Road Pricing

[Anonymous]

Do you roll your eyes at people when you don't agree with something they say when you are talking to them? If not, then it probably isn't an appropriate emoticon to use.

I do actually and if I think someone's a daft **** I'll say so too :roll:

Steroetype schmeryiotype I couldnt care less about that loony left PC jargon speak. I thought a stereotype was when you have 2 photo's to get a 3d picture?? I was talking about the loonies that desigened this proposed road charging policy when I mentioned metrollopitan liberal's, not your good self, but hey if the cap fit's :wink:

Cheers Jonathan :lol:

 

[StevieB]

Ah, a particular bug bear of mine - the continued reference to global warming and how it will be the end of the earth, its all mans fault and the entire planet is doomed as a consequence.

Sure, I agree there is global warming. Is it man made? Almost certainly man hastened, but man made is more debatable. There have been 7 mass extinctions in earths history, wiping out over 95% of all known life. Think of the dinosaurs (which is the one everyone can relate to). That is a global catastrophe, the polar ice caps melting is mere inconvenience in comparison. Since we are coming out of the last ice age still (which is why we have ice caps at all) global warming is simply part of the Earths natural cycle.

Man has hastened a natural event, and now we have realised, switching off a few lights, adding a wind turbine and driving an eco car is not going to make a jot of difference. Notice how destruction of the ozone layer doesnt get much of a mention nowadays? Thats a man made problem but people do not relate to it - they like their fridges and TVs. Sadly most of the hype over global warming is commercially driven - getting people to pay more for 'green' goods (organic farming is a classic example).

A far bigger issue than global warming is petrol availability - petrol may run out in your lifetime (or be so expensive and difficult to extract it amounts to the same thing) but global warming is not going to fry you or put you under 50 feet of water. For that reason and that reason alone the effect of greener cars and alterative fuels is a good thing.

Steve.

 

[woodbloke]

StevieB wrote:

petrol availability - petrol may run out in your lifetime

Current known reserves of oil may be exhausted within the next 30 years or so.....coal reserves have a slightly larger shelf life at about 200 years. However, with the rapid increase in the economies of the Far East, who knows how long reserves of fuel and other natural resources will last? - Rob

 

[cant-weld-wood]

i remember years ago the said they wherev going to increase the price of fuel and then the following year do the same again and get rid of the dreaded road tax that people will not be able to avoid the tax.
fuel was arond £1 a gallon then its now about £5 a gallon.
if they go the toll route on motorways and main roads like they have said
it will do one thing all traffic will go across the country side to avoid these roads.
we only have one way to avoid the silly plans of this goverment and that is crossthe channel and live over there cheaper / cleaner and a lot less tax

 

[mudman]

StevieB wrote:

petrol availability - petrol may run out in your lifetime

Current known reserves of oil may be exhausted within the next 30 years or so.....coal reserves have a slightly larger shelf life at about 200 years. However, with the rapid increase in the economies of the Far East, who knows how long reserves of fuel and other natural resources will last? - Rob

Apparently China will require 2.5 billion tons of coal this year.
There are 250 million tons left in the ground in South Wales.
That means we could keep China going for a month and a bit.
Sort of makes you realise just how voracious China is. I must admit to wondering how long things can continue in this vein and whether everything will sort itself out (globally speaking) when the rescources inevitable run out.

 

[woodbloke]

Mudman wrote:

everything will sort itself out (globally speaking) when the rescources inevitable run out.

That doesn't really bare thinking about...my own view is a bit of doom laden one in that I think we may have probably reached the 'rotate' point, or will do very shortly when 'our' global activities have got to the point when the ills created by them cann't be undone....please someone tell me if I'm completely out of my tree, or if I'm more or less, sort of gurbling in the more or less right direction :? - Rob

 

[mudman]

Mudman wrote:

everything will sort itself out (globally speaking) when the rescources inevitable run out.

That doesn't really bare thinking about...my own view is a bit of doom laden one in that I think we may have probably reached the 'rotate' point, or will do very shortly when 'our' global activities have got to the point when the ills created by them cann't be undone....please someone tell me if I'm completely out of my tree, or if I'm more or less, sort of gurbling in the more or less right direction :? - Rob

I'm afraid my view is also very pessimistic. When I said that I think everything will sort itself out, I meant that the planet will recover. It's just that we and the majority of the flora and fauna on the planet won't.

I'm not sure what can be done to prevent it. I'm sure that there is a solution, there always is to every problem. The trouble is that mankind rarely has the desire as a whole to do anything and frequently is led in the wrong direction when he does decide to do something.

OMG, where's that bottle? :?

 

[Scrit]

....please someone tell me if I'm completely out of my tree, or if I'm more or less, sort of gurbling in the more or less right direction :? - Rob

No you're not - and it's really depressing me!

 

[DomValente]

Here's alittle fuel for the fire.

If you own more than one car the second has to be electric, LPG or hydrogen.
Scrap the road tax and increase fuel prices,so you only pay for the mileage you actually travel, yes some would suffer but it would certainly help many pensioners who rarely use their cars.
Stop Tfl charging motorcycles a congestion charge,which is in the offing, what next bicycles?
As a matter of interest the evil 4by 4 known as Lexus runs on batteries until it reaches 30mph why can't proper cars have this.
Oh and trust me travelling in London on public transport is one of the most disgusting, uncomfortable and thoroughly disheartening of experiences.

 

[StevieB]

Hi Dom,

Charging motorbikes the congestion charge is not going to happen - all the cameras are forward facing! A good tip I got from a courier once was to wrap your chain and padlock round the back seat of your motorbike and let the chain and lock dangle over the numberplate 'accidently'. Not that I would ever condone such an activity

Sadly I think the human race will survive any planetary destrution - if we were one of the two species reckoned to be able to survive a nuclear winter (along with cockroaches) I dont think global warming is going to finish us off :?

 

[cant-weld-wood]

it is all down to greed the priminister wants another pay rise
they could save money a quick and easy way send them assylem seakers back home and stop fighting other peoples wars for them
you know wot i mean

 

[MrJay]

No, not really.

Scrap the road tax and increase fuel prices,so you only pay for the mileage you actually travel

I'd buy that. No need for oodles of car tracking space planes - just plonk the levy on fuel.

Also, when I'm king of my new country public transport will be free at point of use. Does that make me a Communist?

 

[Colin C]

Here's alittle fuel for the fire.

I
Scrap the road tax and increase fuel prices,so you only pay for the mileage you actually travel

I dont think this would be done as they would not be able to put both up at the same time or am I mad :roll:

 

[Shivers]

Another thought on this is how on earth are they going to regulate fuel used on farm equipment,building site generators,mopeds,motorcycles,different types of fuels,--diesel petrol,lpg,this system they propose is going to be an unheard of headache,surely just straight ahead fuel tax is 10 times easier & less wasteful.

 

[Scrit]

Also, when I'm king of my new country public transport will be free at point of use. Does that make me a Communist?

No, comrade, just a good socialist

 

[Jake]

No, not really.

Scrap the road tax and increase fuel prices,so you only pay for the mileage you actually travel

I'd buy that. No need for oodles of car tracking space planes - just plonk the levy on fuel.

That's preferable from the point of view of carbon emissions, but does nothing to redistribute traffic in time to reduce congestion problems, which is what they are trying to do via road pricing.

 

[Shivers]

No, not really.

Scrap the road tax and increase fuel prices,so you only pay for the mileage you actually travel

I'd buy that. No need for oodles of car tracking space planes - just plonk the levy on fuel.

That's preferable from the point of view of carbon emissions, but does nothing to redistribute traffic in time to reduce congestion problems, which is what they are trying to do via road pricing.

At tollgates in europe & the states they have a barcode system whereas if you travel frequently through the toll you dont have to wait in line --you just go through the lane marked ez pass & the camera reads the barcode,the system is already set up with cameras ect, why cant it be cross converted to read who's in the city/or which part of the city---to avoid these rediculous compulsory tracking devices.


shivers.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Isn't it a bit ironic that one of the objectives of the EU is to enable the free movement of people and goods, yet the Government's thinking on transport policy seems to be to restrict movement :? :?

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Shivers]

Isn't it a bit ironic that one of the objectives of the EU is to enable the free movement of people and goods, yet the Government's thinking on transport policy seems to be to restrict movement :? :?

Cheers :wink:

Paul

yeah only criminals have vans.

 

[MrJay]

Scrap the road tax and increase fuel prices,so you only pay for the mileage you actually travel

I'd buy that. No need for oodles of car tracking space planes - just plonk the levy on fuel.

That's preferable from the point of view of carbon emissions, but does nothing to redistribute traffic in time to reduce congestion problems, which is what they are trying to do via road pricing.

Only if it encourages people to use less fuel...

If people want to sit in queues all day, let 'em. Personally I think sending people a bill for trying to get to school/work on time is a bit past the line where reasonable starts and finishes. Sitting in endless traffic going nowhere when you've somewhere to be comes with it's own stick.

Talking of which - if School were to start at, say, 10:00 instead of 9:00..?