Whilst I agree with the idea provided it replaces vehicle excise and fuel duty, shouldn't we be working on lowering the price and improving the quality of train, tram and bus travel before anything else?
Notice how none of them are in Scotland, and aside from in the West Mids and Tyne & Wear, none of them have any sort of "decent" public transport (tram/train)
But not improve rail links in this country and to Europe so airlines aren't needed?
BBCNews said:New Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander is due to announce a £10m fund for the development of nationwide road charging schemes.
He hopes new technology will allow drivers to be charged by the mile.
Mr Alexander, promoted in last week's reshuffle, is to outline how he intends to improve UK infrastructure with minimum environmental impact.
His predecessor at the department, Alistair Darling, announced several pilot road charging schemes.
Cambridge, Durham, Bristol, Bath, Greater Manchester, Shrewsbury, Tyne and Wear and the West Midlands were among the authorities developing road charging proposals.
Notice how none of them are in Scotland, and aside from in the West Mids and Tyne & Wear, none of them have any sort of "decent" public transport (tram/train)
BBCNews said:Mr Alexander said road pricing was one of several measures that had been looked at to tackle congestion.
He said that it was time to face "certain basic facts" that as the nation's prosperity improved, people would want to travel more and to travel further.
"And as we travel more, because we live on a crowded island, congestion is set to grow, so if we do nothing we simply face eternal gridlock," he told BBC News.
The debate now was not so much about "why road pricing?", but "how it would be implemented", and the prize for motorists would be "better value out of the road network".
Investment in road capacity would continue where it was justified, Mr Alexander insisted.
And he said speed cameras had a role to play, adding: "I've seen it as a driver myself, there is absolutely no doubt where you have cameras, for example where there are tight bends in the road, it makes sense to slow drivers down."
Mr Alexander will be in York on Wednesday, where he will open a new bus service operated by transport giant First.
He will also announce the extension of the Oyster smartcard scheme in London, which will see the cards being accepted in the capital's mainline stations.
He said that while he did not want to prevent people enjoying the benefits of cheap air travel, he was concerned about the environmental impact.
"This is not simply a domestic problem, this is a challenge we need to meet internationally," he said.
"We believe the right way to address those environmental concerns is to bring aircraft within the emissions trading scheme we are trying to get established at the European Union."
But not improve rail links in this country and to Europe so airlines aren't needed?