The song Taxman by George Harrison and John Lennon has the lines, “If you drive a car we’ll tax the street … If you take a walk we’ll tax your feet”.
Traffic regulation costs tens of billions a year yet fails to keep us safe. Far from solving congestion, it causes it.
Like the congestion charge, road pricing would be unfair and premature because the elegant, sustainable solution – deregulation and reform – has yet to be tried.
A £40bn hole in the Treasury? No problem. Traffic system reform can provide beneficial annual savings which would dwarf that figure.
