[Gllug] [OT] Times Article on ABD was Fighting a virus

[Adrian McMenamin]

On Sun, 2007-02-18 at 10:29 +0000, Richard Jones wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 17, 2007 at 11:43:41PM +0000, paul at ma1.se wrote:
> > Some interesting stuff here on the people behind these anti road pricing 
> > emails circulating on mailing lists like this and the Downing Street 
> > petition. They claim to be the "voice of the driver." Some pretty 
> > bizarre idea's:
> > 
> > http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1398288.ece
> 
> I'm quite sure there are a whole range of different opinions behind
> this petition.  Just because the Times "journalist"[1] managed to dig
> up some dirt about two wackos by looking up their address on the
> petition in Google hardly means that their views hold for everyone.  I
> for one welcome anything that can be done to reduce carbon emissions
> and improve access to public transport.  It's just that road pricing
> is a regressive, intrusive and ineffective way to do this.
> 

In fact road pricing is a highly progressive form of taxation (in the UK
at least - the US is a different picture). The wealthy have far more
access to car based travel and will pay a proportionally greater part of
their income under any likely UK road pricing or congestion charging
scheme.

And nor is it ineffective. After all this the Greater London Linux Users
Group and people ought to know better than to make that claim in the
first city in the world to introduce a general road pricing scheme.
Experience in London is that the scheme was more effective in cutting
traffic volumes than its planners expected meaning there was less money
to go to public transport than expected (oh, look, I've answered that
point about tax too - not that I think paying tax to fund the NHS, my
children's education or policing, or, yes, defence, is illegitimate in
any case).

I'd recommend reading "The Undercover Economist" for anybody who wants
to know more.

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