The prog was a bit of a mixture really.
The authorities, local and national, who deal with congestion want us to believe their sincerity...yet one local council is still pressing ahead with all those fines for crossing a bus lane to get into a car park....and they wonder why we don't trust them
It's examples like this and seemingly deliberate remodeling to create congestion that makes us distrustful.
Regional road pricing very nicely avoids any need for Westminster to reduce the already astronomical levels of tax on cars. I am one of those that in principle sees advantages to road pricing....but only in principal and certainly not in practice. The socialist (small 's') in me hates that idea that those on low incomes will be discriminated against when it comes to using the roads, which road pricing very deliberately does. And then there will be the high cost of fitting the kit, I just love the idea of paying to be able to pay them...not.
But I simple don't buy the notion that once one road gets full we'll find another. In my neck of the woods we're out of choices right now and given projected car number increases we are looking grid lock any time soon. I fear we'll get inequitable road pricing because any other alternative would need to be too draconian for even our politicians to touch.
It was a missed opportunity that SS was cut and Capt Gatso got his 5 mins. I won't weep over a destroyed camera but all the Capt efforts just give camera exponents a stick to beat us with.
As for the guinea pigs in the programme - well the prices weren't dreadful but they will only ever go up. And as I live in South Manchester I simple struggled to believe that the University lecturers 20 min car journey into the city from the 'burbs turned into 1hr 40 min trip on public transport.
Barkstar