Stop the congestion tax

A webpage I made in 2009, but no longer think it needs to exist on my site ...


Arguments against CT (congestion tax):

1. LACK OF GOOD ALTERNATIVES. The alternative to private transport is public transport - and we all know how good that is! Londoners, for example, must face the never-ending threat of the tube workers going on strike. Country dwellers who must drive to cities are faced with a train service which is either non-existent, or patchy at best. Let's face it: public transport is just plain rubbish, and it costs more.
2. ROAD USAGE IS MOSTLY NON-DISCRETIONARY. Given the lack of viable alternatives, most people use their cars because they have to, not because they want to. Until people develop the art of magic yogic flying, they're just going to have to use their cars. To tax them is most unfair.
3. IT WILL MAKE CONGESTION WORSE, NOT BETTER. Restricting access to some roads is just going to push the traffic to other roads. This will make matters worse, as the same number of cars are now trying to use fewer roads.
4. IT'S A STEALTH TAX. It seems that the UK government's answer to everything is to put a tax on it. This is quick and easy for the government, and of course beneficial for them, but it does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. Drivers already pay a car tax - it's about time this tax was used to its full extent to improve roads.

At the end of the day, though, the simplest argument against the congestion tax is that it's totally misguided. The whole point of a system of transport is that it gets the most amount of people to where they want to go as conveniently as possible. Congestion charging is aimed at stopping people from travelling. It's not a transport policy - it's a non-transport policy. I don't see anything particularly clever or visionary about making it more burdensome for people to get from A to B - any fool can achieve that.