Road Users Would Pay 40p to Get Out of a Jam Says Road Users' Alliance, Welcoming the New RAC Foundation Report

LONDON, November 28 --

As the RAC Foundation publishes its Roads and Reality report, the Road Users' Alliance (RUA) calls for greater clarity in Government road strategy to focus on providing urgently needed capacity. RUA also stresses the need for improved public information on road pricing.

Roads and Reality calculates that the additional road capacity the UK requires could be provided for GBP4.5bn per annum, a cost that the Alliance says that road users could be relatively easily persuaded to cover. "Unfortunately the anti road pricing e-petition earlier this year seems to have scared the sense out of Government," claims RUA's Director, Tim Green. "Most of the negativity expressed by this vote seems to have been driven by a misconception relating to invasion of privacy and fear that road users would spend more and receive nothing in return. If road users really understood how road pricing could work and the benefits it could bring, they would probably vote for it."

Of the GBP45bn collected in road user taxes, just GBP7.5bn is spent on the road network and only a small part of this is allocated to increasing network capacity. "For decades most of the taxes collected from road users have gone towards other vital services such as health and social services and this is an accepted and historic situation unlikely to change," comments Green.

"The only way, therefore, to fund the urgently needed additional road capacity and ensure its efficient use is via road pricing. The amount the RAC Foundation's report suggests is necessary to spend to achieve realistic and manageable growth equates to around GBP135 per year - just 40p a day - per motor vehicle."

"This is a small price to pay for relieving the appalling congestion we currently suffer, and would bring business, environmental and safety benefits that would far outweigh the additional cost."

"Our recently published Road File 07/08 includes Eastern European statistics for the first time and these highlight the UK's road network ranking alongside those of Lithuania, Slovakia and Latvia. With the benefit of regeneration funding to improve their transport infrastructure, these countries' economies are likely to surge ahead of ours unless urgent action is taken," warns Green.

Figures from RUA's Road File 2007/08 (http://www.rua.org.uk):

- 33,369 = GB licensed vehicles (27% increase in last decade)

- 50,310kms = major roads (2% increase in last decade)

- GBP 45bn = collected in taxes from road users

- GBP132.4bn = UK spending on cars

(road user taxes, new car purchases, running & standing costs)

Editorial info: Dee Fernandes/Helen Melhuish T: +44(0)20-7730-2212 M: (out of hours) +44(0)7771-882-604, E: pressoffice@rua.org.uk