A majority of voters, 59.4 percent, think that the current road tax system, which charges all people equally, needs to change, out of a poll of 3,221 people held between 12pm July 26 and 11am July 29. Just 36.4 percent of voters are happy with the road tax system to remain as it is whilst 4.2 percent were not sure whether it needed to change or not.
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Express.co.uk reader, James BC, said: “I’ve long believed that the road fund licence and separate insurance should be scrapped and the costs added to fuel, so that if you use a vehicle you are automatically covered.
“It would stop all this nonsense of people being able to drive without paying for either.”
A total of 1,826 people (57 percent) thought road tax should be mileage-based, whereas 40 percent of people were happy with a flat-rate charge.
This data suggests that although many people want the road tax system to change, out of those people, not everyone thinks that a mileage-based charge is the solution.
Readers were divided as to whether making road tax mileage-based would lower emissions, 50.3 percent said it would not, 40.2 percent said it would and 9.5 percent were not sure.
A voter, Eric Arthur Blair, said: “If it is truly to do with emissions, then surely the tax should be applied to the fuel.
“A small car travelling 100 miles a day can create the same amount of carbon emissions as a large car doing half that.”
JimBell agreed: “If the tax was added at the fuel pump then it would be impossible to avoid, and gas guzzlers would automatically pay more.”
Another reader, Forsaken, thought that emissions would not decrease because the need to travel by car would still remain for most people.
They said: “If people need to travel they need to travel, it is just as ridiculous as the congestion charge, it is not designed to reduce pollution but rather profit from it.”
When asked whether making road tax mileage-based would discriminate key workers, most people, 52 percent, thought it would. A smaller portion, 38 percent of voters, said key workers would not be discriminated by the change, whilst 10 percent were not sure what the effect would be.
Birdmaniw added: “It would be completely unfair to those living in remote areas who need their cars to get around.”