Road pricing: years of confusion ahead
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• by Karen Miles Planned legislation allowing local councils to introduce electronic road pricing has failed to dampen speculation surrounding the kind of treatment goods vehicle operators will receive.
HGVs tepid be charged a maximum of treble the car levy—a ratio which should not outweigh the benefits operators would gain from less congested urban roads.
But the first paying schemes will not start until 2003 at the earliest, by which time the Government hopes public transport alternatives will have improved and road pricing electronic technology will be available for use.
Freight guidelines are expected next year: a number of local authorities are expected to declare an interest in pursuing road pricing policies. They could also deal with the issue of possible exemptions for the most environmen
tally friendly vehicles and off-peak operation.
All levies raised in road pricing schemes for the first 10 years after the road pricing bill becomes law will be ploughed back into local transport improvement projects, says the DOT.
Leeds is already in the process of setting up a free pilot scheme to test the smart-card technology and a similar scheme is planned for Edinburgh. Other urban centres known to be keen on pilot schemes include Bristol and parts of Derbyshire.
Nottingham, Cambridge and cities in the West Midlands are known to be interested in implementing workplace parking levies which could leave roads freer for trucks.
The Local Government Association says that so far only 15% of its county members are showing an interest in road pricing, but it expects the numbers will rise if town planners see projects producing healthy levels of income for spending on transport schemes and improvements in the local environment.
LGA transport policy officer Vince Christie welcomes road pricing trials. "There has to be a balance,'' he says. "People need their baked beans delivered to the high street...but we don't want lorries exempt from towns and able to dash through while cars are all blocked up, avoiding the town on the bypass,'' The Freight Transport Association argues that trucks should be exempt from tolling schemes because they provide an essential service.