New road tax policy in the UK

[mike wilson]

This is just Beta testing for the site and forewarning politicians only means that they have time to find another way but.....

 

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

 

Electronic petition against fitting trackers to vehicles.

[jihem]

This is just Beta testing for the site and forewarning politicians only means that they have time to find another way but.....

 

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

 

Electronic petition against fitting trackers to vehicles.

 

this is insane, but i'm afraid many politicians/security freaks do and will want even more control on their "sheeps" whereabouts...

[mike wilson]

It is useful that the UK government is so incompetant that any project requiring vast levels of computing ability is guaranteed to fail. I just wish it would not waste so much money.

[Alex-Corsa]

This is just Beta testing for the site and forewarning politicians only means that they have time to find another way but.....

 

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

 

Electronic petition against fitting trackers to vehicles.

 

What's exactlly is that all about?All I saw at the link was a sign up article.

[dlaing]

What's exactlly is that all about?All I saw at the link was a sign up article.

Yah, what is this all about?

All I see is

The idea of tracking every vehicle at all times is sinister and wrong. Road pricing is already here with the high level of taxation on fuel. The more you travel - the more tax you pay.

 

It will be an unfair tax on those who live apart from families and poorer people who will not be able to afford the high monthly costs.

 

Please Mr Blair - forget about road pricing and concentrate on improving our roads to reduce congestion.

In the U.S. the state of Oregon proposed something similar.

The main reason for the motivation seems to be the growing number of fuel efficient vehicles that heaven forbid consume less fuel and pay less tax per mile. IMHO, less tax per mile should be an incentive to maintain and use a green machine. But the study by Oregon focuses on how unfair it is for the gas guzzlers to pay for more of the road maintainance than fuel efficient machines, of which motorcycle would fall into the category of.

IMHO, the one place where a mileage tax would make sense over a fuel tax would be the number of vehicles that run on non-taxed fuels becomes a significant number.

For example if 20% of Oregon switched to electric vehicles, they might pay a lower tax, which would be a little on the unfair side if you value road repairs above dependency on fossil fuels, peace in the middle east, greenhouse effect, smog, lung cancer, etc.

However if 50% of Oregon switched over to electric vehicles, the tax really might become an unfair burden, and a goverment inspected and taxed odometer might make sense on electric vehicles.

But in my opinion, the small savings in fuel taxes that hybrids offer is hardly something worthy of an invasive new government buracracy that discourage green machines

[Alex-Corsa]

Yah, what is this all about?

 

.

But in my opinion, the small savings in fuel taxes that hybrids offer is hardly something worthy of an invasive new government buracracy that discourage green machines

 

You mean they would track the kms one vehicle does and pay relative taxes and how can hey track the kms you can do.?

If so , here is the trap they want to put the people in.1.First atract the people to electric or hybrid vehicles, by letting them stay out of tax and then (since the will lose money from less gas consuming)after there are a lot around (so don't worry about now) will enforce the pay/km tax and that's it.

[Skeeve]

...

IMHO, the one place where a mileage tax would make sense over a fuel tax would be the number of vehicles that run on non-taxed fuels becomes a significant number.

For example if 20% of Oregon switched to electric vehicles, they might pay a lower tax, which would be a little on the unfair side if you value road repairs above dependency on fossil fuels, peace in the middle east, greenhouse effect, smog, lung cancer, etc.

However if 50% of Oregon switched over to electric vehicles, the tax really might become an unfair burden, and a goverment inspected and taxed odometer might make sense on electric vehicles.

...

 

Well, not as such: e-cars are generally lighter than big land yachts; the only wear & tear on roads comes from vehicle weight [which is why the rt. lane of I5 is such a sh!thole, but the left is o.k.; all the big rigs drive in the rt lane & tear it up constantly... Sorry for you out-of-CA types, this is a bit of a "locals only" analogy! ] Ergo, the bigger & less fuel efficient your vehicle necessarily is, the more you *should* be paying toward road maintenance.

 

[begin political rant]

Of course, the real issue is that if the tax monies collected on fuel & road taxes actually went toward what they were ostensibly collected for (instead of being rerouted to useless social "feel good" programs that only encourage increasing dependence upon an ever-growing nanny state by those whose votes are being bought by diverting the funds from their proper use to these travesties of govt. "beneficence",) well, then the roads would all look like those in "poor" states like Oregon & Arizona, whose highways are like the mythical frickin' Eldorado - paved w/ gold, compared to the cr@p roads we've got to put up w/ here in CA!...

 

Say what you will about the Governator's betrayal of the voters who elected him in the recall election, his legacy will be getting the legislation ramrodded thru that prevents the state from ripping off the road fund more often than every 3 years out of 5!

[end political rant]

 

So anyway, the real question is "shouldn't those users of socially anti-productive vehicles be taxed [penalized] in order to encourage more efficient use of our precious national resources [in this case, U.S. foreign debt]?

[dlaing]

You mean they would track the kms one vehicle does and pay relative taxes and how can hey track the kms you can do.?

If so , here is the trap they want to put the people in.1.First atract the people to electric or hybrid vehicles, by letting them stay out of tax and then (since the will lose money from less gas consuming)after there are a lot around (so don't worry about now) will enforce the pay/km tax and that's it.

It could all be part of a conspiracy to tyrannize.

First they entice the good people, with green hearts (the suckers?) to buy the fuel efficient vehicles, then slide in the GPS chip to bill you for not consuming enough the corporate Mo'Go dead dino energy fuel. Of course the bad people screaming across the desert at some speed deemed unacceptable by The Man will get an extra bill in the mail or deducted from their retirement fund. The GPS will also put you in the vicinity of a crime and immediately you will become a suspect. Brilliant! Terrorism will then be more and more difficult to commit without the ultimate self sacrifice. The sucess of the program will inspire Emperor Schwarzenegger to microchip everyone on the planet, and we will finally have law and order, minus much of what we now cherish.

Or it could all just mean Hummers for the chosen ones

[dlaing]

So anyway, the real question is "shouldn't those users of socially anti-productive vehicles be taxed [penalized] in order to encourage more efficient use of our precious national resources [in this case, U.S. foreign debt]?

Foreign debt is a resource?

All I know is that there should be a huge tax break for all motorcyclists, especially the ones that own Guzzis.

The US has a comparably very low fuel tax.

I suppose if I lived Oregon I might not care much about air pollution. San Diego is tolerable. Los Angeles is tolerable for millions of people, but not me. Turn half the cars in LA to battery powered and it could be a happier place

UCLA, when the smog clears

[Alex-Corsa]

It could all be part of a conspiracy to tyrannize.

 

 

Yep , more or less that's it.Isn't it strange,they allways come with the right excuses, global warming, terrorism, and other crap just to ensure people to pay more taxes, ect.ect.ect. You know the drill.

[mike wilson]

What's exactlly is that all about?All I saw at the link was a sign up article.

 

The UK government thinks it has the ability to track all vehicles on the UK roads at all times in order to tax the highest road users more. It would also be able to measure average speeds between location to determine if speeding was taking place.

 

In other words, it is complete and utter fantasy - not even remotely possible with present technology.

 

This is from a government that recently closed down the Child Support Agency because it couldn't track errant, non-paying fathers and that took five years over schedule to make the national air traffic control system work because it couldn't make the computer managed climate control in the computing centre work.

 

I'm no shill for the transport lobby but I don't want the planks to waste any more of my money on expensive consultants.

[belfastguzzi]

Well, the petition is making the news today.

Seems to be that the Government thought it was a good idea to give the people a means of speaking, but now that they're doing so and adding loads of names to the petition, Govt.'s now saying that it's all irrelevant and can be dismissed because the weak-minded people of the UK are just swayed by irresponsible hooligans, such as Mike Wilson.

 

Something like that.

 

[belfastguzzi]

If you're in the poll / petition mood –

 

 

do it here

[mike wilson]

I've done something useful today.

[belfastguzzi]

I've done something useful today.