Once again, pay-per-use roads are back in the news today, with a debate about whether additional toll roads could help fund future investment in the road network.

Drivers in continental Europe and US would probably be surprised to realise just how few road tolls exit in UK – in most countries it is common place for motorways to toll-based.

Use of the UK’s road network is mostly free of charge, with a few exceptions: the M6 Toll, The London Congestion Charge zone and a number of bridges and tunnels. However, traffic volumes and associated congestion continue to rise. The theory goes that introducing privately-managed roads will help better maintain the existing network and fund the construction of new roads.

Of course the challenge is that the cost of motoring is already soaring thanks to the increased price of fuel and insurance. Adding additional charges based on road use is unlikely to be a popular move. However, there is an argument that by reducing congestion, road tolls could in fact save motorists money.

From a sat nav perspective, we already give drivers the choice of avoiding or favouring tolls roads within CoPilot, and we will be making this more sophisticated in the future by linking this to the overall cost of your journey.

So what’s your opinion? Are more road tolls a good thing? Or an extra tax on the already stretched UK driver?