Edinburgh says no to road toll

Asking people about such things is a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christimas; the forces of inertia and distrust are too great to do what may be the right thing. Sometimes we need to recall that elected representatives really are not delegates: they aren't there to vote according to the wishes of their electorate but to learn what the issues are and to try to do the best thing. Individual voters tend to have a n individual perspective and don't agglomerate their actions and desires into thousands or millions of people all doing the same thing; thus the freedom to drive where they want, when they want is desired and voted for; however, the sheer volume of pople all wanting to do the same thing in practice both curtails that freedom and inhibits the development of [in this case] better alternatives to allow most people greater mobility and a better environment. Sometimes the unpopular thing has to be done for th common good. Of course, as I write this I realise that this is also the kind of thing that is said to justify dictatorial actions and tyranny; "it's for the good of the people, they'll thanks us later". What we need to to make sure that we find ways to aggregate people's individual responses in such a way as to feedback to the point of decision the effects. In that way people can be smart corporately. Congestion charging is one such mechanism [crude though it may be, but effective it is]. Edinburgh is not easy to drive round -even on a Sunday- either the price of something like a congestion charge is paid or the price will be paid by residents in slower journey times, increased health costs, more accidents, more petrol used [as they wander around trying to find parking spaces] and even less investment in public transport fuelling the cycle to suburbanisation which increases the car-ification of society further thus increasing congestion, decreasing freedom of movement and with costs to social cohesion and health. Oh and that's not factoring in the economic shock of irrevocably rising oil prices that will hit within the next decade. Now is the time to be building infrastructure and systems to help. Edinburgh; you blew it.
I think that the longer-term perspective is shown in this quote from the article about the London Congestion charge: "'Before the London scheme was introduced, 43% of Londoners were opposed and 38% supported,' said Jos Dings, director of the European Federation for Transport. 'But several months after the launch, those for the charge outnumbered those against by more than two to one.'"
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