Car/driver tracking equipment introduced by stealth
Pastor Dale Morgan
Car/driver tracking equipment introduced by stealth*
By David Millward, Transport Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:44am BST 07/04/2007
The Government was accused of bringing in car/driver tracking and road
charges by stealth last night as it emerged that big brother technology
capable of running the system is already being introduced.
Radio transmitters could be embedded in tax discs and read by roadside
gantries such as this one
Ministers have repeatedly insisted that no final decision has been made
on pay-as-you-go road charges, proposals for which led 1.8 million
people to sign a petition on the 10 Downing Street website against the idea.
But it has emerged that nearly £500 million is being spent by the
Highways Agency to install communications equipment needed to make
car/driver tracking and road pricing a reality.
The scheme, known as the National Roads Telecommunications Services
project (NRTS), is being promoted as an initiative both to provide
drivers with information via variable message signs and enable the
agency to monitor and control traffic using CCTV cameras.
However, one of the companies involved in the 10-year project says the
network is equipped with technology which could be adapted to track and
charge motorists.
"NRTS will also be capable of supporting future initiatives currently
being considered by the Government and industry, including
roadside-to-vehicle communications and electronic road-user charging,"
said David Threlfall, the project manager with Hyder Consulting.
Opponents of road charges claimed that the Highways Agency project was
in reality a "Trojan Horse" for pay-as-you-drive charges.
"I am positive they have already made up their mind," said Paul Biggs of
the Association of British Drivers.
"It is undemocratic to do this. Half-a-billion pounds is an awful lot to
spend just for signs saying that motorways are closed and that you
should not drink and drive."
The Highways Agency refused to discuss Mr Threlfall's remarks and
referred inquiries to the Department for Transport.
In turn the DfT tried to play down the significance of the Highways
Agency programme.
"The Government has been crystal clear that no decision has been taken
on whether there will be a national road pricing scheme," a DfT
spokesman said.
"We want to see local road pricing schemes in practice first, targeting
local congestion with local solutions.
"Therefore we are working with 10 areas to develop these local schemes
and are committed to using this evidence to guide policy decisions in
the future."
NRTS is just one of a number of projects which could be adapted to any
future road pricing programme.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has been experimenting with
putting radio transmitters in tax discs which could be read by roadside
gantries. The devices - known as Radio Frequency Identification (or
RFID) tags - could also be embedded in number plates.
Such technologies were canvassed in the DfT's road pricing feasibility
studies.
The 10-year span of the NRTS project would enable the work to be
completed in time for any roll-out of a national road pricing scheme.
This would fit with the timescale suggested by Alistair Darling, the
former transport secretary, when he first floated the idea of
pay-as-you-drive charging two years ago.
It would also be in line with the road pricing proposals of Sir Rod
Eddington, the Government's transport adviser, who has called for any
scheme to be limited to congestion hotspots - such as routes into and
between cities.
With all major parties committed to the principle of road pricing, the
technology would not become redundant if the Conservatives won the next
general election.
The Tories' version of road charging is likely to involve an array of
local schemes with motorists having to pay for driving at peak times on
the most congested highways. Options include fitting a black box into
every car and tracking its progress by satellite.
This has proved to be the most controversial option both because of the
privacy implications and the potential £600 cost to each motorist for
installing the unit. There are still doubts about how robust this
technology will be.
The NRTS system could easily be adapted to fit the Tories' preferred
version of road pricing.
Earlier this year Stephen Ladyman, the roads minister, sought to take
the heat out of the privacy side of the debate, by suggesting that
motorists would not be tracked wherever they went.