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The Association of British DriversIt is the favoured term for plans to impose tolls on roads into cities and towns.
Whilst it may appear to be local authorities who are initiating congestion charging, it is the government who have effectively forced them to do so by threatening to impose financial penalties on those authorities which refuse to implement 'green travel plans' — a euphemism for anti-car plans.
This behind-the-scenes strategy has been adopted so as to con the public into thinking local authorities are to blame, thereby deflecting the flak away from the government.
The strategy does not, however, preclude local politicians like Ken Livingstone pursuing the task of extorting money from drivers with glee.
In reality, anyone who drives in a city or town will know that there is an ongoing policy of closing roads, reducing road space with bus and cycle lanes, removing parking spaces, making roads one-way for no good reason, tinkering with traffic light timings, covering the road in coloured paint, and numerous other dirty tricks. Every week another malicious obstruction of the public highway is orchestrated by those who have power to abuse.
In London, ask any black cab driver, motorcycle courier, or delivery van driver how access to London's streets has changed over the last 15 years and truth will out. Since the Bishopsgate bombing, the City of London has been tourniqued by the closure of a hundred or more short cuts and links. More recently, the Soho nail bomb was seized upon as an excuse to change Soho's one way system so as to effectively prevent any through routes. In 2001, two vital routes along Endell St. and Monmouth St., to the Strand and Trafalgar Sq have been severed; short cuts vital to access within central areas have forced traffic to use the major roads such as High Holborn, Shaftesbury Avenue, The Strand and Kingsway. The Strand has already been doctored with a full length central paved area and a bus lane reducing traffic to an available single lane crawl in each direction. Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road are already overburdened. With the increase in roads closed to conventional traffic in favour of cycle and bus lanes, the increase in the number of traffic signal sites, and delays caused by increasing the amount of time lights stay on red to traffic on the busier road, congestion has been maliciously manufactured.
In Manchester, the government is trying to bribe local authorities into introducing congestion charging by withholding funds for public transport improvements. The ABD, through it's subsidiary MART, has played a major part in fighting the plans. There has been massive public opposition to the plans, and in May 2008, the leading supporter of the plans, Roger Jones, was kicked out of office by voters.
In Birmingham, one of the main routes into the city, Broad Street, has been turned from two lanes in each direction, into a chaotic mixture of 2 lane sections, one and a half lanes, one lane, bits of bus lane, and a dangerous paved strip down the middle. The road sign directing drivers into the city via an underpass into Broad Street has been covered up, and strangers to the city are now directed to a longer route. A bus lane has been installed through the underpass. Traffic lights have been timed so as to give more time to a small amount of traffic emerging from a minor side street, whilst traffic on the main road is made to wait. Side roads have been closed or made one-way purely to prevent incoming traffic circumventing the obstructions. One Pelican crossing allows only two or three cars through on green before going back to red.
Meanwhile, the inner ring road has been destroyed by demolishing a large part of the eastern section, leading to horrendous congestion on what is left.
If there are too many pedestrians using a pavement do they suggest reducing the width of the pavement? Of course not, the idea is ludicrous, yet that is exactly what they are doing to our roads.
Many shoppers will abandon city centres, shops will loose money to the extent they become unprofitable and are forced to close. Council parking revenue will disappear overnight. City Centres will gradually decline and become virtual ghost towns inhabited only by "Big Issue" sellers.
Empty commercial properties will lead to a further loss of earnings for the council, and they will be forced to increase council tax to compensate.
Drivers avoiding the charge will cause extra congestion around the periphery of the charging area.
Many company car drivers on business will have the charge paid by their company, who will have to pass the cost onto their customers.
Meanwhile towns who decide not to extort money with menaces from drivers, will find businesses and shoppers flocking to them, prosperity will rise, leading to a boost in earnings for the council, and consequent reduction in council tax for all residents.
A ludicrous idea in London is that charges will only be imposed between 7AM and 7PM. You can imagine the rush as some drivers try to beat the clock into the charging area. A sure-fire recipe for accidents.
| Welcome to London |
| Pay £8 |
You will see that there is already utter chaos as different cities are proposing different methods or collecting and enforcing tolls. This will mean drivers travelling to another city will not know what method of tolling is in use.
In London the same camera system currently used by the Metropolitan Police for anti-terrorist surveillance will be expanded, and used not to protect the public, but as a big stick to bully them into complying with Ken Livingstone's idea of political correctness.
London even plans to use an agency to track down owners of vehicles registered in European countries and force them to pay. That should do wonders for tourism.
| Birmingham | Investigating congestion charging in preference to workplace parking tax which has been widely condemned by local businesses. |
| Bristol | Proposing 14 toll points around the city, with in car devices registering points. However, in April 2002 after a massive public outcry, they scrapped their policy of towing away cars who had overstayed on parking meters even if only by a few minutes. It is dawning on them that drivers will not be bullied. |
| Cambridge | See our Cambridgeshire page for more details. |
| Derbyshire | Want a toll on the only access road to the upper Derwent valley in the Peak District National Park — a tax on your leisure time. |
| Durham | In August 2002, introduced a petty £2 fee to leave Saddler Street — the only road into the historic city centre. |
| Edinburgh | Planned a two tier system where you have to pay £2 to enter the city, and another £2 to enter the city centre. The whole idea was thrown out by voters in a referendum. |
| Greater Manchester | Plans in disarray after massive public opposition. |
| Leeds | Cameras on the 'Inner Loop' would check number plates. Motorists wanting to enter the city centre would to have to stop at petrol stations or newsagents and buy a ticket. There will not of course be any additional parking spaces provided to facilitate this. The stupidity of this idea beggars belief. |
| London | Ken Livingstone originally imposed a £5 charge to drive into London between 7AM & 7PM (£15 for HGVs), with an £80 fine for non-payment, enforced by yet more spy cameras and mobile patrols. Ken wants people to travel by public transport as everyone does in communist countries. He doesn't seem to have noticed that public transport is already stretched to capacity. They are now threatening to confiscate cars from anyone who refuses to pay three times. They even intend to make unmarked police cars pay! Let's hope the Met tell Ken where to shove his £5. The charge was later increased to £8, and Ken threatened to increase it to £25 for some vehicles before he was voted out of office in May 2008. |
| Oxford | England's most anti-car council have already made it so difficult to drive into Oxford that nobody bothers to try anymore, they just go shopping elsewhere. |
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