The impact on peoples leisure lifestyles and businesses though pay as you go road tax
Civic life is improved through the various schemes that governments have formulated and implemented. Schemes to improve life of the people have been based on various taxes. Various taxes have been used to support civic life, which can be availed in the form of healthcare, education, recreational facilities, etc.
Therefore, charging different taxes is important for a government, as it enables the authorities to come up with the funds required to improve civic life. One main issue in improving civic life is to improve the roads one travels on. Roads are used for a variety of purposes, such as traveling to a hospital, traveling to an airport, traveling for business or for recreational or leisure purposes. Since everyone needs properly constructed and safe roads to be maintained, there is a price to pay that one pays in the form of fuel duty and road tax. This has worked for a long time, and has been effective. However, with an increasing number of cars on the roads, there are some roads that are over crowded at peak hours. This has led to newer concepts being considered that would now look after maintaining roads as well as help in keeping them less crowded. One concept that is expected to be implemented in a few years is the ‘Pay as You Go’ scheme, which could be introduced to replace the current forms of road tax and fuel duty.
What is the ‘Pay as You Go’ scheme about? ‘Pay as You Go’ is a tracking system that takes note of the amount you travel and on which roads you travel. With knowing this information, authorities can charge an owner of a vehicle according to where s/he has traveled and on which roads s/he has traveled. Some roads that are more crowded at peak hours will have a higher fee for traveling on. While less cramped roads at peak hours will have a lower charge. It is said that for using a quieter road at a rush hour, one would pay a lower rate, starting at 2p, and, to use a motorway at peak hours, one would pay up to £1.34. The reasoning behind this is that this form of charging road tax would allow people to choose less crowded roads. To some, this may seem to be a good replacement for the current forms of road tax. However, there are also many issues that people have been arguing about regarding the ‘Pay As You Go’ road charge (Pay-as-you-go’ road charge plan, 2005). There are bound to be repercussions for new implementations such as ‘Pay as You Go’. For example, people who travel around a lot would have to pay more than others. Also, tourists who come to a city would be charged more because they spend a lot of their time traveling (Gateway users, 2007).
People already feel that their lifestyles will be impacted significantly through ‘Pay as You Go’. This is because it automatically means that they will have to pay more for going to particular places they want to. For instance, if they want to travel to a particular location, and they feel the motorway is the most leisurely way to travel to that point, they would have to pay more for it. This scenario can be considered against them traveling under the current road tax and fuel tax system, which would not make a different which road they traveled to get to wherever they want to.
To elaborate on how much leisure and lifestyles would be affected by introducing ‘Pay as You Go’, people who live far from their places of work might find it unfair to be charged according to the distance they have to travel. It is also suggested that many might have to spend as much as 25% of their earnings if ‘Pay as You Go’ is implemented (Pay-as-you-go’ road charge plan, 2005).
Another concern that is raised is the conventional way of taxing people as opposed to ‘Pay as You Go’. It is believed that the conventional way that has always applied in the past has been fair. This is because individuals with bigger cars paid more according to the fuel they consumed, which in turn depended on the fuel consumption of larger cars, as well as the fact that they traveled more. This is based on the reasoning that bigger car owners were individuals who were financially in a better position to own and maintain them (Motorists ‘must pay for road use, 2006). In contrast to this reasoning, ‘Pay as You Go’ does not seem to consider the reasoning that people with lower income will be charged the same as those who have a higher income. On the other hand, there are other arguments to this. One is; the more you drive, the more you pollute, and the more pollute, the more you should have to pay. However, this still does not seem fair to those who live far from their places of work (E-petitions, 2007).
Another major concern with implementing ‘Pay as You Go’ is liberty. Everyone will be tracked, and the government will be able to determine where a driver has been. Generally, people are not keen on having a government organisation have records of where they travel (Pay-as-you-go’ road charge plan, 2005). On the other hand, it is a good way of knowing where a car has been in case there is need to investigate a crime. Authorities might find it easier to investigate crimes if they are allowed make use of such recorded data. Besides, isn’t this tracker system similar to what is implemented to track stolen cars?
Regardless of the liberty issue with ‘Pay as You Go’ being implemented, it is still a great concern for many who have no choice but to travel long distances to work. Also, lifestyles of people will certainly be impacted; people will have to think twice about going out for a drive when they want to breathe some air. Visitors of main cities would probably have to pay more for certain areas they want to visit, may discourage traveling to cities. In general, it is people who want to travel more and see places within their own city that area likely to be most affected. When one considers the large number of low-income individuals who will be impacted significantly for traveling for leisure purposes, perhaps a variation of this scheme could be implemented to suit the economic bracket people fall under. Perhaps, the scheme would need to consider aspects like how much a car owner earns and what size of family s/he looks after, just to be fair.
Tags: lifestyles, pay as you go, road tax, scheme, taxes, tourists
