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With every passing week, Government transport policy seems to be more like one of those bump-and-go toys - the ones that trundle around the room changing direction every time they encounter an obstacle.
Fuel tax recently collided with the chair-legs of $140 dollar oil and a looming by-election. October's planned 2p increase headed off into oblivion as Alistair Darling solemnly reminded us of "the Government's commitment to support the Bank of England in maintaining low inflation".
Really? Is this the same Government and the same Chancellor who, only last March, announced in the Budget that they would introduce a 0.5p per litre duty escalator in 2010, which will make sure fuel duty will rise faster than inflation?
Perhaps BoE Governor Mervyn King will remind Darling of the obvious shortcomings of his plan the next time he has to write to 11 Downing Street to explain why inflation is above target.
Fuel duty was only one of several areas to run into the turbulent waters of bump-and-go policy control in July. Road pricing and biofuels also bounced off the skirting boards and there are strong rumours that next year's increases in Vehicle Excise Duty are also scheduled for a change of tack.
For something that is supposed to solve congestion, the idea of road pricing remains remarkably susceptible to running into hold-ups. Having been apparently seen off for good by the Downing Street petition a couple of years ago, road tolls re-emerged in last March's Budget because, in Mr Darling's words, "we cannot build our way out of all the problems we face".
The Department of Transport evidently still prefers to put its trust in concrete, however. On 16 July, transport secretary Ruth Kelly unveiled a whole £6 billion-worth of new road schemes.
"Any prospect of a nationwide pay-as-you-drive scheme was swept away this week [in favour of] stop-gap congestion-easing measures," grumbled the Environmental Transport Association, which would have preferred to see a 10-year countdown to national road pricing. I suspect that businesses are hoping road pricing goes away for good this time.
A week earlier, Kelly did not exactly bump-off biofuels, but the Government's sudden cooling of policy toward green ethanol and diesel evoked shades of its earlier abortive flirtation with LPG.
"Sustainability and a cautious approach are key to the future," said a DfT update on the subject. In other words, large-scale biofuels are toast, as far as policymakers are concerned. Unless, that is, they can be produced without pushing up the cost of cornflakes, which seems unlikely.
The worrying thing for the Government is that one of the main reasons why its transport policy is ricocheting all over the place is the spike in the price of oil. Ironically, record fuel prices are curbing pollution and congestion faster and more efficiently than raising taxes on fleets and drivers - hence the growing chorus of doubt over higher VED.
It looks as if there are plenty more bumps in the road ahead, whichever direction the Government takes.
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