Pay as you go driving

I have to say that I have been in favour of something like this for a long time, but not in he simplistic sense being proposed by our beloved government!

I think that the system should be intelligent, and should start with a grading system for the car it is to be used in. One of the great things about using petrol is that the more unecnomical the car, the more tax you pay. This should be reflected in the new sysetm - there's no reason why fuel consumption can't be added to the equation. This could be extended to the suitability of the vehicle for the area it is being driven in, e.g. 4x4s on the school run in town!

This methodology could also be used for companies with large fleets of cars and travelling salesmen, giving them a tax break for choosing more efficient cars and and bulk payment for travelling, in a similar mode to the mobile phone comanies where you can pay x amount for so many minutes, and if you go over, you pay for what you use.

The system should also alert the user to alternative transportation methods, e.g train, buses etc. and the cost and timings available. For this to be a viable option the public transport system needs to be reliable and cost effective, and also not charge a premuim for last minute bookings. So if you're planning a trip from London to Manchester, it could cost you £100 by car, but only £75 by train, the train also allowing you to work whilst travelling.

The system could also keep a track of who's driving by interacting with your licence, and although this is, in addition to other privacy issues with this system, the ultimate tracking of the actual driver, not just car owner, it could then allow you to pay for insurance as you go (or not allow you to drive the car!) allowing you to drive your friend's car knowing what it will cost you. This then opens up the possability of car sharing and makes it feesable.

Tracking the driver would also allow the police and local authorities to issue fines for everything from speeding to parking illegally (depending on the resolution of the system, but by adding base stations in built up area you can get an accuracy of +-1 meter). More importantly, it could be used to analyse dangerous driving, e.g. tailgating, cutting people up etc.

Another benefit of the system would be to manage traffic, allowing the system to monitor all traffic and provide route changes and updates on the fly to avoid gridlock and heavy traffic. It could also provide speed limit change information and allow for dynamic speed limits, e.g. the A40 into London has a speed limit of 40 mph, which is a little too quick in the rush hour, but way too slow after 7pm when the traffic is very light. This system could manage the speed of the traffic to keep a steady flow.

However, although I am a fan of such a system, there is one rather huge issue that would need to be addressed, namely what happens if it's switched off! This could happen by sattelites failing, but would more likely happen as a result of an accident or terrorist attack, as these systems would be openly available and would potentially allow a terrorist to navigate a targetted missile, which cuold take the form of a missile, plane or even car - no more suicide! This would mean that the government could switch the system off on the basis of an intelligence tipoff - and haven't they already over reacted to so called dead certs in the past, e.g. WMDs in Iraq, and maybe soon Iran?

Another issue is privacy, but having been driving for nigh on 15 years, I have seen the standards of drivers in the UK exponentially decrease and believe there are far too many people driving on our roads without insurance, tax or even a licence. Many have a foreign licence, but don't bother (are they required by law?) to get a UK licence. People should also be forced not just to pay money, but resit their test for certain offences, starting with the theory for lighter offences (3 points) and the full theory and practical for heavier offences (6 points or more). The biggest issue with all types of offence is identifying the driver of the vehicle, and this type of system could be used to do that, and I believe that in the UK we are forefeighting the right to keep our privacy when we drive as too many people are committing offences and getting away with them, e.g. send in your grandparents licence instead of yours to colect points, even though they don't have a car and haven't driven in ten years.

At the very least, the cameras in petrol stations should be linked up to the DVLA and police database systems so that if a car that has outstanding fines or not TAX or insurance is flagged by a system and not given fuel and the police alerted. With these types of people off our roads insurance premioms would tumble!

This is all possible to do TODAY - the government should launch a national discussion and give people the full possabilities of the system and get on with it. This can work, but not in a simplistic fashion.