£5 to use the M6 toll.....

[User]

 

[rich p]

I used it once when it was cheaper but I came off at a midway point and felt I'd been striped up.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I've used it occasionally, but only ever when someone else is paying. Even when the traffic on the M6 is at its worst it doesn't add more than perhaps half an hour onto the journey. Not worth a fiver to avoid, in my opinion.

 

[Globalti]

Thanks for the warning. Got to drive to Gatwick Friday evening.

 

[Twenty Inch]

I'm happy to use it whenever we drive to Scotland from Kent - I reckon it saves 15 quid on stopping to have another break/coffee/sandwich elsewhere.

 

[Aperitif]

I would always use it - I spent a long time looking at the back of flat bed lorries loaded with steel at one point in my life!

 

[Davidc]

Why not tolls on all main roads, priced according to weight (to reflect road damage)?

Make them big enough to start reinstating the railways.

 

[ASC1951]

Suggestions? £5 to use the M6?

No. Deal with it the same way that low-cost airlines use market forces. Their first seats are the cheapest and the last are the most expensive.

Have a toll which varies within a wide band. Traffic density is monitored automatically and the toll drops when the M6 gets too full. Set the toll every 15 minutes, say, and display it far enough upstream for people to choose.

It's actually quite straightforward to do.

 

[Davidc]

Surely you'd want to raise the toll when the M6 got too full?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

No. Deal with it the same way that low-cost airlines use market forces. Their first seats are the cheapest and the last are the most expensive.

Have a toll which varies within a wide band. Traffic density is monitored automatically and the toll drops when the M6 gets too full. Set the toll every 15 minutes, say, and display it far enough upstream for people to choose.

It's actually quite straightforward to do.

But the M6 Toll is run as a business, and no business drops its prices when demand is at its peak.

 

[GilesM]

I always use it when heading to the south/south east, (not much help if you are going south west) money well spent, it's similar to the French Auto Route system, there are two options, one is free one isn't, you pay for the quicker option, makes sense to me.

 

[forty-two]

No contest. Always use it when going North of South. The opportunity of stress free driving in the middle of the trip is worth the cost.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Maybe it's because I'm a lorry driver, and traffic for me means the opportunity to make a coffee and have a walk around the cab, but I never find traffic all that stressful. And I'm usually being paid to sit in it.

 

[ASC1951]

But the M6 Toll is run as a business, and no business drops its prices when demand is at its peak.

Sorry, perhaps I should have been clearer. I was just following the OP's terminology i.e. the original motorway = "the M6" and the new road = "the M6 Toll".

So, decide what levels of traffic you want on the two routes and drop the toll whenever you need the toll road busier.

 

[gavintc]

Bummer, I am using it on 6 Mar, so will have to pay a little bit more to by-pass Birmingham.