new plans to tax drivers by the mile

a piece of last weeks news that seems to have slipped by without much attention.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4610755.stm

either that or i slept through most of the week, which is a possibility.

i really don't like all this big brother s**t that's happening. national id cards etc. before you know it, you'll be getting your own personal tracker implanted in the back of your neck, whether you want it or not.

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i eat paint

That has to be one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard. All you'd have to do is raise gas taxes to achieve the listed goal and you wouldn't have to spend a fortune of infrastructure.

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Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

yeah I read that in a gamer mag I have.. how they use GPS to track you. And you thought ON-STAR was a good idea..

hmph.

All this big brother stuff is scary but it's slowly being integrated
into society whether we like it or not. Our future is going to look
like something from Dues Ex.

Another one of the governments "bright" ideas to get us to use public transport. It works brilliantly where there aint none or it comes when ever the driver feels like it.

I like what Lenny Henry said on Friday. He'd been driving backwards every where so now the government owes him money.

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Deviantart

Human knowledge belongs to the world

If you think about it, it's really the fairest idea to charge people by the mile. However, the government, as ever, has shown tremendous stupidity in the details: they should have variable costs for the type of car you use (so that freight and economic cars are cheaper) and keep main commuter and rural routes cheap. Right now the proposals are to flat charge but vary some routes, with stupidly high amounts for certain motorways (up to ?1.40/$1 mile?!) which really just penalises people who have to drive further, such as those in the country or where there is inadequate public transport.

The sad thing is, there are just to many people to stupid to be allowed to make their own choices.

I know thats an unpopular view but its oh so true. I see people doing the stupidest things every day just driving, I can only imagine what else they are doing.

Someday, I will make a list of things that stupid people do.. ( a list is pretty stupid in itself so I will add it as well)

Bottomline, todays society breeds people so into themselves that its as if no one else even enters their little worlds.. Those are the people who need someone to "big brother" them.. Look around you, but start at the top. Its usually the people with the money. THOSE are the really stupid ones.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

as lep said, we should encourage more environmentally safe cars, like something on the MOT to grade the rating, then a dynamic system
of changing prices day by day using things like the traffic counting
methods already in use, say if theres a rise in daily traffic through a
certain route, it charges more and things, or GPS even, seems even more
fair than the silly government system they are proposing at the moment,
hell! do what france does, charge on the motorways, and then you can
tell if people are speeding too!

meh, my little rant is over now :biggrin:

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I need a new sig

I drive a lot.. I see countryside that has had crops in them before yet are going fallow now.

I see no reason what so ever why these fields cannot contain a fuel crop of one type or another. I talk to people all the time who are also confused on these points. One side claims that if we produce more crops, the price will drop, the other claims that if the crop is used for fuel, and not food, then the price will remain constant or even rise.

I think we need to educate people on this topic, then push the fuel crop idea till it takes hold.

millions of acres go unplanted each year.. Its bad enough that we have hunger present in the name of higher prices, why do we have to add fuel shortages as well :sad:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Tracer Bullet said:
That has to be one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard. All you'd have to do is raise gas taxes to achieve the listed goal and you wouldn't have to spend a fortune of infrastructure.

Petrol prices are already obscenely high in the UK, compared to other large Western oil consumers. Raising the price without relation to the price of crude oil would just trigger another blockage and ensuing shortage we saw back in the late 90s/early 00's. I can't remember when it was but it was madness.

I see also the reports of the US Government and Exxon editing scientific reports on climate change have been muffled by most. Strange.

Gwil said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Tracer Bullet</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>That has to be one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard. All you'd have to do is raise gas taxes to achieve the listed goal and you wouldn't have to spend a fortune of infrastructure.

Petrol prices are already obscenely high in the UK, compared to other large Western oil consumers. Raising the price without relation to the price of crude oil would just trigger another blockage and ensuing shortage we saw back in the late 90s/early 00's. I can't remember when it was but it was madness.

I see also the reports of the US Government and Exxon editing scientific reports on climate change have been muffled by most. Strange.</div></div>
What do you mean by blockage...? did OPEC stop exporting to you or something?

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Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

Tracer: he probably means the fuel strike a while ago where drivers blockaded the refineries (I think that's what he means...)

I can't say I agree with this idea. The government seems to think that
it will reduce cogestion, as if everybody takes a certain route just to
irritate them. Additionally, even if you did have a system where a guy
in a Nissan Micra wasn't charged the same amount as a guy in a huge
fuel guzzling machine, the system would be so horrendously complicated
to enforce. Thirdly, what happens to proffesions like HGV, driving
instructors, taxis, buses etc? The companies will have to fork out huge
sums.

Top Gear had a good article on this the other night, bet you can't guess which side they were in favour of...

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My site

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Loco</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Additionally, even if you did have a system where a guy in a Nissan Micra wasn't charged the same amount as a guy in a huge fuel guzzling machine, the system would be so horrendously complicated to enforce.</DIV></DIV>

Hardly, since your car type is linked into your vehicle registration & numberplate. If vehicles were classified in different bands, it's simply a case of saying "this person has driven X miles, with a class Y car, so they need to pay Z amount." It should be fairly easy to manage with computer systems, though the government has proved several times it's incompetence in this area (c.f. NHS computer systems, PFI, air traffic control, etc...) The hard part about enforcing it is installing the tracking equipment in cars in the first place and locating cars without it (though lots of hidden 'checkpoints' should be able to get round this effectively).

Again, I still think charging by the mileage you do is the fairest system. What do you do for taxis and freight and buses? You zone areas (city centres, motorways, rural roads, etc.) and class them in such a way that the people who have to use them pay the least. That way, it's fair!

Lucky for me, i'm not planning on driving for a longgggggg time.....

the whole idea is about cutting congestion by making it more expensive to drive. simple as that, and nothing to do with being fair to anyone. or isn't it fair atm, with people who only drive 2 miles a week paying very little in fuel duty, while those that drive longer distances would pay proportionatly more?

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i eat paint

That is true, but people driving around for miles in the highlands of
scotland aren't really contributing to congestion problems, yet still
pay the same for petrol as somebody who, for instance, drives to work
every day through edinburgh's crowded city centre. Its not only about
how much you drive that they want to consider in extra costs, but about
where you drive. The only real ways to do that are through road
checkpoints where you pay to use certain roads, or a tracking system
that keeps track of what roads you are using. The former of these is
rather impractical, while the latter is a little too "big brother"
style for some people's likings.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Toll booths? Are we yanks!?

though the government has proved several times it's incompetence
in this area (c.f. NHS computer systems, PFI, air traffic control,
etc...)

Ah, this is where reading Private Eye becomes useful. The government
tend to use a big company called EDS, who caused the biggest computer
crash in the UK involving 80,000 PCs (from what I remember) - at least,
that's what Private Eye said... :biggrin:

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My site

$loth said:
Toll booths? Are we yanks!?

There are very few (if any) toll roads in the states. Bridges, yes.

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Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Tracer Bullet</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

There are very few (if any) toll roads in the states. Bridges, yes.

</DIV></DIV>

Few is a misleading concept. Compared to non-toll roads, there are few. Compared to how many toll roads are needed, there are far to many.

Oklahoma has toll roads. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky all have toll roads.. I am sure there may be others, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
The east coast tends to have the majority of the offensive things however. :/

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Ahh Yes the Will Rogers Turnpike, err toll road. Has the Worlds largest
McDonalds straddeling its both lanes, located in wonderful OKALAHOMA!
Been down that road quite a few times in My Trucker days. The Tol road
between new jersey and New York, is in fact needed.. hell when I was at
basic training at Fort Dix N.J. and had to make a flight that was in
Newark Air Port and only had 30 mins to get an hour away, my taxi
driver did it topping speeds of 130 MPH. I gave him a 50$ tip. Was the
best ride of my life.. and the scariest too. there are toll roads all
around large areas like Houstin, and Dallas Fort Worth, ther are tol
roads all up and down the Easter sea board of the US, and quite a few
in cali. So I would not say a few..there are plenty of them.

How Texas plans on adding the GPS to your car. they have a new Lic.
Plate with the gps chip located inside it, it would be connected to
your LIC plate light to power it. Oh and Numbers will be gone in favor
of the new Bar code design, with the numbers in a small box located
just below the bar code. This way Police can scan your car and have
your info with out having to type it in. That and the new
State/National ID's we have already talked about.. we will be a great
faciest state.. HAIL BIG BROTHER!

Did you just say "Jew Jersey"?

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono said:
Did you just say "Jew Jersey"?

Not just, but apparently I did.. Stupid typo, and stupid spell checker. :/

My apologies all around :sad:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I thought it was funny. I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.