Punishing Drivers

I’ve been reading the BBC’s report on the Government plans to charge Pay-as-you-go for drivers. the report is on the BBC News Website. Under the proposal road tax would be replaced by a charge based upon distance travelled, which would vary based upon how busy the road is and the time of day.

The solution to congestion is not to punish people for driving, but to provide and then encourage the use of alternative transport.
This scheme would punish those that don’t have a choice of where they work. With the high property prices many people have to find somewhere that is affordable, not somewhere that is close to work. They would end up paying over the odds for travelling to work which they can’t afford. People would also be punished because they happened to live or work in a congested area. Will those that live or work near a major city pay more for travelling around because they happen to live near busy roads and motorways but with poor public transport options?

To give a few personal examples when I first purchased my house it was about 30 mile round trip from where I worked. The reason was that to live locally I would have needed to pay twice as much to get a similarly sized house.
Since then I now travel travel a 50 mile round trip, because I was relocated by the company. The cost of pay-as-you-go would also no doubt be much higher as I travel on the busy M42.
My wife works in a specialist hospital which is even further in the opposite direction up the even busier M6, so her costs would be even higher. In the past you had to choose your career based upon the industry that was local to where you live. I thought that we had progressed since then, but it looks like we may be back to only being able to afford to work locally.

What we need is better organised subsidised public transport, not punishment for those that need to travel long distances, or through busy areas. The current public transport system is expensive, and inconvenient and just doesn’t provide an alternative to using the car.
This is a proposal from a government that appears to have lost touch with the needs of the people.