[mikeythemini]

Getting done tonight for my tints was the last straw
We the motorists of the UK need to fight back
Lets make up a minifesto - please add suggestions
Mine so far (have had a couple of beers so bear with me)
Removal of all speed cameras from non residential country lanes & dual carriageways
Cameras outside all schools with electronic variable speed signs - 20 mph during school times strictly enforced
Divert money subsidising farming/europe etc to building & maintaining our roads
Abolish road tax - we pay enough in fuel tax
Introduce a windscreen insurance disc
Introduce a variable speed limit on motorways (50 in bad weather, up to unlimited in good weather in light traffic) Like Germany
Fine people for poor lane disiplin & hoggin fast lane
Ban HGV's from the roads during the weekend (works well in Italy)

Would you vote for me??

[ono]

You get my vote,as Boris Johnson (tory mp for Henly) said this week in the daily mail,"its time to take the Jackboot of the throat of the motorist",i say Mp's ignore the motorist vote at your peril,we will start to fight back

[dinger]

I vote BIGGER car parking spaces in multi storey car parks etc.
Ban drivers that park to close.
Free petrol vouchers for the over 40s.
Age limit on being allowed to buy a MINI.....say 55.
Ban Black roofs.
MINIs have right of way on any road.


dinger.

[Cold Side]

• OAPs should be made to take their tests again.
• Removal of road tax- Do people with 7 kids pay an education tax? People with smoking related lung cancer pay a health tax? No, so why should people with cars pay road tax?
• Removal of petrol duty- Set by idiots in central london, not everyone has access to public transport, y'know. The govt say petrol duty is to stop us using our cars as much, that's not true. We have to use them (petrol has been proven to be almost price inelastic), they know this so that is where they hit us in tax.
• Mobile "talivans" dropped.
• Removal of 98% of speed cameras. Speed cameras near schools should be turned off at night/holidays etc. They shouldn't be there to make money.
• Proper punishments for bad driving (NOT speeding) and causing accidents.
• Motorway speed limit set at around 150mph (110-120 for dual carriageway), coming down in bad weather.
• Adopt a previous Tory idea of building motorways next to motorways, a M25 within the M25 if you will. This means no disruption widening the motorway and preserves stretches of countryside that would have been destroyed by a new motorway.
• Building busy country lanes (no, not an oxymoron) with kerbs so that when heavy vehicles go down them the road doesn't split into two pieces.
• A novel idea- human beings judge whether someone was speeding dangerously or not. Speeding isn't always dangerous, unless you're looking through a gatso lense.
• Leave the EU with a free trade pact, £20bn saved in a heartbeat, and billions more saved by business in red tape.

Well there isn't much else to do at this time in the morning.

[J1JPE]

GO GUYS

WHERE DO I PUT MY 'X' ?

what about ppl who drive with their rear fogs on when it's not foggy/poor visibility, those who think other road users are telepathic so dont bother using their indicators ...

Additional Policies:
- free parking in towns & cities
- trial 'no national speed limit' on certain Motorways
- legal to turn left when lights are on red if no-ones coming (as in europe)
- councils have to pay motorists when road works over-run
- max 500m of cones either side road works
- better free radio traffic, route info
- fines on over-zealous clamping companies ie regulation
- proper rating system for garages, dealers etc
- defo remove fuel tax duty

will edit in more when i think of them

[Smurfn]

Proper penalties for repeat offenders
eg people who drive while disqualified, repeated drink drivers etc
Penalties that are the same for all, not penalties that the rich can get out of.
Improve the quality of the roads, spend the money where it is supposed to go.

[MINIALEX]

I know this is only in jest but its something that should be done and i'd love to be involved. UK motorists need representation - we contribute billions to this country and never get recognised or rewarded.

All your ideas are great Mikey except for the unlimited speed limit in good weather. Although this is something i'd love I feel that our motorways are just too busy for this to be viable.
I'd also like to see more toll roads, reasonably priced mind you. Insurance tax disks are something I dispare over - most of Europe have them, why can't we, uninsured losses cost you and me a fortune.
Another thing i'd like to see is a move away from traffic lights to roundabouts as its a far more efficient way to do it - i'm sick of waiting at lights when no ones there!

Just my thoughts

[MINIALEX]

Oh yeah - I also think that the driving test should be a lot harder and include motorway driving as there are some shocking drivers out there. You've got me thinking now;

If a person fails their test they should be a waiting period before they can retake - say 6 months that way you should get genuine improvement as opposed to passing it luckily.

[Electric Sheep]

I'm quite big on the whole "enviroment thing" so my proposals have a green tinge to them:

Compulsory re-tests every ten years for everyone.
People who take more than, say, five attempts to pass their test are prohibited from taking another.
No-one older than 75 allowed to drive on the road. My grandfather's 76 and he's a lunatic (drives wrong way around roundabouts, etc).
Eliminate car tax discs, shifting all tax onto the fuel. This means that people who only drive a few miles a year don't get clobbered for £100+ for a tax disc.
Compulsory carrying of insurance details and driving licence.
Anyone caught driving without insurance gets a 10 year ban.
Lifetime bans for all drink drivers.
Compulsory 10 year minimum for anyone who kills someone whilst driving.
Variable fines for speeding. Keep the 10% + 2 allowance.
Speed limiters on all cars. Big fines for anyone caught without one or fiddling with it.
Black boxes on all cars, recording accident data, etc (like aeroplanes).
No drinking and driving allowed at all. Even if you have one drop of alcohol, you're not allowed on the road.
Instant six month bans for tailgaters.
Five year ban for using mobile phones on the move. You may think you can talk and drive, but you can't.
Compulsory driver education classes for those causing accidents. If you cause more than three accidents in five years, you get a six month ban.
Instigate reform of the EU to do away with the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy - subsides for farmers). No-one else gets so much money. Plough the money into a proper integrated transport system, combining normal trains, trams, buses and light rapid transport systems like the London Underground and the Tyneside Metro. Completely rebuild the entire rail system for high-speed maglev trains.
Reform the police to do anyway with unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy and shift more cops onto the roads.
Abolish tolls on bridges.
Nationalise the Northern Relief Road and get rid of the tolls.
Free bus travel for under 18s and over 60s, as well as people with young kids and anyone in rural areas.
Big tax breaks and other incentives for research into alternative fuels such as hydrogen and electric.
Ban tractors and anything else incapable of doing 40mph between the hours of 7.30am-9.30am and 4pm and 7pm.
More sensible deployment of so-called "safety cameras". Use them on known accident blackspots and on approaches to schools, hospitals and so on. Don't use them just to make money. All profit goes towards road improvement and driver education.
Extend driving test to cover motorway driving as well.
Extend congestion charging to all major cities. Residents, disabled and "clean" cars get a waived fee.
All government ministers must only have one car each and it must be an alternative fuel car.
Any car incapable of doing 20mpg or which doesn't meet strict environmental standards will be removed from the road and crushed.
Raise speed limit to 80mph on motorways in good weather. Lower it to 50mph in rainy weather.
Don't allow really dark tinted windows. There's no need for them. Mild tints are fine.
Ban all stupid huge exhausts, neons, blue LEDs and other assorted ricer crap, as well as huge speakers and bass boxes. They're just annoying and cause too much disturbance.
All Novas and Metros to be destroyed immediately.
Incentives and rebates for people who trade in their old bangers for new cars.
Incentives and rebates for people who buy alternative fuel cars.

That'll do for now.

Question for all those who wish to get rid of fuel duties. From where will the hole in the government's coffers be filled? Income tax? VAT?

[dietcokeplease]

Giving jail quotas to magistrates.

Putting judges on short term contracts to weed out the crazies.

Introducing the "Daily Mail Law". If the Mail reports a public outcry of a poor legal decision then their opinion becomes the new legal status. Middle England bites back.

Jailing drug offenders on their 3rd offence - one druggie can be responsible for hundreds of car crimes.

Graded licences and cc limits for newbie learners.

Make it a specific offence to have any MINI with a non-factory standard roof.

Introduce this scenario:

Officer: "Do you know why I stopped you Sir?"

Driver: "No, Officer. Was I speeding?"

Officer: "No Sir. I stopped you to congratulate you on the way you took the apex outside McDonalds, your car control through the roundabout and the impressive speed on the twisty country lanes. I'm here to award you a free £25 voucher for cleaning products from Halfords."

[n0uk]

Quote: Originally Posted by J1JPE

- legal to turn right when lights are on red if no-ones coming (as in europe)

Surely that would be left turn on red rather than right unless it's into a right-bound one way system.

[J1JPE]

Quote: Originally Posted by n0uk

Surely that would be left turn on red rather than right unless it's into a right-bound one way system.

well spotted, idea was taken from where they drive on the right (in Europe etc) in the UK it'd have to be turn left on red at lights or we'd have chaos will edit previous post accordingly

[dr remulac]

Gee Whilikers... You Brits have to put up with alot over there.
I can say this... If we had those so called "speed cameras" here
in the States, they would be used for target practice.They would'nt
last a day. REVOLT AGAINST THE WHITE MAN AND HIS ESTABLISHMENT.
Destroy those cameras at any cost

[Olly.]

Quote: Originally Posted by VincentVega

Speed limiters on all cars. Big fines for anyone caught without one or fiddling with it.

Your joking right That surely ruins most of the fun of driving, No more B road's for the MINI then

[MINIALEX]

On speedbumpe - not only do they put wear and tear on our MINIs as we bang over them they also ruin buildings around them!!

In the town centre where I live we have a hump right outside the church and a great big crack has appeared on the church - causeb by??? The lorries going over the speed hump!!!

[Harpo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Max

Oi juss watch it, right

Hold off Max, I read that as a minimum age limit.

[Harpo]

So how do we regenerate all the lost revenue?

Easy.

A 1000% tax on expenditure for ALL junk mail, junk calls, junk email, text marketing and call centres.

I do believe I have your vote.

[dinger]

Quote: Originally Posted by Max

I have a few more but they are a bit right-wing

That does'nt usually stop you max.


dinger.

[Electric Sheep]

Quote: Originally Posted by ollymale

You're joking right That surely ruins most of the fun of driving, No more B roads for the MINI then

Err, no. Why do we need cars that are capable of doing speeds so much greater than whatever the speed limit is? A Cooper S, for example, can do 130mph or more. How often do Cooper S owners need to drive that fast? Given the state of our roads in the UK, how often can they drive that fast? How often is it safe to drive that fast? I'm not talking about a limiter that's adaptive, i.e. it senses that you're in a 30mph zone and limits you to 30, but one that's set to a maximum speed all the time. You could still drive down "B" roads in your MINI, but you wouldn't be able to do so at 100mph, which, face it, is downright dangerous.

As for the on-going fuel duty debate...

Projected revenues on receipts of fuel tax for the 2004-5 financial year are reckoned by HM Treasury to be around £24 billion (Source (PDF)). That's a hefty chunk of money by all accounts.

An article written for the Daily Telegraph by Michael Portillo in 2001 equates £25 billion (i.e. roughly the same as the projected revenues for fuel duties) to an increase in the basic rate of income tax by 10p (i.e. to 32p) (Source). The choice, then, is simple, a nice fat income tax increase (but the holy grail of eliminated fuel duties) or keeping fuel duty as is (and, likewise, income tax). (As an aside, putting a punitive 1000% tax on junk mail would likely only drive it abroad (and out of the hands of the taxman) or just kill it completely, thereby leaving the hole in the government's coffers left by removing fuel duties unfilled).

Even the US, often held up as a place of low gasoline prices, tax is paid by the consumer on fuel. In 2001/2, this came to around 30% of the price of one gallon of gasoline. (Source).

Sure, it would be nice to eliminate fuel duties, but to my mind at least, it's unrealistic. The revenue it brings in would have to be found somewhere else. And then there's the environmental question.

[Olly.]

Quote: Originally Posted by VincentVega

Err, no. Why do we need cars that are capable of doing speeds so much greater than whatever the speed limit is? A Cooper S, for example, can do 130mph or more. How often do Cooper S owners need to drive that fast? Given the state of our roads in the UK, how often can they drive that fast? How often is it safe to drive that fast? I'm not talking about a limiter that's adaptive, i.e. it senses that you're in a 30mph zone and limits you to 30, but one that's set to a maximum speed all the time. You could still drive down "B" roads in your MINI, but you wouldn't be able to do so at 100mph, which, face it, is downright dangerous.

Because a lot of people want to chose how fast they go.

I personally think we shouldn't have a speed limit on our motorways. Our current speed limit on the motorway was set back in the 60's, and was set on the top speed of a Ford Anglia 70mph (correct me if i'm wrong) Now surely technology has progressed so vastly that we can move on from that

And yes although Cooper S owners never need to drive fast, lots do

Agree with you on the fuel duty though, we will pay for it in another way if the fuel

Olly