half a dozen inhabitants to make it into the list at all.

Congestion, our Prime Minister tells us, is only going to get worse. In fact, he claims a projected 25% increase by 2015. If this is true then maybe he has a case to be alarmed and is wise to be looking into preventative measures. The DVLA informed us last year that there are almost 33 million vehicles on our roads - astonishing when we have a population of less than double that, and more than 20% are too young to drive.

I'll go along with his argument that we can't just keep building extra roads. However, what I will not accept is that the answer is to charge road users even more. The congestion charge in London seems to have made little difference as far as I can see. It's not like you cross over the magical giant 'C' in the road and then enter a ghost town where queues are unheard of. Why? Because in this day and age convenience, along with freedom, is king. People pay, and central London is still a bitch to drive around. So has it failed? Well, I believe it's failed the environment but not the Government. Consider that the Congestion Zone has recently been extended and that the original cost of £5 rose to £8 per day. Now, I don't know the exact levels of traffic that pass through this zone, but that is an awful lot of money finding its way into Government coffers.

What we are talking about is millions of pounds on an annual basis. Where does this money go? Does London now have the most efficient and extensive public transport system in the country? Don't make me laugh. And let's not forget that this is on top of the road tax, one of the most expensive in Europe, which London drivers have the privilege of paying too.

Now extend this kind of pay-as-you-go system to the rest of the country, as is being mooted. They'd abolish the current road tax rules - so what? At present the (expensive) road tax costs less than £200 for a car, per year. We've seen a figure of £1+ per mile on busy roads, during peak times banded about for the new system. So this means a return trip from Birmingham to London during the week would cost as much as the current annual road tax cost. One journey. And not even an especially long one at that. Somehow I can't see it panning out like that, especially when you consider that the average annual mileage is somewhere in the region of 11,000 miles. Still, it paints a scary picture.

What this boils down to is something that has bothered me for a while, on many different aspects. The Government is essentially in place for our benefit. Given that's the case, why do they always resort to charging the population when things get tricky? They're not finding a solution so much as finding a new revenue source. The Government should be finding ways for us to do what we want to do. Case in point (and it's taken a while to get here, granted): motorbikes. Here we have an ideal solution to congestion. Fair enough, they are not subject to the Congestion Charge in London but they are billed in other places (like the M6 Toll Road).

So here is an answer. It won't cost millions of pounds and many years to implement and it's not a risk. What am I suggesting? I'm suggesting that instead of just charging people money for using the roads in cars, make it appealing to use them on a bike. I'm suggesting tax breaks on the bikes themselves, on the protective clothing. I'm suggesting no road charges and I'm suggesting that the Government help dispel the bikers-are-hooligans myth that they normally seem so intent on propagating.

[MarkJ]

That's what I've been saying all along . It grinds my gears when people moan about being stuck in queues, in a car that just has them inside and nothing else (nothing bulky which you can't carry on a bike) and they moan about being stuck in traffic when there's a perfectly good alternative.

However they'll still charge bikes, because they'll still get a load of cash from us.

[Itchy]

agreed , it'd be odd though if the UK became like SEA countries where everybody rides around on peds and bikes,

also iffy stats , I have 3 vehicles to my name (and at one point had 16 V5Cs to my name) on government twisted stats this is an increase of 16 vehicles on the road , inreality I can only ride / drive one vehicle at a time , much as I'd like to be able to ride two bikes as it would solve many of my transport issues.
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