This Prize-Winning Roads Pricing Idea Sounds Like Our Worst Nightmare
An idea that could see British drivers paying an extra £2.3 million in tax every day of the year has for some insane reason been awarded a prestigious economics prize.
The award, which comes with a £250,000 cheque for the scheme’s designer, would see fuel duty and road tax abolished in favour of tracking each car’s mileage and charging drivers accordingly. It wouldn’t be a flat rate across all cars, though; heavier and more polluting cars would pay more. The busiest roads would attract bigger charges, too, so you’re stuffed if you live in a city.
According to the finer details of politics and urban planning graduate Gergely Raccuja’s idea, people would be given a 3000-mile allowance of free miles, after which charges would apply. The money would be collected annually by car insurance providers, minimising the extra admin involved but potentially adding a massive financial burden to the annual payment – or the monthly direct debits.
The scheme would, apparently, raise vastly more money than the current system, and whichever way you slice it, if you drive significantly more than 3000 miles a year you’ll end up paying more than you do today. We have to admit, though, that the system might work in favour of weekend racecars that only cover a few thousand clicks a year and could enjoy super-cheap unleaded.
We quickly dug up the most recent figures we could find for UK fuel duty and road tax revenue, and came up with an annual £33.5 billion road and fuel tax take. That’s nearly £92 million a day being paid in road and fuel taxes. We can only infer that Autocar’s report is meant to indicate an extra 2.3 million per day being paid, which seems likely.
Early supporters of the idea say that the increased take could be put back into fixing the roads. However, even today, nowhere near the full road tax and fuel duty take goes back into the infrastructure, so we think that’s pure bull. What are your thoughts? Would the illusion of cheap fuel and no road tax make up for an extra bill on top of your insurance?
Comments
Meanwhile in bulgaria we barley have any cameras enforcing the speed limit, virtually no tax, everyone has straight piped their car, and insurance is not mantadory, and the goverment cant do sh!t because they are still trying to figure out how to stop people from importing old cars from western europe
I am not complaining.
I think we are better in that aspect.
And old cars have character.
I would actually love a ban on scrapping cars over 25 years.
What’s Bulgaria’s immigration policy. I want in!!
this is so true man, stayed for two weeks near Bulgaria Mall in Sofia, and man, so much awesome noise from the road! Gotta admit, after two weeks I got a bit tired of it…
I have always wanted to move to Eastern Europe, the few countries over there seem like they might genuinely be the last places about that give a rats arse about civil liberties. It’s a shame the pay tends to be less over there.
Still wouldn’t live there though.
I would completely disagree that it’s a bad idea for car enthusiasts like us. I don’t think anyone can deny that the vast majority of the time driving on the UK’s congested roads full of sh*t drivers is far from enjoyable. By limiting ‘free miles’ to all people it would weed out a lot of people from driving who care nothing for cars, derive no pleasure from driving, and are only using it as a method of transport to get from a to b. Driving in cities is fundamentally an inefficient way to travel most of the time so I don’t think you point about it being bad for those of us in cities is valid. I love my car but for travelling around the city I nearly always cycle, as it’s just quicker, cheaper and keeps me healthy. However, would I be willing to pay to go on a sunday drive because I enjoy it? Yes of course, I am happy to pay for other things that I enjoy so why would I turn my nose up at it because it might go over my driving allowance.
In summary, surely aims at reducing congestion are good for those of us that like cars & driving as it means clearer roads, and less cars doing damage to the surface, less idiots getting in the way!
I agree on the point that moving around with the car in a congested city is a rubbish idea, but cycling isn’t a method of staying healthy, considering the levels of carbon monoxides, nitrous oxides and soot particles present constantly in the city due to congested traffic. Cycling through the City of London at rush hour, considering the exertion of the act itself on breathing would mean you destroy your lungs approximately at the same rate as a pack a day smoke sitting at home.
After 3000 miles I’m disconnecting my speedometer cable. Free tax ftw!
#haxmodeactivated
Oh come on! I’m here struggling to buy a car because of some of the insurance quotes I’ve been getting, and now this idea exists???
Anyone got any good suggestions for more driver-friendly countries?
Wanna go to ‘murica land?
It doesn’t sound too bad, but I think this will really hit commercial drivers and those who have to commute a lot. Also, I doubt the money raised will ever go into fixing the roads given the state of UK roads these days. It’ll probably go into dealing with Brexit :/
Yeah, traffic money needs to be spent on improving traffic, not anything else
So if you have 50 cars, you can put 3000 miles in each and not pay anything?
What about track days? I mean I put some miles on my car, how can they know I did it on the road
Same way as the internal GPS system works in Japanese cars, in Japan: once you are on the track they disable the limiter, except here they won’t count miles traveled…hopefully.
I know it’s not exact, but as of March 2017, there were 37.5 million vehicles registered in the U.K. So £2.3 million split across that isn’t a lot per vehicle
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Don’t think its that bad of an idea to be honest. If anything, its better for us.
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