I’m very very much against road pricing, the latest (old) idea to come out of one of the governments think tanks;
Each vehicle has a box that receives position signals from satellites (the ‘downlink’) (GPS or the European Gallileo system) and records vehicle movements in some sort of local memory. At some specified interval the box sends a burst of this data (possibly by cellular telephone or by dedicated new network) (the ‘uplink’) to the official road pricing computers that then generate a monthly bill for vehicle usage. The box must be programmed to identify the individual vehicle.
So, as well as knowing everything else about us the government will also know where we are, exactly. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I don’t buy into a lot of the crap that gets pushed around about the police, the government and everyone else in authority. But I am getting sick to the back teeth of being watched. Everywhere. The only place that still appears to be private is the thoughts in my head when I slap on my helmet and ride away; the only thing is that those thoughts keep getting interrupted by the other irritating little voice of… is my insurance up to date as there’s an ANPR camera ahead, when’s my tax due, am I over the speed limit…. dear me the only time I want to worry about these things is when a reminder pops through my door and I spend the 10 mins it takes to sort it out, not the constant concern that I’m doing something wrong!
Why is the new assumption in this country, you’ve done something wrong and if we watch you long enough we’ll know what it is; rather than, get on with it and when you cross the line we’ll come and get you.
Very good write up about Road Pricing here.
