June/July 2007

Road pricing cannot, by itself, solve Britain's congestion crisis, according to Richard Turner, the chief executive of the Freight Transport Association. His comments come in response to the publication of as UK Government's latest transport bill, which provides the opportunity for local authorities to trial road pricing schemes.

Whilst taking care not to rule out road pricing as a future strategy, the FTA says it 'must not be used as an excuse to abandon the further, and substantial, construction of new roads capacity.'

Turner warns: 'If we all end up paying the maximum sum because, in the absence of any alternative, we are all on the same road at the same time, then the scheme will have been a waste of time and would not work.'

That comment carries the implicit suggestion that any chosen system would need some form of quite selective pricing related to place, time of day and perhaps vehicle type. If this is the intention, then the FTA is evidently trying to convey a dual message: it is in no hurry to see road pricing adopted widely at all, but if it comes, it should be sophisticated.