In a message dated 14/02/2007 09:43:48 GMT Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
It isn't / wouldn't be a tax. It is a user charge, like a toll, or a water bill. You are paying to use the road at particular time, in the same way that a cinema ticket lets you be in the cinema when the movie is on.. This difference is important. With a user charge, you can choose whether to pay or not by choosing whether to use or not. With a tax, you have to pay. So it's similar to a prescription charge, which is not a health tax. You choose when you are going to be ill and then decide whether or not you want to take the medication. There will always be occasions where you have to take a particular route, whether or not you actually want to go that way at that time. So you then have to choose between going the way that has higher road charges (where there is less traffic because everyone else is steering clear of them) or join the traffic queues on the roads behind all the others on the cheaper/free roads. These traffic queues will, of course, cause more pollution than the free-running traffic on the more expensive roads. Am I confusing myself? ;-) DaveD [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
