Originally Posted by
tescoapp
I think you just have to accept that at some point they will be charging by the mile/km.
Much better would be a thing you could call a "congestion charge", where you are "charged" for taking part in "congestion" - you would pay not for the
mile but for the
time you spent stopped (or moving very slowly) in traffic. This would address your concern about people who have to drive to work early in the morning when there is no public transport, and wouldn't charge people for driving on empty roads not causing any problems.
It would have to be somewhat sophisticated, eg if you deemed three cars waiting at a red light to be "free flowing" normal operation, but four cars waiting at a red light to be "congestion", but hey, it all means more work for programmers
Actually, you could just buy the data off Google - charge people per second spent anywhere that is coloured red or worse on Google Maps.