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First of all, happy New Year. With 2012 underway it will be noticebale over the next few days and weeks that people are back at work, children are back at school, and congestion is likely to increase.
With this in mind, it will be interesting to see if a combination of traffic on the roads, efforts to tackle polution and the need to raise funds, move road pricing up the agenda in 2012?
Until now, the current government has ruled out widespread road pricing schemes but a new report suggests that it should be back on the cards.
The report advocating radical measures to dramatically reduce carbon emissions was launched by the head of the RAC Foundation at the end of 2011.
His view is that road pricing is necessary if we are to cut predicted congestion rises and emissions. As a result it talks about the use of higher charges at peak travel times, and perhaps even a system for booking road space for journeys online.
Pretty controversial stuff and it wont be a popular recommendation, but he is right that there are several factors causing pressure to mount.
The government does need to reduce congestion and the enviornmental impact of travel. Allied to this, the Chancellor also needs to manage revenues and road pricing would seem to address all three things.
So can we expect to see widespread road charging this year? Well at a time when the cost of driving is already high, this may be more of a long-term initiative as individuals and businesses already have to cope with challenging transport costs.
It is also a mute point whether any increase in revenue from road pricing would be offset by a reduction in revenue from fuel duty.
If in time road pricing does roll out in the UK, my hope is that it is done with a consistent and considered approach and in a way that does not penalise business's whose drivers have no choice but to travel as part of their job. Road pricing that has a focus on discretionary travel seems to me to be a far more equitable option.
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