This. You want to reduce congestion on a road during rush hour? if you have pay per mile road pricing you can price that at £1 per mile to "encourage" people to use public transport or car share.
encourage people to use public transport? that would be a joke right there (not that i am saying you are wrong) but....... outside of major cities like London and Manchester public transport is often not fit for purpose.
my car was off the road for a few days so i tried getting to work on the bus from the village i was living in. it meant me getting on a bus to take me 15 miles into Cambridge, and then getting another bus out of cambridge and to work - which was 13 miles.
Now bear in mind my work was only less than 20 miles from where i lived anyway so not only was this a massive detour, what took 35 mins in car would have taken 2 hrs.
cost was also more than driving (i cant remember amounts so no point me guessing but was more than my car) - and that is with the 2nd bus from cambridge to my work being free as it was a work bus which our company pays for and allows staff to travel from Cambridge to campus for free.
but that is not all................ not only was it in the best case scenario, long and expensive................. the damn bus never showed up. I asked in the post office in the villiage and the woman said it was a lottery if it would show up. my stop was mid way on its route and if the bus was full it would just skip out my village all together.
this meant i would have missed my 2nd work bus, and so i had to pay for a taxi (which cost upwards of £30 - i dare say over £40 today)
people (and not having a dig at Greebo here) who suggest we need to get on the bus more either are fortunate to live someone and need to travel somewhere which is well serviced OR they are simply unaware at how bad (and expensive) public transport is now.
The 1 area where i can honestly say the busses work generally quite well is the park and ride system around cambridge.
parking is free at the park and ride and its around £6 for an all day pass around the city... my wife went to hospital friday last week and use the park and ride.... this is all well and good if all you want to do is get into and around cambridge........ but you still have to get to the P&R site in the 1st place.
putting large fees on driving in and around a city as well as expensive inner city parking to encourage parking out of town and taking the P&R is something i think can work (but something would have to be done for residents who need a car to get OUT of the city) but that is a separate (but related) topic
