---

Road Pricing

: Yes, I do. I was among the small number of my party who advocated a slightly more cautious approach to that matter during the last London mayoral elections. Speaking as someone who lives in central London and cycles to the House of Commons, it is a slightly better journey as a result of the congestion charge. The problem now is not the cars; it is the motorcyclists. Motorcycles are more of a problem for cyclists because they use the same lanes and paths through the traffic. I take the hon. Gentleman's point that someone who believes in road pricing should logically also be in favour of congestion charging as a means of allocating a scarce resource, whether in the middle of a city or between cities. I approach the problem as an economist: how does one price a scarce resource in order to maximise the benefit from it? I hope that I have provided hon. Members with the opportunity to assemble their thoughts, so that when I resume my seat, there is not the same reticence as there was when the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich sat down some 10 minutes ago.