New research has found support for the UK government's plans to consider vehicle mileage and CO2 emissions within the motoring taxation system.

Green car advisory website TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk asked website visitors whether they would prefer a pay-per-mile approach to road tax or the current UK method which only takes into account vehicle emissions. The results were divided, with a narrow margin of 53.5 per cent voting in favour of road pricing compared to 46.5 per cent against.

Although the idea of a national road pricing scheme has so far proven unpopular with motorists, it could save money for some. If a switch to a national road pricing scheme replaces the current taxation of fuel duty and vehicle exercise duty, it could produce a more straightforward approach to motoring taxation. While the poll results show a fairly even split of the vote, this can be partially explained by the attitudes of those who have a high annual mileage and those who do not.

Company car taxation already takes some account of business miles, yet cars accounted for 402.4 billion vehicle kilometres in 2006, a healthy proportion of which is private mileage. There has been a dramatic increase in the volume of cars on UK roads over the years with car traffic increasing 87 per cent since 1980 and resulting in a rise in congestion. Congestion in English urban areas rose by 10.2 per cent between August 2005 and August 2007. This rise in congestion is costly to both the economy and environment.

Editor, Faye Sunderland says: While pay-per-mile may seem like it could be just another expense pushed onto motorists, congestion is already seriously suffocating our economy."