Will toll roads take their toll on the British motorist?

Apps for the iphone and snazzy entertainment systems may have made journeys more enjoyable, but when it comes to driving, one thing remains immutable: taxes. For us motorists, it seems it’s the man behind the wheel who gets clobbered every time. You know the sort of thing I mean, every time there’s a budget. Hah, fingers tensely clutching the keys, you read about another tax hike or mindboggingly complex rule of the road; it’s as if we’re a fuel guzzling, speeding, road rage bunch of maniacs. Come to think of it, Britain’s roads would function a lot better if it wasn’t for the motorists.

Now, what do you think of this latest news from the government about the introduction of toll roads?

Yes, I reckon this could threaten a big acceleration on the poor tax laden motorist. As it happens UK drivers already pay £10 billion a year for road maintenance – or someone or other’s maintenance. Now, we’re about to have the last pennies squeezed out of us in the form of a few billions more with fuel and vehicle excise duty rises.

Actually, these toll or ‘express lanes’ will be located alongside busy sections of motorways and trunk roads so maybe a GPS system will be needed to locate their exact position. Anyway, they will be financed by the private sector, not the taxpayers; the firms which build them will gather and keep the tolls. In so doing, the construction companies building these toll roads will bump up the economy and get the country back on its four wheels again – as opposed to hobbling round on the current deflating ones.

Of course we are assured – when aren’t we? – that the scheme will be confined to ‘express lanes’ with no plans to introduce tolls on existing roads. But things have a habit of spreading though, don’t they? Road pricing sounds fine in theory in that the driver using his car less, pays less, but the good old motorist who already pays a hefty whack in tax is now being asked to go into overdrive for another £21.5billion plus VAT. For those of you who live or work in London, this might sound like a familair frustration: with already overburdened denizens forced to fork out up to £10 a day for the London Congestion Charge, just to drive on roads they’ve already paid for.

So now we’re being asked to pump up more just to drive the car and get somewhere a bit quicker and ease traffic congestion for others. Forget the Fair Fuel motion, this is far more than just a surface scratch, and wait for the rust to set in.