Road Charge Plan & Black Boxes. (moved from ATSNN), page 1

The UK government is considering the introduction of a 'pay per mile' charge on road travel, as an alternative to fuel and road fund taxation. The policy would involve the fitting of a 'black box' to enable charging.

news.bbc.co.uk
The transport secretary said the change was essential if Britain was to avoid "LA-style gridlock".

It would also mean every vehicle would have a black box to allow a satellite system to track their journey.

A satellite tracking system would be used to enforce the toll, with prices varying from as little as 2p per mile for driving on a quiet road out of the rush hour to £1.34 for motorways at peak times.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I think the introduction of a per-mile taxation on road use is a good idea frankly, especially if it funds road improvements on major routes. There is a compelling case that short rural journeys, that contribute nothing to city centre nor motorway congestion should not attract any, or at least very little charging.

What really caught my eye was that every vehicle would be fitted with a black box to record it's movements to allow for charging.

On the face of it. this is logical, after all, how else are you going to do it, toll sections are ok, but you can't have them everywhere ... but the potential is pretty wide in this proposal - will the records be admissible as prosecution or defence evidence ? What data will be recorded? How will it be used? Which executive agencies will have access to this data? Will it link to the national ID cards and the backend database ? Is this the water warming another few degrees ?

EDIT - This post was 10 minutes earlier, on the same topic, so that closes this one really.

[edit on 5-6-2005 by 0951]