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Drive to make bikers pay up for road tolls
WILLIAM LEECE
MOTORCYCLES have been admitted free of charge through the Mersey tunnels for many years now.
The pounds 50 or so each month a commuter can save by taking to two wheels can go a long way towards covering the costs of a small scooter or motorcycle
Down in London, they are exempt from the congestion charge, a concession that has sent sales of commuter bikes soaring in the capital, where the saving can be far more dramatic than those in the Mersey tunnels. Bikes, too, are exempt from the smaller-scale congestion project in Durham.
But although the idea of a congestion charge seems to be inexorably spreading outwards from London, the freedom to roam uncharged on a bike may not be following it.
Manchester looks like being the next big conurbation to adopt a congestion charge, but plans published so far seem determined to extract money from motorcyclists as well as car and other road users.
It's all rather complicated, and proposals published so far suggest that there will be long times of the day when there will be little or no charge, and also that it will be possible to dodge through the side roads to central Manchester and avoid the charge altogether.
Seen from further west it looks like a mess in the making, and little wonder that pressure groups from the Road Haulage Association to the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) are standing together to ask the Manchester authorities to think again.
At MAG the line is that it is amazed that the authorities in Manchester have even considered charging motorcycles, when the London congestion charging scheme has proved successful and beneficial to congestion busting motorcycles.
"MAG believes that motorcycles fulfil a significant role as part of an integrated transport policy by not only relieving traffic congestion but also pollution, whilst enhancing commercial efficiency by cutting journey times to work."
MAG's public affairs director Trevor Baird, said, "We have a change of transport ministers in Gordon Brown's new cabinet. Stephen Ladyman is replaced by Rosie Winterton, Ruth Kelly has been appointed as the Secretary of State for Transport with the responsibility of rolling out the congestion charge across Greater Manchester, and perhaps she will give Manchester direction in exempting motorcycles in their proposed scheme.
"MAG calls on the authorities in Manchester to recognise the positive contribution that motorcycles make to congestion problems by excluding motorcycles from the congestion charging proposals and recognise motorcycling as a legitimate and increasingly popular mode of transport.
billleece@dailypost.co.uk
Copyright 2007 MGN Ltd, Source: The Financial Times Limited
Provider: Financial Times Ltd.
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