International Lancia Forums

Maybe of interest : -

I cut and paste this from another forum. I thought it would be good to spread the word

"If you drive a car, please read -

Sarah Kennedy was talking about this proposed car tax
scheme on Radio 2. Apparently there is only one month
left to register your objection to the 'Pay As You Go'
road tax.

The petition is on the website but they didn't tell
anybody about it. Therefore at the time of Sarah's
comments only 250,000 people had signed it and
750,000 signatures are required for the goverment to
at least take any notice.

Once you've given your details (you don't have to give
your full address, just house number and postcode will
do), they will send you an email with a link in it.
Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the
petition.

The government's proposal to introduce road pricing
will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for
your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The
tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent
study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for
a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non
working mother who used the car to take the kids to
school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be
tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all
times. They will also know how fast you have been
going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed
limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of
Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.

If you are concerned about this Orwellian plan and
want to stop the constant bashing of the car driver,
please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link
below) and pass this on to as many people as possible.
Sign up if you value your freedom and democratic
rights" -

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax

Here's the launch PR:

PR444: Safe Speed launches official 'Scrap Speed Cameras' petition

news: for immediate release

On the same day that Department for Transport announced an increase in road
deaths, Safe Speed has launched a 10 Downing Street petition to scrap speed
cameras in the interests of road safety.

Click here: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/scrapcam

Safe Speed has a cast iron case against speed cameras:

* The benefit claimed for speed cameras has been overrated by 400% due to
neglect of regression to the mean effect at speed camera sites.

* The claimed speed / accident relationship based on average speeds is
basically complete drivel.

* Only 5% of injury crashes involve ANY 'speeding' vehicle - and that INCLUDES
crashes caused by rogue drivers, nutters racing on the highway, reckless
drivers, stolen cars, emergency services drivers and drunk drivers.

* Speed cameras come with at least 30 detrimental side effects, none of which
have been officially studied.

* Vehicle activated signs are more effective than speed cameras at reducing
vehicle speeds in dangerous locations.

* We earned ourselves the safest roads in the world long before we had speed
cameras, but since we've had speed cameras we have been losing our world lead.

* Road deaths are not falling as expected.

* Road crash hospitalisations haven't fallen for a decade according to the
British Medical Journal.

* If it wasn't for a sustained and ongoing reduction in pedestrian activity the
road safety results would be considerably worse.

* The Statistics Commission has warned Department for Transport that their
'serious injury' statistics are not a reliable series - and that's the only
category showing an improvement.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "I urge everyone to sign this petition for one
reason and for one reason only - because speed cameras are detrimental to road
safety."

"A proper examination of the case leaves absolutely no doubt that speed cameras
have made road safety worse."

"Through exaggeration and distortion the petition has rather brilliantly united the motoring, anti-tax and civil-liberties lobby." (The Economist, 17 Feb 2007, pp. 38).