h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was in London for a week, and couldn't help but compare the London transit system to the New York one:

Trains were speedy, service was great.

However, those blasted zones are awful. Whoever thought them up ought to be shot. In New York, you pay to get into the system and then you go where you please. Is it supposed to be some sort of congestion pricing? Because if you've got to go downtown, you've got to go, congestion pricing or not. And since there's congestion taxing on cars, how are you supposed to go - by bike? Walk? Hello?

The European theory that taxing everything is the best way to reduce it is inane and definitely unfair to those who need to get places for non-luxury reasons.

Hm yes you're right...it can get very expensive if you're in a zone out towards the edge of the capital. I don't think it's meant to stop congestion though - it's really traffic congestion that they try to target by making the tube er...cheaper!

The trouble is (and I freely admit I'm extremely cynical on these matters) that taxation isn't so much a disincentive, as a way for the government to screw us out of even more of our hard earned cash.

Once we all switch to low-carbon cars, and stop smoking/drinking/driving, and all that, the government's income from tax will drastically drop. So they'll have to introduce more taxes to replace the revenue they're losing from their current taxes.

And, of course, the government will happily jump on whichever bandwagon looks like it will give it the most votes and/or the most prestige (carbon footprint, anyone?) because it's more interested in short term power than anything particularly long term for the good of the country. That would mean joined-up thinking between all the main political parties.

I was about to digress onto a rant about how this current government is failing this country's technical and manufacturing industries, but it's majorly O/T and I'll stop ranting now .