Trials of road pricing technology for bikes to go ahead

Trials of technology which could be used to implement national road pricing for motorcycles will go ahead, the Department for Transport has said.

Plans for national road pricing were shelved on Tuesday following massive public opposition and a campaign by MCN.

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly acknowledged a national scheme could not go ahead until public concerns had been addressed. Instead she announced plans to tackle congestion by opening hard shoulders to traffic on busy stretches of motorway.

But a DfT spokesman said today that road pricing “demonstrations” – first revealed by MCN last June – were to go ahead later this year.

Motorcyclists will be among 1000 volunteer road users to take part in tests of pay-per-mile tracking technology, according to the DfT.

A spokesman said today: “They will still go ahead.”