Less than four pence a year I pay for my tax disk goes on road improvements. I am forced to waste considerably more because I am stuck in traffic jams on roads which need to be improved. If I were to drive along the motorway at 80mph I would use about half the fuel that I would use if I were stuck in crowded urban roads.
Insurance companies use to load the premium of drivers if they had points for speeding. Many companies have given up this practice and now consider speeding to be a ‘trivial’ offence. So many drivers have points now.
A recent study revealed that drivers were most likely to get endorsements on their license because they accidentally exceeded the speed limit.
Some drivers get caught out where, in the name of safety, road speed limits have been reduced, signage is often poorly placed and speed cameras have been placed to catch the unwary.
Drivers should pay for the carbon dioxide emissions they produce. World governments MUST be brave enough to increase the tax on fuel. The representatives of the 157 countries at the Kyoto agreement would be signatories to a meaningless document if this were not to happen. The revenue should be invested in our transport infrastructure so that we can pursue our travels without the levy of devious taxes masquerading in the name of ‘safety measures’.
I was reading an article in ‘New Scientist’ 3 December 2005, a report on global warming. Figures show the rate of global warming is accelerating. Whether the slowing of the Gulf Stream is a manifestation of the Guyer principle as the Earth attempts to counter Human activities which increase global warming or whether it is an indication that the Earth is about to flip into terminal climatical change is a debateable matter.
Sunday, 11 December 2005 – I was woken up at a little after six this morning. What I thought was a door slamming was in fact an explosion thirty miles away at Hemel Hempstead. An awesome event! I understand that there were fatalities. I offer my deepest sympathy for those affected by the explosion.
We live in troubled times.