Good journalism is about getting the reader involved in what you’re writing, and the way to do this is with a catchy opening sentence that sparks their interest. ‘NXP Semiconductors and IBM today announced the final results of a road-pricing trial conducted in the Netherlands’ is not a good example. I bravely decided to risk reading the second sentence - which would actually have made a better opening gambit - and was glad I’d made the effort.
Here’s the story. A six-month ‘pay-as-you-drive’ pilot scheme in Eindhoven, to try to find a solution to its rush-hour congestion, has been hailed a success. A staggering 70 per cent of drivers changed their driving behaviour when presented with the right incentives. The Dutch Government says it demonstrates road-pricing can have a positive effect on driving habits and help alleviate traffic. The result is that from 2012 Holland will have widespread road-tolling.
You can bet your life the British Government will be going over the trial’s results very closely. Labour publicly committed to pay-as-you- go motoring some years ago but it’s all gone rather quiet. It may well happen in the UK at some point. It has to because we can’t endlessly build new roads. I was keen to know what ‘the right incentives’ were, but the journalist omitted to include them!
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