Road tolls are ‘the only way to solve UK traffic’ with Brits tracked and charged per mile
Following the announcement that Brits spend an average of 31 hours per year stuck in traffic, an economics expert has come up with a solution. And it would mean you need to pay every time you set out on the road
THE only way to solve Britain’s severe traffic problem is to introduce road tolls, according to an economics professor.
The UK is currently in gridlock hell with drivers trapped in jams for 31 hours a year – but Prof Roger Vickerman from the University of Kent has the answer.
The economics expert said adopting a new national charging system was the only fix after Inrix revealed traffic costs each motorist £1,168 a year in wasted time and fuel.
Prof Vickerman said drivers would be tracked and forced to pay for the amount of time they use the roads system with different rates applying to different times of the day.
He said: “Once again road congestion has hit the headlines with a report that UK drivers spend an average of 31 hours a year in traffic jams.
“What is needed is a nationwide system of charging for roads by use – road pricing.
“We already have blunt instruments such as the London Congestion Charge, but a sophisticated system of electronic tolling would charge drivers for their actual use of the system and by differentiating by time of day can encourage those with flexibility to adjust their journeys to times of lower traffic volumes.”
Vickerman continued by claiming drivers in rural areas should not have to pay the same amount of road tax as city dwellers, and that charging for road use would work out cheaper overall than the amount lost due to congestion.
He said: “The current system of charging motorists is a tax on car purchase and ownership, and doesn’t distinguish by area of residence or actual use.
“Residents of rural areas, many of whom have no alternative to using a car, typically travel on the least congested roads, but pay the same in road tax and fuel duty.
“Such drivers would be better off under a system which charged for the actual use of roads that reflected levels of congestion.
“The only solution is one that uses price as a means of allocation – that’s how we charge for the alternatives such as bus, rail or air.
“The overall cost to road users would be less; the estimated average cost of that 31 hours of wasted time is £1,168; that would pay for a lot of miles.”