Pay per mile instead of road vehicle licence.

[jon]

I might be paying ~2p/mile for 159-165 (Band G)

[Richard]

Fascinating.

[alan_m]

It will be £0.xx per mile to make up for lost fuel tax. It is likely that the road fund tax will remain.

[Jethro_uk]

If road tax (yes, I know it's VED) didn't exist, then every man + dog would keep 10 cars each on the road.

(Personally I would go the other way and require proof of parking before people were allowed a car at all ...)

[JNugent]

Quite.

A fellow after my own heart.

[I assume you mean off-street parking like wot I have got - and use.]

[ARW]

I could keep 10 of my cars on the road for £300 PA at current VED rates.

The gf could keep 10 of her cars on the road for £0 PA at current VED rates.

It's not VED that stops us owning 10 cars each.

[Jethro_uk]

How about the requirment to be insured and MOTd to get the VED ..

[Tim+]

Seems unlikely to me. The cost of insuring, servicing and MOTing is way above the cost of road tax.

Well I might go along with that? ;-)

Tim

[Steve Walker]

But you don't need VED for ensuring that vehicles are MOTd and insured. At the moment the "tax" status does not change if the MOT expires and you must have the car off the road and SORNed if the insurance lapses - that can be done without and VED being charged.

[Steve Walker]

The problem with that is that circumstances change.

I was single when I bought this house almost 30 years ago. I need a car for work (and other reasons). I have since married and my wife needed a car for her work and now that she has retired, because she has become disabled. We have three sons, all currently in education, but one or more may well be living at home for some years after they start working (and may need a vehicle to be able to work), to build up a deposit to buy a house.

Are we to say that without off-road parking for all, one or more must be unable to work or unable to get about due to disability? Or are we to be forced to move, at great cost, away from the area we have lived in all our lives and away from my elderly parents that I need to stay within caring distance of ... I have had to take my father to hospital on Friday and take my mother to visit each day. I will have to pick him up when he is discharged.

[Richard]

Some people are incapable of understanding the situation. Perhaps those with surplus land should be made to accommodate other citizens' cars FOC?

[Tim+]

Oh I do sympathise, which was why I said ?might? and added a smiley. Life is often complicated.

That said, I do think it wouldn?t do any harm to re-examine the idea that everyone has a right to clog narrow city streets by virtue of living in a flat there. So many city streets are rendered either dangerous or nearly impassible due to nose to tail parking in every available space including the pavements.

Shortage of affordable housing is no doubt part of the problem along with poor public transport.

Tim

[fred]

I understand in Tokyo one must prove availability of a parking space before acquiring a car

[alan_m]

It was common 30 years ago in my area for developers to convert houses into two or more flats. I believe that the local council now will not give planning permission for such conversions unless it includes provisions for adequate off road parking.

As for public transport, the area(s) of my town that have the worst on road residential parking problems are within a couple of minutes walk from the main bus routes where at peak times there may be a bus every 10 to 15 minutes. The problem with public transport in an urban area is that it doesn't deliver you anywhere near your intended destination unless the start and end of the journey are on the main bus routes. And, if you intend to go out in the evening around my way the 10/15 minutes increases to 1 hour between buses and in my experience the later ones are often cancelled!

[williamwright]

The fault lies with the local councils who allow flats to be built without parking spaces. Everyone has the right to own and run a car. Otherwise you're making poor people second class citizens.

Bill

[williamwright]

Well that's the Japs. They're nasty buggers. Never forgot the way they treated our POWs. Two nukes weren't enough.

Bill

[williamwright]

You have contempt for poor people who need a car to get to work then?

Bill

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I wonder though, whether it might cost more to run on some roads than others. Local roads are local authority owned and repaired whereas several metropolitan organisations run main roads and also those within large towns and cities, so unless location is known how can the right organisation be given the money in correct proportions? Brian

[Just Jim Dandy]

i might be on a winner with three cars....

[John Rumm]

"Affordable housing" frequently being a euphemism for "loads of tiny flats cramped into little space with little or no parking" in many cases...