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Alone in car? Pay tolls

Muhith comes up with new tax idea to tackle tailbacks

M Abul Kalam Azad
Finance Minister AMA Muhith came up with an idea to ease the ever-deteriorating traffic congestion by introducing road pricing and taxing people into carpooling.
“In order to ease traffic congestion, sedan cars should not be allowed to ply the city roads unless three passengers travel together. Otherwise, extra toll should be imposed,” Muhith said.
“I believe if we can properly enforce traffic rules and introduce road pricing, traffic congestion will not only be reduced, additional resources will be generated for road maintenance," he said, adding that toll collection system should be introduced for roads and bridges wherever possible.
The idea came up during his budget speech in parliament yesterday while he was speaking about the communication sector.Transport management expert Prof Shamsul Hoque of Buet's civil engineering department termed the idea a good one but said it was not feasible in Bangladesh as cities of the country were unplanned and all modes of transport use the same piece of road in a chaotic manner.
“Enforcement of the idea will be very difficult as we don't have adequate alternative modes of transport, especially the public transport,” he told The Daily Star, adding, “If we go for implementing the idea, it will cause more traffic problems.
“The main purpose of the idea is to discourage cars and encourage public transport,” he said. In other countries road pricing (direct charges levied for the use of roads) was used for improving public transport facilities.
However, many car users
baulked at the idea as the government could not even enforce the traffic rules, a pre-requisite to discipline on roads.
“This is simply unrealistic in a city like Dhaka where there is no alternative modes of transport and no specific route system,” businessman and motorist Mobasser Ali Swapan told The Daily Star.
He said, "My car drives me to my destination whereas the public transport takes me to its destination...the perk of owning a car is that it takes you to your destination, it waits for you there and gets you back in comfort.”
He said car owners would be reluctant to part with this convenience.
Sabrina Akhter, a motor-ist and a corporate employee, said, "Public transport cannot ensure that I would reach work on time. Dhaka does not have the
facilities to implement the finance minister's ideas.”
Last year, Muhith made a commitment to take effective steps to mitigate traffic congestion including establishing an environmentfriendly mass transportation system.
He had also said replacement of the existing Motor Vehicle Ordinance, formulation of a new and time befitting "Road Transport and Traffic Act” and “National Road Safety Strategic Action Plan” were at the final stages to ensure discipline on roads, reduce accidents and ease congestion.
But for the idea of road pricing and carpooling, those were not mentioned this time.
Many cities of the world encourage carpooling and even have special lanes on highways on which only vehicles with two or more passengers could travel.
In most countries toll roads, toll bridges and toll tunnels are often used primarily for revenue generation to repay the long-term debt issued to finance the toll facility, or to finance capacity expansion, operations and maintenance of the facility itself, or simply as general tax funds, says Wikipedia.org.
Many recent road pricing schemes have proved controversial with a number of high profile schemes in the US and the UK being cancelled, delayed or scaled back in response to opposition and protest. Critics maintain that congestion pricing is not equitable, since it places an economic burden on neighbouring communities, has a negative effect on retail businesses and on economic activity in general, and is just another tax.
However, congestion charge (levied on vehicles
plying streets of a city during rush hours or during the day) is not uncommon in developed countries.
The world's first congestion charge scheme was introduced in Singapore's core central business district in 1975.
The London congestion charge, on most vehicles operating in a zone in central London between 7:00am and 6:00pm (Monday-Friday), was levied on February 2003. It remains one of the largest congestion zones in the world. The charge aims to reduce congestion, and to raise investment funds for London's transport system. The standard charge is £10 for each day for vehicles that travel within the zone.
Commercial vehicles like taxis, buses and emergency vehicles are usually excluded from congestion charge.