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Ruth Kelly’s road charging plan

March 5th, 2008

Over a year ago Swiftcover were openly supporting Peter Roberts’, a member of the Association of British Drivers, petition to scrap the vehicle tracking and road pricing policy that was being proposed. Nearly two million people felt strongly enough to sign an online petition at Downing Street. The good news is that in Ruth Kelly’s announcement on road charging on the 4th March there was no mention on this policy so the petition appears to have had the desired effect.

But there is still the very real, troubling and frustrating problem of congestion on our roads. So what have Ruth Kelly and her team come up with? Well the solution appears to lie in the United States. Ruth Kelly announced that drivers are going to be given the option of paying to use a faster lane and thus avoiding the traffic congestion in the other lanes. The plan is to either use the hard shoulder at peak commuter times or add more lanes to our motorways. The cost of building the extra lanes would be considerable, disruptive and take a long time so the use of the hard shoulder is the cheaper and quicker option. Ruth Kelly described this solution as “a nifty over-taking manoeuvre past stationary traffic”. The Times reports that in America they have similar lanes which are dubbed ‘Lexus Lanes’ as they are perceived to only be affordable to the wealthier driver.

According to BBC News, sensors will detect the traffic build up which will then trigger signs telling the drivers to slow down and use the extra lane. The natural concern would be emergency services getting through to accidents so emergency refuges would be set up at 500m intervals.

The other solution is to have car sharing lanes. The Daily Mail reports that special cameras will be installed which can monitor the number of people travelling in a vehicle. If someone is travelling on their own in their car, they will have to pay to use a lane that is reserved for vehicles with two or more occupants.

Miss Kelly defended her new policy, “There is a compelling argument for car-share or charged lanes, which have been used for some time in the U.S. In order to get maximum benefit, access to car-share lanes is limited to vehicles carrying passengers, or single drivers willing to pay a toll. I intend to explore the possibility for taking a similar approach here where we are adding new capacity”.

Entry Filed under: traffic, cars