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Travelling around our lovely country gets more difficult every day. Representing the views of the ordinary voter and citizen, E.P.P. is worried that gridlock will soon occur in many places.
It seems to us, that it is now necessary to take certain steps to try and sort out, or at least alleviate the problem, for a good few years ahead. With this in mind, we offer the following suggestions about some ideas that we think will considerably improve the situation.
We think they are workable, sensible and economically viable, if the situation is to improve in a positive sense. They are as dramatic and far-reaching as building the canals, the railways and the motorways were, to our forefathers!
Given the plain truth that we are all loath to give up our cars, and why should we, the problem of the sheer volume of traffic in certain areas needs to be addressed, and soon.
2) Road Fund Tax – and Insurance
E.P.P. therefore proposes that the Road Fund Tax is immediately abolished and a nominal additional Tax is put on petrol. Most short-journey drivers will be better off. The huge savings in Government administration costs alone will make up most of the shortfall in revenue.
By not issuing Annual Tax Discs, all the trouble over “non-display” and “out of date” ones, together with the administrative costs of trying to catch the people who think they are exempt from buying them at all, will disappear at a stroke.
In place of the Tax Disc will be a new legal requirement to display a Valid Insurance Disc. Cars not displaying this Insurance Disc will be liable to immediate removal from the highway. Retrieval will incur a penalty payment (as with clamping) and the production of a Valid Insurance Disc, covering a minimum of a full three months from date of retrieval, to avoid the cost of it happening again, shortly after retrieval. The public taxpayers must no longer fund the people who do not buy insurance.
Consideration will be given to weekend only vehicle insurance. This would allow members of the public to drive second vehicles for limited times during the year without the burden of annual insurance.
Displaying an Insurance Disc will apply to all vehicles on English roads, including visitors from abroad, some of whom also do not buy Insurance. They will all need a Valid Insurance Disc to come to these shores.
All drivers caught without a valid Insurance Disc will have the vehicle confiscated on the spot. Disposal of the vehicle will be at the discretion of the Police, and the DVLA.
Until such time as the Insurance Discs are officially implemented, from immediate effect the vehicle will be impounded, but not crushed, by the Police, if the same Offence of "Driving without Insurance" is committed.
The vehicle will be crushed, or sold, at Police discretion, after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, that period to be decided in consultation with the representatives of the Law.
One in four driver drivers is currently without Insurance and the costs are being unfairly born by the legally insured drivers. This must stop.
5) Crude Oil Replacement, Diesel and Bio-Fuels
Crude Oil, for petrol production, will probably only last another 30-40 years maximum, so it is in all our interests to speed up the development of a replacement form of engine, which also has less harmful emissions. Many new systems are already under development, and these must be speeded up including new Bio Fuels.
E.P.P. will be Reducing Tax on Diesel for transport companies – enabling them to compete equally with companies from the Continent. We shall also assist in the development of new Bio-Fuels.
With Petrol Prices, it is the intention of E.P.P. to review the Government Tax part of the “pump price”. This may rise slightly, to reflect the extra cost of losing the Tax Disc income, it may stay exactly the same, or it may even be possible to reduce it slightly. Whatever is fair, workable and necessary.
We know Tax has to be raised somehow, in various different ways, but E.P.P. will fix a nominal percentage of the petrol tax, to be put aside and invested in the development of new cleaner, environmentally friendly, forms of propulsion. This may be 2% - 5%, and will be determined later after consultation.
E.P.P. will also undertake to set a permanent, constant and stable Government tax percentage figure, or fixed “pence per litre” for each and every litre of fuel, petrol or diesel. The balance of the “pump price” will be established by the fuel supplier, according to supply and demand and the service they offer.
7) Speed Limits
New Minimum Speed Limits will be introduced on certain roads, after consultation with Police, Breakdown Services, Insurance Companies, and other interested bodies. Very slow driving can cause as many problems and accidents, through frustration, as speeding does. Apart from legitimate breakdowns, people travelling below the set limit will be prosecuted, in the same way as for excess speeding. They should find a suitable alternative route, without restrictions. It is intended this rule will only apply to peripheral city routes and Ring Roads, with occasional roads that “must be kept moving”.
In fairness to all who wish to travel safely and quickly, roads will be assessed for suitability for new limits, in line with modern vehicle capabilities.
Motorways will most probably have a 0-50mph on the inside lane, 50-70mph in the centre lane, and on three-lane highways the outside lane will be available to vehicles legally capable of 70-85mph. Other roads will be assessed and graded accordingly.
With Speed Cameras, their location and effectiveness in preventing accidents will be fully reviewed and most probably the quantity greatly reduced. They should not be installed as “money-spinners”, which many have been!
On City Roads, the speed limit in school zones will be 20mph. Speed Bumps, or Humps, will be removed, due to the damage caused to all vehicles, people swerving to avoid them, causing lack of concentration generally and the inconvenience, damage and delay to Ambulances and Fire Engines in emergencies. (Fire Engines weigh around 16 tons and Speed Bumps are “not good” for them!)
9) Ring Roads
Ring Roads should be just that, a road that skirts around the town or village. These will be looked at and assessed for restrictions on pedestrian access. Pedestrians and moving traffic do not mix. A by-pass should be built for, and only available to, cars and other vehicles.
Pedestrians will use either a footbridge, or an underpass, according to the wishes of the Local Planning Authority, in the immediate neighbourhood. This will cut pedestrian incidents, and also speed up the ‘pedestrian-free’ by-pass traffic, which would then be subject to upper and lower speed limits.
Certain main routes into and out of cities will be given “Priority Routing” for Commuter traffic, again with minimum speed limits where applicable. Side roads, and cut-through “rat runs” will be “out of bounds” for all commercial vehicles without a delivery permit to enter that area.
All Commercial Vehicles must use main roads, or have a permit to travel down a specific side road.
All unlit roads will be painted with centre and also kerbside white lines, and be fitted with green and red reflectors built into the concrete kerbstones. This will obviously be a gradual replacement programme, as money and common sense dictates, locally.
The aim is to get traffic flowing, not stopping and blocking everything, through effective Traffic Management. To do this, traffic restrictions and regulations must become slightly harsher, with penalties for abuse of the system. We cannot all go where we want, when we want, in towns and cities anymore – fact! Sensible and fair rules must be introduced.
10) Public Transport
E.P.P. believes that a considerable benefit to motorists will occur if all Bus Lanes are removed.
Public Transport does not, and probably never will, be all things to all people. It never goes from your A to your B, at the time you want. The car usually does! The problem arises with congestion, mainly in large towns.
E.P.P. would immediately start serious investigations and planning for a possible completely new system of Tram networks, in major towns. Continental Travel Systems, and existing British systems, will be looked at in detail, and the best and most suitable ideas used here, for further development.
A Public Referendum will be held for each town or city concerned, giving full and explicit details and advantages.
Out of town, the car best serves our transport needs, every time, but our cities are now all but gridlocked.
Tram Networks could be designed for each large conurbation, and would run right across a town or city, boundary to boundary. They would link with all existing bus routes, railway stations, and where applicable, with airports.
Trams would be FREE to the Public!
Trams would be Clean and Hygienic!
Trams would be Comfortable to ride in!
Trams would be Pollution Free!
Trams would be Quiet, Quick and Easy to use!
Trams would be MUCH BETTER than your Car!
(No point, otherwise)
LARGE, FREE CAR PARKS will be provided at each Terminus or turn-around point, with CCTV and full council or contract private supervision.
Only by planning a completely new and ambitious project like this, will we free our cities of cars, exhaust and congestion.
Something MUST be done – AND SOON!
People will be happy to use Public Transport, if it is FREE, Reliable, Clean and Speedy, and goes, within reason, where they want!
Cars will still be allowed into cities, under rigidly imposed special circumstances, of course, as will Delivery Vehicles on permits, but it is a luxury we can all no longer afford, if grid-lock is to be avoided. Congestion costs us all millions!
Airports will be developed to meet the need of mass travel, possibly with smaller airfields being brought back into commercial use, for inland and local flights, especially flights not requiring jet planes. No flights will be allowed Midnight to 6am from these smaller airfields.
E.P.P. will keep control of all Air Space over Britain. Current EU plans to control all flights in our Air Space will be overturned.
Still with Transport, E.P.P. will endeavour to restore our Shipbuilding Industry, before all our skills are lost completely. Discussions with all the Unions involved will be started as soon as possible.
It makes no sense for France to build our most prestigious liner, when we have dockyards lying idle. Costs will be fully investigated, and Government financial help will be available to re-equip the yards with the latest ship construction technology. Long term loans, and other suggestions to save our yards from extinction, will all be considered. It is part of our heritage, and deserves saving.
IT’S TIME TO SORT OUT OUR COUNTRY’S TRANSPORT PROBLEMS!
ENGLAND'S PARLIAMENTARY PARTY – A NEW WAY OF RUNNING ENGLAND, BASED ON VISION, THE SENSIBLE APPLICATION OF PROGRESSIVE IDEAS – AND COMMON SENSE!