MOTOR TAXATION AND ROADS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 32, 9 February 1929, Page 8

MOTOR TAXATION AND ROADS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Advocates of . a tax on petrol and tires alone as' the only just method of bringing road users to pay their just share of'the'upkeep of the road surfaces seem inclined to overlook two very important factors.. The first is the possibility"that the damage created by speed may mount in a ratio much greater than is met by the ratio of petrol consumed,, and the other is that the same,principle may apply in the case of weight. A road constructed to carry a load of eight tons might be'under severe strain from anything approaching that weight, and with constant\traffic bo wrecked by it. If, however, the work of surfacing such a road has been efficiently carried out no amount of light trafiic should have any appreciable effect upon it. A single load of excessive weight might do damage seriously impairing the whole structure. '

Private car owners will, no doubt, keep a wary eye on any proposal that may relieve heavy traffic. of its obligations in regard to the roads if such relief is to fall upon the users of private cars. There can be no going back on the roading system now. It is obvious that the ordinary taxpayer has gone, the limit in what he is prepared to do, and the motor must pay. To curtail taxation would mean that road-, ing must go back. This is not a prospect that motorists, whose experience goes back even.a few years, are at all likely to countenance; they are gainers by the good roads of, the present day, and as a class have proved their willingness to bear taxation, provided they get the benefit. There is another matter the private motorist' might.: well scan carefully, the. hint thrown out by'the,Prime Minister that the Highways Board should consider the spending . of funds , for the relief of . unemployment . held by it for the roads. The funds of the Highways Board are only a share of motor vehicles towards the road; the general public also have a-duty in regard to the provision and upkeep of. roads, and it it would be to introduce a principle' unsound, and unfair to spend special taxation without the contribution of property owners, who benefit from the improved communication. , ' ......

While on the subject it might be well to remind those people who buy their first cars to-day tha'fr'they come into benefits that have been won for them by those who have borne the heat and burden of the day. The old motorist has worn out many cars on the rough roads of the past, while at the same time he has been providing the'good roads of'the present. In clubs where expenses are heavy—golf clubs and the like—it. is customary to charge an entrance fee. I would suggest that possibly there would be no injustice if the purchaser of his first: car to-day were burdened with a kind of entrance to roads id.the form, say, of a first annual fee of £5 or £10, so contributing somewhat to the cost of the inheritance into which hehas come.—l am,, etc., ' '/ DIFFERENTIAL. Bth February.