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Just sent this to the BBC Talk Back pages about this (there was a lot of talk about increasing public transport in the debate): People will get out of their cars when there is a viable alternative. However presenting increased public transport as a way to reduce Environmental issues is a misnomer. As most of the pollution in cities comes from Diesel vehicles, like buses, as covered in this BBC news story here : news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4302211.stmMaybe the government can come after us car owners for environmental concerns once they have solved that pollution source and the hideous amounts of pollutants put into the atmosphere by air travel. What they want is cars off the road so that those that are rich enough and privileged enough can travel easily in their cars, as the rest of us will be neatly priced out of the system. I’m guessing this tax won’t be applying to the ministerial limo.
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Yep, sounds like the motorist is going to take it in the ass again
As has been said, it does sound like a good idea in theory, but it'd be a nightmare to put into practice.
Obviously all new cars would be fitted with the 'device' as standard, but what about those of us that don't buy a new car every 2 years, or maybe that's what the government would be after.
I seriously doubt it would the be the government that would be paying for the 'devices' fitting to old cars, more like "pay x amount of pounds and get one fitted or your car isn't on the road son"
It's also too big brother style, monitoring exactly where anyone car is in the country
Plus, if we did have satelite tracked cars it wouldn't be long before zero tolerance on speeding came in too.
Reckon it will happen one day, but hopefully not in our lifetime
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IF it does happen (and I suspect they are busy burying another bad news story by releasing this information now) the poll tax riots will be nothing compared to what will happen. Seriously, even I'm thinking that throwing firey things at the houses of parliament is a good idea right now...
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It does sound like an impossible idea. don't think it will ever happen. If they put a transponder on every car could they use it to see if your speeding? No doubt that's part of their idea, now they won't even need GATSO cameras to get you done, it'll be a letter through the door guaranteed when you creep 2mph over the limit. I have to admit it does sound too Orwellian for my liking, it fits in with Big Brother Blair's other intrusive policies too, like everyone being ID tagged and probably microchipped so they can watch us even when we're not in our cars. More proof that our government is a shower of devious b@stards, they'll bring this in as a measure to replace road tax, then tell us that as an "unexpected benefit" of the new scheme they can now track us wherever we go and have a new effortless way to do us for speeding, now they don't even have to put up an maintain speed cameras, the black box does everything for them, just as their "anti-terrorism" measures will do nothing to stop terrorists, who just need to make up fake identification for if they're questioned, but have the 'unexpected benefit' of making law abiding citizens easier to spy on and pick on, while the real terrorists get away it because they're easily able to find ways round the law that we law abiding punters aren't willing to take. The government really are starting to p*ss me right off, but I still think we'd have been worse off under certain other parties. I just wish we had a real left wing party who actually listen to what we say, rather than the clowns calling themselves labour we have now!
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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It does sound like an impossible idea. don't think it will ever happen. If they put a transponder on every car could they use it to see if your speeding? No doubt, yes.. if it's tracking your journey to monitor mileage it will also timestamp and have mention of point to point which will take a designated amount of time to complete and if you do the journey in under that time, then PING! you're busted.
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Skyline: 1963 - 1973 - 1983 Sunny: 1982 450SLC: 1973 Navara: 1992 Gloria: 1992
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mercmad
Posted a lot
Flush Hard,it's a long way to McDonalds.
Posts: 1,740
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Many years ago I changed my driving style to cope with rising fuel prices; I have now reached the stage where I am contemplating keeping my eyes shut in order to lower wind resistance.
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Kris
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,631
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Which brings me to the subject at hand,In OZ all new heavy trucks,22 wheelers,semi trailers etc have their engines connected via SAT to a computor in Bushmerica which constantly diagnoses the day to day running. Any fault and the service contractor is informed and the truck schedulled for maintenance. I did my final year dissertation on diagnostics and had a chapter on this. Scary stuff, constant monitoring of you postion and movements
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Well lorries in the UK have tachographs to do a similar thing, that way they can monitor the exact distance they do in a day, the speeds they're going, how long they drive for, and when they drive, in order to harrass drivers into not going over their limited 55mph even on motorways (a ridiculous limit that's only imposed in the EU) and to make sure they don't drive for over 9 hours a day, even though many a driver I know has been caught out and forced to spend another night in their lorry even though they're half an hour from home or similar just because they've crossed the 9 hour limit. There's also talk of making electronic tachographs similar to the kind that New Zealand drivers have to put up with, which combined with the EU working time directive (which p*sses long distance drivers off a great deal, because none of them could possibly get by on 45 hours a week unless they get paid a reasonable hourly rate, I know a few drivers who're reasonably well paid, but only because they work long hours, you have to remember that a distance drivers hours aren't just the 9 hours he's allowed to spend driving, there are hours at a time made up of loading, unloading, hooking up trailers, yard shunting to get the unit and trailer he needs, paperwork, and other tasks, and occasionally repairs to his motor, so I don't know single driver who works less than 45 hours per week, and I know plenty of lorry drivers.) means that the UK wide driver shortage is about to become even more dire than it already is, because most distance drivers are sick to death of ridiculous rules and regulations and are considering changing career. Tony'll lose his gigantic lying grin when the country grinds to a total halt because fuel, food, medicine, and every other kind of good transported by road doesn't get delivered, because there's nobody left to deliver it, they've all left in search of a career where they're not bullied and victimised by Tony's cronies. Maybe once a few thousand people have had to die and everyone else has had to live in misery with no food, no power, no healthcare and no heat the rule makers will realise that proffessional drivers can't live under the ridiculous f*cking rules they've been made live under for too long.
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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filmidget
East Midlands
Mostly Lurking
Posts: 1,652
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Just posted this on Pistoheads: This just doesn’t make logistical sense to me… How are they gonna decide when you are on a congested road? Is it a fixed system ie road ‘x’ is £1.00 08:00-10:00 & 16:00-18:00, £0.80 Saturdays and £0.20 all other times? Who the hell is going to decide that (and how?) for thousands of miles of roads? And how will you know in advance of a jouney? Will there be a system for route planning and pricing? What happens if you are diverted by roadworks etc? Can you be charged money for something you cannot know the price of in advance? And will the charge be reviewed and lowered when the congestion drops by a magical 4% say, and moves onto a previously free-moving parallel road? (which then sees it’s price increased) Another thought – will CROSSING a high congestion/price road at a junction see you charged? EG ‘cos of where I work I drive across town, rather than into it – but two roads I cross at traffic light controlled crossroads are very busy. Now in theory they are waiting at those lights for me to cross… so am I adding to the congestion even though I am on a free moving road? What happens if you PARK on a congested/high price road? Does the system only work when your engine is running? If so what happens if you hit congestion and turn your engine off? (Or the black box thinks you have turned your engine off? ) And how long before the charging is used for other reasons than congestion – ie discourage use of a particular (free moving) rat run, or past a beauty spot, etc All the above is assuming it’s not some dynamic system working on your position and average speed (‘cos that throws up even more problems)
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'79 MG Midget 1500 - Still patiently awaiting attention '02 Vauxhall Astra 1.8 Elegance(!) - Better than you might think '03 Mazda MX5 - All new and shiny looking (thanks to Antony at Rust Republic) '09 Renault Clio - Needs to go.
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