Charging for Roads: A Better Way to Ease Congestion

This paper presents an approach to road use charging, which is alternative to the approach being explored by the Department of Transport (DOT). Several questions are raised about the DOT approach. The author's approach requires much less physical equipment, and does not require vehicle owners or drivers to fit any equipment to their vehicles. The UK's existing Vehicle Excise Duty, currently a flat #135 annual rate for private vehicles, would be replaced with banded charges reflecting actual road use, and perhaps varying from #50 to #1000 per year. All users would continue to have occasional access to all parts of the road network. The system would be enforced by electronic matching of licence plates against a register of paid-up users. This policy should be able to achieve the desired objective of discouraging unnecessary road use, while raising revenue for the Government. It should first be tested in city centre trials. In contrast to the DOT proposals, it can easily be implemented with existing technology. Experience in North America suggests that motorists support higher road taxes if the funds are spent, not on more roads, but on improved public transport as an alternative. The author suggests assigning a proportion to public transport, at least as a transitional measure.