The first of our Toll Tales series provoked this response from Mark MacArthur-Christie who lives in Oxford and commutes to London

The UK's transport problems badly need some solutions, but the only ones proposed involve taking more tax from drivers or using other sticks.

Drivers are treated as bad boys who are wilfully disobeying. The solution: beat them to make them stop.

The average person pays more than �1,300 p.a. in car taxes and is now being asked to pay again with congestion taxes.

Wealthy drivers can simply reach a little deeper into their wallets... Poorer people who can only narrowly afford a car have a different set of decisions.

Petrol taxes, higher Vehicle Excise taxes and high parking charges haven't worked to get cars off the roads, so why will Congestion Tax?

Silly me. It'll be spent on better public transport and then we'll flock to use clean, safe, reliable buses, cheap trains and lovely new trams, all paid for by drivers.

But where have the existing driving taxes, already clawed relentlessly from people's thinning wallets, gone?

Under-investment

Certainly not into transport. Decades of under-investment have allowed the UK to fall behind her European neighbours. Only Ireland and Greece have fewer motorways than Britain.

Because it's been left too late, new rail investment has made little impact on travellers' daily misery.

At the same time, where is the commitment to large-scale investment in cycling infrastructure?

What about real investment in innovative local transport schemes? Nope - we get Congestion Charging instead.

This is a regressive tax. Of course, wealthy drivers have little to worry about. They can simply reach a little deeper into their wallets and stump up.

The poor will pay

Those poorer people who can only narrowly afford a car have a different set of decisions.

They've bought their car because they can't rely on public transport. Where do they now find the cash for a season ticket?

But of course, the borderline poor should stop being so selfish and use the bus; except that their jobs often preclude this.

In the UK, women still do many of the poorest paid jobs and work some of the most unsocial hours.

Late night public transport (when it runs at all) is at best unpleasant, at worst, a threatening, dangerous experience.

Changing routes

Congestion charging will force drivers to use the roads inefficiently. At the moment, people use the fastest, safest and most direct routes for them.

Congestion charging will skew the model.

Instead of using safe, main roads, drivers will increasingly divert onto sub-urban residential roads. Deterring them with road humps and obstructions will simply increase congestion still further.

Over time, congestion charging will bring about broader changes.

Retailers will see trade fall as drivers simply choose to shop elsewhere, despite the transport academics' claims. At the same time, they will see the cost of their goods escalate as the cost of delivery rises.

Employees - particularly in low-paid key services - will begin to look for jobs where their commute will save the �5 a day charge.

Bright ideas needed

To bring real change to the way we travel in the UK requires two things: investment and thinking.

Sadly, we've passed up the chance and replaced it with another raid on drivers' wallets.

Instead of a new tax, why not look at some other alternatives? One in every six journeys in the UK are to work, yet many employees do not have to be in the workplace every day, and could easily work from home.

Building new homes and schools nearer workplaces would shorten commutes and make other transport modes viable.

Incentivising and publicising cycling and powered two-wheelers would reduce the amount of road space commuters need, but motorcycles are still banned from bus lanes.

At a so-basic-it's-bloody-obvious level, why do we allow rail operators to jack up the cost of rail fares at peak time, just when people need the train most?

But, unlike more taxes, ideas are a long-term investment; they generate immediate revenue.

Mark MacArthur Christie, Oxford