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Health costs of cars should be paid by the drivers

Some 3,000 people die prematurely every year from the harmful effects of road traffic air pollution – about as many as die in road accidents – according to the British Lung Foundation.

And the relentless growth in traffic means that any improvements in air quality as a result of cleaner vehicle emissions will be outweighed by the increasing number of vehicles on the roads, it says.

The foundation is calling on the government to introduce policies which force motorists to pay the full costs – including health, environmental and social costs – of driving.

In its recent report Transport and pollution: the health costs, the BLF calculates that the health costs of road transport air pollution amount to more than £11bn every year. In addition, other external costs of road transport, including congestion, accidents, road damage and global warming, may amount to £46-53bn.

But the foundation claims that road users pay only about one third of the external costs they impose.

It suggests that transport policy should now focus on developing public transport while at the same time making motorists pay the full costs of their choice to use private transport.

The possibilities would include higher fuel taxes, curbs on company cars, reintroducing a car sales tax or increasing the existing road tax, road pricing, increasing parking charges, or a charge related directly to the quantity of pollutants emitted.

In its first budget statement in July 1997 the Labour government set out measures to raise and adjust road transport fuel taxes in favour of less polluting fuels. But the proposed 5 per cent tax increase per annum falls far short of the 100 per cent increase by 2005 recommended by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.

A government white paper on transport policy is expected this spring.

Transport and pollution: the health costs. British Lung Foundation: 0171 831 5831.