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coNGEsn0N AND Rom cHARGING
Page 9
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Universal standards
Barry Proctor warns that the government's current piecemez approach to road pricing isn't the way to address congestion problems efficiently.
This country is heading for gridlock. It may not be this year, it may not be next year. But in the coming decade parts of thii country will grind to a halt on a daily basis.
In some areas you can already see it happening in the rui hour, or if there's even a minor accident or a breakdown on roads already running at or above their design capacity. It tc my transport manager three and a half hours to get from Halifax to Stoke the other day. thanks to a jam that snaked back from Greater Manchester all the way to Leeds.
This sort of event is threatening to become a daily occurrence unless we take prompt action. I realise tha I may be sounding a little like a government spokesman on transport but we have to face facts— the country is heading gridlock. The question, of course, is what do we do about it' Here's where I differ from the government. What we need to do is to come up with a co-ordinated approach. The government's piecemeal plan involves leaving nine regions bodies to trial their own versions of road pricing to better int( the eventual debate on pay-as-you-drive charging (just like the LRUC was meant to do, remember?). Or more accuratE usher in road charging by the back door.
In practice, what this means is that anyone making deiive into the nine areas will have to deal with nine sets of standar Will this mean nine different in-cab units cluttering up the dashboard? Nine different permits to buy and display? NinE sets of local authority bureaucracy to deal with? Nine rates 1 communicate to your customers? Probably, but no one kno What's definite is that it will be an enormous hassle for transport and delivery companies. It took us five months to register for London's congestion charge, and I don't believE a minute these regions will be any better.
We need to come up with a universal set of standards now before the competitiveness of UK haulage is harmed any fur