More money for high-tech road pricing

Seven local authorities are sharing £7m to explore ways to tackle local congestion and help develop government plans on road pricing.

Last year the government's road pricing feasibility study recommended that schemes should be piloted to test approaches as road pricing is developed.

The authorities will now work on assessing the feasibility of schemes combining demand management - such as road pricing - with better public transport, in order to tackle congestion and improve local travelling conditions. They will also contribute to technical standards for road pricing.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said in a statement: "I'm convinced that without more radical measures, including more effective demand management and actively managing traffic flows, road congestion will get worse. That is why I've been very clear about the need to look at road pricing."

In a speech last month Darling said that new road pricing systems could be based on technology such as satellite positioning. He also said that road pricing could piggyback on systems already being offered by the market.

He said at the time: "We need to move away from the idea that government is going to define and specify all this modern technology and that we will simply build a big computer to sort it out. It will not work that way."

Some drivers already use a satellite positioning device as the platform for pay-as-you-go insurance. More and more will do so, and he said the same device could be used to calculate the road price for the same journey.

The seven areas sharing the £7m are:

• Bristol City Council, Bath and North East Council, North Somerset Council and South Gloucestershire Council
• Cambridgeshire
• Durham County Council (for Durham City)
• Greater Manchester
• Shropshire County Council (for Shrewsbury)
• Tyne and Wear
• West Midlands conurbation