Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Arval, Mike Waters' Blog: 22 March 2008
Cookies on Businesscar

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Car website. However, if you would like to, you can change your cookies at any time

BusinessCar magazine website email Awards mobile

The start point for the best source of fleet information

Arval, Mike Waters' Blog: 22 March 2008

Date: 22 March 2008

Mike Waters is head of market analysis at Arval

When it was first announced by the then transport secretary Alistair Darling the debate around national road pricing prompted a record breaking number of people to sit up and voice their opinion through an online Downing Street petition.

Road pricing merry-go-round continues

When it was first announced by the then transport secretary Alistair Darling the debate around national road pricing prompted a record breaking number of people to sit up and voice their opinion through an online Downing Street petition.

Nearly two million members of the public felt compelled to object to the government's plans, something that it seems has contributed to a continuing lack of clarity for the future direction of policy in this area.

Prior to the budget the Road Transport Bill was suggesting that decisions in this area would be left to local authorities and alongside the admission from transport secretary Ruth Kelly that many questions surrounding the road pricing policy can not yet be answered, including those surrounding fairness and enforcement, in the short term a national pricing scheme looked like a dead duck with other schemes set to be the main focus to reduce congestion.

The successful trial on the notoriously busy M42, near Birmingham, saw the opening up of the hard shoulder as an extra lane and a reduced speed limit of 50mph. Other roads now being considered on the back of this include sections of the M1, M6, M62, M27, M4 and M5. In fact the Government feasibility study has identified around 500 miles of England's motorways which could benefit from using the hard shoulder as an extra lane.

There is no doubt that using the hard shoulder presents a radical change in the way that we use our motorways. For years we have been told that it was there for safety reasons, but now with more vehicles on the road than ever before, it is being taken away. This was also a route for the exclusive use of the emergency services, although apparently the tests showed that in an emergency the hard shoulder could quickly be opened and closed.

But is this a long term solution to ever increasing levels of congestion in the UK? Certainly not, but what is, well last week's Budget 2008 brought our old friend road pricing back into the spotlight, with funding available to assess a number of different schemes.

So the arguments will go on but please let's have some clarity of purpose and a definition of what road pricing will be for?



Share


Subscribe