Changing the Way a Person Thinks :: Sociology Cultural Essays

Changing the Way a Person Thinks If you ever happen to pass through the small town of Fairfield, IA, you would probably just think it to be just another normal, rural Iowa town. But like many other towns, there is a conflict hidden beneath the pleasant exterior. Two totally different groups of people have been meshed together in this town. The claim I’ll be making is that one group is counterproductive, but their presence still essential to the town economy. First let me give you some background on the two groups of people. Fairfield was originally the typical rural Iowa town. I see a typical Iowa town as a town in which has a strong agriculture background and yet is striving to become ever larger. Most of the families are in the middle-income division, with a large part of the town also depending on the industrial factories in town. Although most people will accept a gradual growth, many would find it hard to adjust to a sudden, large change. This is what I would call the typical Iowan. The other group of people involved in this situation is a more flamboyant group. I will refer to them as the Meditators. Most are highly religious, with their faith placed in the Maharishi. Most of these people will follow wherever their leader tells them to go. I estimate that this group of people has three thousand people in Fairfield. That means that they take up about one third of the population. These people first moved to Fairfield soon after a local college had been vacated. They used this college by turning it into both a university and primary education facility. They called it the Maharishi International University (MIU). As you can imagine, this increase in population also caused an increase in the local economy. Most of the meditators belong to the upper class and have plenty of money to spend. Many of the meditators are also business entupenuers. MIU has created multi-million dollar businesses in Fairfield that hire from both pools of people. All this seems fine and dandy for the town of Fairfield, but there is actually an underlying problem. Meditators have strong conflicting values with the first group of people. Conflicts of values range from religion to food preference. I will focus on their counter-productiveness. Most of the meditators are vegetarians, which sometimes conflicts with the area farmers. I’m now speaking from personal experience.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 Essay -- students, academic progre

On January 8, 2002, President George Bush signed into law The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which was a reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was designed to help disadvantaged students achieve success in school (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2011) The components of The No Child Left Behind included annual testing, academic progress, report cards, teacher qualifications, and funding changes. These measures were â€Å"designed to drive broad gains in student achievement and to hold states and schools more accountable for student progress† (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2011, para. 3). NCLB also promised to close the achievement gap and increase student learning (Hursh 2007). By the year 2005-2006, the states were required to assess all students annually in grades 3-8, and these tests had to be aligned with the state standards (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2011). In addition, a representative sample of 4th graders and 8th graders had to participate in National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) testing program in order to be compared to other students nationally (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2011). For a school to meet academic progress, certain subgroups and the school has a whole had to make adequate yearly progress. If the school failed to make AYP, then the school could receive supplemental services and parents could send their children to another school. If the school continued to not make AYP, then the school could receive punitive government sanctions. Teachers had to be deemed highly qualified in their subject matter, and school report cards had to be released each year to illustrate student achievement data and scho... ...lenge them as well as help them to learn, the students are able to achieve academic progress. References Dee, B. and Jacob, T.S. (2011). The impact of no child left behind on student achievement. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 30 (3), 418–446. Retrieved from http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/86808/20586_ftp.pdf?sequence= Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. (2011, September 19). Issues A-Z: No Child Left Behind. Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/no-child-left-behind/ Hursh, D. (2007 September). Exacerbating inequality: The failed promise of the no child left behind act. Race, Ethnicity, and Education.10 (3), 295-308. Retrieved from http://www.wou.edu/~girodm/foundations/Hursh.pdf Tatum, A. (2006) Engaging African-american males in reading. Educational Leadership, 63(5), 44-49.

Poetry vs. Prose in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay -- Shakespeare Hamlet

Poetry vs. Prose in Shakespeare's Hamlet In any discussion of poetry vs. prose worth it's stanzas, questions regarding such tools as meter, rhyme, and format must come into play. These are, after all, the most obvious distinguishing features of poetry, and they must certainly be key in determining the definition, and in fact nature, of poetry. Yet a term as broad as "poetry" is not so easily quantified as to simply attribute physical characteristics to it and let all writing either fall into or out of that category. Poetry is determined by the effect upon the reader. It is an individual opinion, and thus defined by the collected (individual) reactions. Queen. There is a willow grows askaunt the brook, That shows his hoary leaves on the glassy stream, Therewith fantastic garlands did she make Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cull-cold maids do dead men's fingers call them. There on the pendant boughs her crownet weeds Clamb'ring to hand, an envious sliver broke, When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, Which time she chaunted snatches of old lauds, As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued Unto that element. But long it could not be Till that her garments heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death. -Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV Scene VII Take, for example, the above text from Hamlet. One of the more stirring monologues of the play, it describes the death of Ophelia in specific, touching terms. Think of the audience re... ...cess. One can only hope that it is better than, "You know, to muddy death." Poetry is the feeling that comes when a person sees something that strikes a chord in their chest which reverberates in the rhythm struck. How often have you heard something other than line poetry described passionately as "poetic"? It is a common word because it is descriptive of that wonder we have when we read truly good verse. It is a common word because after we feel it once (in that poetry), we know it again in other forms. Not all of those forms rhyme. The poetry is not the line placement, it is what the line placement helps express. It is simply a more effective (and more technically difficult) thing to accomplish when placed in meter. Poetry is that song that finds its way from within when we see it in some form before us, regardless of line or verse.

Information System in Global Business Today Essay

1. What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS’s package tracking system? Inputs: firstly, the scannable bar-coded should be pasted to the package, there are some information on the scannable bar-coded, like the sender, the destination, and the time of the package arrive. And then, customer could get own labels by UPS. For example, people could go to the UPS web site and use special software to download this information. The data off labels would be delivered to the UPS’s computer centre that nearest final destination, before the package pick up. Furthermore, workers should download these labels information by using UPS software and establish some special delivery route for every driver; people should consider some factors that affect package transmission, like traffic, weather conditions, and the location of every stop. Processing: there are some points that through from the sender and the receiver. Bar code equipment could scan labels to get some package information and send these data to the centre computer. By this way, customer also could check package information from web site, customer could check the data that extreme detailed, it contains delivery routes, calculates hipping route, determining time in transit, and so on. Outputs: first of all, the data that collected from web site are transported to the centre computer and back to the customers. Moreover, UPS also provides some tools that convenient customer to visit own web site, like Cisco system, it can be embed UPS function.

Capitol Lake

The history Of the lake goes all the way back to 1951 , when a dam was built, as well as a concrete passage on 5th Avenue. The initial design was too construct a man-made lake though a dam with underwater mudflats. The dam was finally constructed to help renew a part of Bud Inlet shores that was in deterioration. Many years later in the year of 1997, a team of representatives was formed to study the problems of the lake. In 2009, an endorsement was made for the future of preserving the lake. One issue among Capitol Lake is the sediment that comes and reconciles to he bottom of the lake.Over 35,000 cubic yards a year of sediment travel into the lake a year! This means now that the lake is 21 % smaller than it was when it was created. This small amount of water is turning the lake into a swamp. Since the capacity of water in the Capitol Lake is much smaller than it was before, the temperature in the lake is getting much higher. The shallow waters cause the lake to heat up much quicker. These high temperatures support aquatic weeds to grow in abundance, and put anxiety on the fish and other marine life.Another problem among Capitol Lake is the water quality. Phosphorus and bacteria are both found in the water, posing a negative effect to the lake. The high levels of phosphorus promote the growth of algae. Oxygen is also used up for marine life in the lake, by algae that putrefy. As well as fecal chloroform bacteria are found among the lake, that wash into the lake and can be very harmful to health. Lastly, the lake has invasive species. Eurasian million weeds crowd the shoreline for native plants, reducing populations of native fish and other species.The New Zealand Mutandis is also another invasive species which is taking over the habitat and native snails which depend on food. As you can see Capitol Lake is very polluted and unhealthy. But there are solutions. The Descartes Estuary Restoration Team (DEER) and the Capitol Lake Improvement & Protective Association (CLIP) have both proposed suitable ideas to save the future of Capitol Lake. The first possibility by DEER would be to remove the dam, letting Capitol Lake and the Descartes River to meet and create an estuary, like it was back in the sass.The benefits of an estuary are that it would return everything to a natural presence. An estuary would give the lake and opportunity to flush and purify. It would also result in the temperature of the water to drop, greatly reducing algae population. Removal of the dam would also result in a possibility of the invasive species not surviving as well as young salmon would be able to access the estuary. Water quality would improve, as bacteria would decrease. Lastly, it would show an increase in native wildlife and different recreation.Establishing the estuary would result in over 114 million dollars, and without sediment rearrangements. Further cost details and endowments are still being inquired. The idea by CLIP would be to keep the lake as a lak e, but to dredge and clean it as needed; this would tidy the lake without having to remove the dam. The benefits of keeping the lake, would be hold the lake as one of the â€Å"Jewels of Thornton County as well as a major part of the State Capitol Campus. The lake very much protects the downtown area of Olympia by controlling floods.Opening the dam would result in smelly mudflats, as well as change the Marina and Boating Recreation. Keeping the lake as it is also would prevent an increase of sediment flow into the Bud Inlet. Culpa also believes that keeping the lake would prevent Nitrogen and Phosphorus from accessing the river. The also lake supports the local economy and local events such as Lake Fair, and is a key location for tourism in the Olympia area. Financially, this plan would cost about million dollars over a fifty year period. This includes mainly dredging, renewal of habitat, and dredging.This project would be paid from partnerships and state funding such as the City o f Olympia, Marine and Yacht Club, and Port of Olympia. So as you can see both proposals, have their pros and cons. Based on these two main ideas have researched about, I believe that the Capitol Lake Improvement & Protection Association (CLIP) is the best plan for the future of Capitol Lake. The lake is truly a major icon to Olympia and if an estuary were to open, the beauty and tourist attraction the lake delivers would greatly reduce.For example, if the dam were to be taken away, what would happen o Likelier and other large city events? Traditional events and activities by the lake might not even happen anymore if it becomes an estuary. But most importantly based off scientific evidence, removing the dam, would result in smelly tidal mudflats. Nobody wants a stench that will wander the air every time they go outside. As World War II veteran who grew up in Olympia (who has experienced these mudflats), Dick Seward, explains â€Å"The Mudflats and any water in the area had a stench that I'll never forget.All this pollution is what nearly killed off the Oysters†. So as you can see the smell really isn't pleasing. Creating an estuary would also greatly increase the flow of sediment, and Nitrogen into Bud Inlet, which shouldn't be there. CLIP'S proposal is half the price as well, and will save a lot of money. So who wants an unbearable terrible stench that will fill up the atmosphere? Why should the harmful chemicals be brought up to Bud Inlet and the Descartes River? Why should we risk the future of our economy and one of our main tourist attractions?

Amoco Case Write Up Essay

As long-term valuation is assumed, risk free rate is set as 30-year treasury rate, 5.73%. Cost of debt is 6.72% reflecting Amoco’s credit level. Cost of equity is calculated as 10.63%, leading to final WACC at 8.85% (Chart 1). In DCF valuation (Chart 2), long-term growth rate is assumed to be 4%. Change in working capital is calculated as the average of 1997 and 1996 figure and is assumed to be constant for simplicity. Terminal value is valued at $69,398.1 million and NPV is $51,525 million. Stock price will be $37.07, indicating an exchange ratio at 0.46. This is a very conservative valuation as our DCF price is lower than Amoco’s current market price. Regarding of multiple valuation (Chart 3), P/E ratio from comparable firms are used, which leads us to an exchange ratio at 0.68. Thus, our estimation for Amoco’s stand-alone value is from $37.07 to $54.69 per share, i.e. 0.46 to 0.68-exchange ratio. As the acquirer, our basic negotiating strategy is to low the exchange ratio as much as possible. Based on our conservative evaluation of Amoco, our opening exchange ratio is 0.46. For Amoco sides, their opening exchange ratio is 1. The big difference between our opening prices indicates this negotiating process should be tough. First, we checked the discount rate. For us, BP company, we use 8.83%, however, Amoco they use a higher one around 9%. The main difference to calculate the discount rate is that we use the 30-year Treasury rate as risk free rate compared to Amoco used 20-year Treasury rate. Moreover, we use the debt to debt plus equity but they use debt to equity to calculate WACC. To compromise these differences, we agree to use the average discount rate that doesn’t make a large influence of the valuation price. After this, we discussed the most important factor –growth rate. Based on the assumption in the case, we use 4% as terminal growth rate, 2% annual oil demand growth rate plus 2% inflation rate. However, Amoco hold the view that the oil price would grow at 6% in long-term, and it’s hard for both of us to get a compromising rate. Therefore, we jumped to synergy and currency questions, and we agreed on the synergy that Amoco would bring BP the North America  market and BP would use US currency to acquire Amoco’s share. After discussed all these details, we came back to the final offer price. We offered a higher one as exchange rate 0.6. Amoco rejected. Finally, after they thoughtful discussion they offered 0.66 exchange rate or price 52.965 as their final offer, which for us is lower than our walk-away price 65.94. Therefore, we accepted this offer and we both reach our goals to reach the deal and build a good relationship with the other management team. The previous 959.6m Amoco shares will convert into 633.336m shares of BP ADS equivalent, with the previous 965.6m ADS shares, BP shareholders will take part 60% of the new company, still have majority control over the firm. In this deal, we paid for about 20% premium, which is quite standard and normal. Because synergies from revenue and chemical divisions’ combination are not estimated nor not expected to bring benefit, the main synergy from the merge is 2 billion dollars saving of pretax operating cost. The value we create for our shareholders is $14,840.06 million (Amoco stand-alone value $46,430 million+ synergy $2 billion – price paid for Amoco $33,538.94). But this number is quite sensitive to a lot of factors, such as future energy demand, oil and gas price, industry growth potentials, ultimately affecting Amoco’s stand-alone and synergy valuation. Please see the chart 4 of sensitive analysis of Amoco’s stand-alone value according to the change of terminal growth rate in the appendices. But even modest assumptions still can lead to positive value created in this deal.

Road use charges should be introduced in the UK both for motorways and for urban areas

Whenever we hear today about the problems facing this country and how the government intends to solve them, arguably the three most commonly occurring points for debate on the government's agenda are education, the health system and transport. Transport often comes into focus when high profile incidences involving sub-standard public transport (most notably in recent times involving the railway network) are brought to light. And all this does is reinforce the reasons why many of us choose to use a car to travel in, rather than public transport. Due to the increasing need to use cars, our roads are becoming more and more congested. Now the government, in its position of trying to improve the situation, has to find a solution, which will at least ease the problem. Congestion arises when the volume of traffic exceeds road capacity. This reduces the speed of all vehicles and so increases the average time it takes to complete a particular journey. The congestion mainly occurs at peak times where the demand for the road is at its highest. Particularly when queuing in traffic jams, more people are using the roads, which increases the (marginal) cost of time to other people. Congestion occurs due to the fact that roads are a â€Å"nonexcludable† public good, i.e. no one is excluded from using the roads (based on the assumption that everyone can afford a vehicle, can drive a vehicle, and can afford the additional costs to run a vehicle.) By its definition, when a nonexcludable public good is provided, it affects the welfare of every person in the society. A public good is one where another individual using it will have no effect on the benefits received by others using it (i.e. the marginal cost of someone else consuming it is zero) and theref ore there is no competition for the service). Figure 1;The speed flow curve (Inverse relationship between the number of vehicles on a road and the average speed of vehicles) There are many causes of congestion, which all lead to some economic costs and therefore affect businesses and users of the roads. For a business the consequences of congestion are most likely to be incurred when transporting the goods and raw materials to and from factories and retail outlets. Congestion increases firms' costs, resulting in a lower comparable profit (to the value of profit without congestion) for the firm. Providing the price is inelastic these extra costs could be passed on to consumers in the form of higher market prices (whereby demand for the good is not too sensitive to a change in price). These extra costs can be incurred by either the opportunity cost of time (delays) or direct costs of extra fuel being burned travelling at lower speed. Figure 2: Supply and Demand during congestion for a price elastic good (Congestion costs shift the supply curve to the left, resulting in higher selling price and therefore lower quantity demanded) Supply curve with congestion charges Supply curve without congestion charges Demand curve Congestion may cause delays in delivery, which in turn may lead to various negative impacts on the business itself. For instance this may adversely effect the reputation of the business. Furthermore suppliers to the business may be delayed causing the firm to be less productive incurring unnecessary costs from staff becoming idle. These consequences are an adverse affect on the welfare of the other motorists, (i.e. people most likely become more irritated). Since there is a direct effect here of the actions of one person on the welfare of another person or persons in a way that is not transmitted by market prices, we have the definition of an effect that is called an externality. In economics, public goods and externalities are closely related and are often associated with efficiency problems. Thus this is part of the reason why our roads are â€Å"inefficient†. Congestion also causes the road network to become an impure public good. A public good is defined as one where another individual using it will have no effect on the benefits received by others using it (i.e. the marginal cost of someone else consuming it is zero) and therefore there is no competition for the service. An impure good is one where the consumption of the commodity is to some extent rival. When congestion occurs the use of the road network becomes competitive (especially during the rush hour) and therefore the good becomes impure. This allows the public good to be given a price and so allows schemes such as congestion charging and toll roads to be introduced. Governments across the world are introducing road charges with the goal of reducing road use and minimising the negative effects of road usage. An important decision that the government will take into consideration will be whether introducing road charges would have a negative impact upon the environment. In the capital the Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, is currently asking for the views of 300 groups likely to be affected by road charges to enter London. Despite a London report suggesting a 12% reduction in traffic, opposing parties believe it would cause chaos and adversely effect families and small businesses. Transport is a derived demand as it comes from the needs of the people (whether they are travelling to work, going shopping or meeting socially) and needs of businesses (transportation of goods and industrial materials). However the increasing demand for road use over the years has added to the number of vehicles on the road, and in turn, increases the damaging effects upon the environment. The obvious aim of introducing road charges for using motorways or entering urban areas in private vehicles are that fewer people will choose to do so, thus decreasing the harmful gas engine emissions as a result. Noise and sight pollution, along with air pollution, should also be seen as a result of reduced traffic and congestion. This would rely on the fact that roads have an elasticity that is either inelastic or elastic. The greater the elasticity (value) of these road charges would indicate higher price sensitivity in using the road in question. Establishing the elasticity will enable us to identify the extent to which the environment will benefit from a reduction in pollution (air, gas and noise). From a report by Button (1993) the ‘trip type' significantly affects the price elasticity. For instance travelling to urban areas for shopping purposes has a high elasticity, so if road charges become applicable it is likely that fewer people will decide to make the journey using private vehicles. From an environmental perspective fewer cars entering these urban areas will reduce congestion and vehicle pollution levels. When looking into the decrease of CO emissions for particular areas, such as Hereford as shown above, this illustrates the dramatic reduction in air pollution levels when a charge is applied. This does however depend on price elasticity of demand for the road. This is in comparison to the minimum elasticity for urban commuting (travelling to work) which is much lower. Any road charges imposed on these people will have a minimal effect, as it is more essential for them to travel into the urban area. An additional advantage of road charges is the extra revenue that would be generated through payment of those people who continue to use the particular (charged) road. This has seen positive results in Norway where the funds collected are being used to support the successful public transport areas of Oslo and Trondheim. The biggest environmental concern that road charges are associated with, specifically with motorways, is the likelihood that car drivers would take alternate routes (not charged) such as country roads. These roads that were previously quiet would then be subjected to noise and gas emissions as well as congestion problems. This is an example of the substitution effect as both the main roads and the rural roads could satisfy the needs of the public. The introduction of payment for using the main roads would result in an increase in the quantity demanded of the substitute, that is the rural roads where no charges are being imposed. How elasticity effects the demand for motorways with/without alternative routes (Motorways without alternative routes) (Motorways with alternative routes) From an environmental perspective road charges should be introduced for the vehicles entering the urban areas. This is because there is significant evidence that motor vehicle usage will drop significantly (as shown in the Button 1993 table). The additional revenue raised can be used to fund the much-needed public transport services. Therefore those who will no longer use their own private vehicles will potentially benefit from an improved transport service. Evidence showed that those who continue to travel into the urban areas using private vehicles are also more satisfied if the money they are charged goes into improving public transport (as shown in the MORI diagram). For motorways the decision from an environmental perspective is split between those motorways that have alternative routes and those that do not. On those motorways with possible alternative routes the disadvantages (such as the possible movement of traffic as opposed to reduction) outweighs the potential benefit of the additional revenue. Where alternative routes are unavailable road charges are appropriate as the disadvantages stated above and in the report are much less of a problem. Revenue generated from these charges can then help urban areas with the possible improvement of public transport (like the Norwegian example). If roads were a â€Å"typical† competitive commodity, supply and demand would determine its price and an organization or business would own it. However there isn't a market for roads, and (in places where there are no toll systems in place) people can use the roads for free (i.e. its price is treated as if it was zero). Added to the fact that no one actually owns the roads (the government only has a requirement to maintain them), we have a demand for the usage of the roads by the public, but a failure of a market to emerge. Therefore there is no mechanism to ensure that the resource of roads is used efficiently. Therefore if someone owned the roads and could charge a price for their use, a market would emerge leading to an efficient use of the commodity, because the price reflects the value for alternative uses. Thus through the understanding of how a road is economically defined and the fact that at the moment, it is economically â€Å"inefficient†, a measure has to be taken. Therefore we will now explain using the defining economic principles why road use charges should be introduced for motorways and for urban areas. Arguably, though, the notion of congestion charges is more readily available to be implemented than road tolls, but the economic principles that should guide the design of this policy towards taxing and charging road users also applies to road tolls. The aim of the policy is to find an equilibrium position, where the marginal cost of using the resource is equal to the marginal cost of providing the resource. Figure 4: The equilibrium position and the effect of road charges The graph is labelled with â€Å"level of traffic† on the x-axis and â€Å"generalised cost of driving† (this means that the generalised costs are time and money spent on making the journey) on the y-axis. The first line drawn in was the demand curve (D), which is also the marginal benefit (MB) curve, (which is a straight line). The easiest way to describe it's negative gradient is as the number of people using the road increases, the marginal driver will have a lower benefit from the road than the previous one. There are two costs curves to be added to the diagram. The private marginal costs (PMC) are the direct costs to the driver. The PMC curve is also the supply curve (S). It is an upward sloping curve because with low traffic densities, the only cost to the driver is petrol. However as levels of traffic increase, congestion increases, and thus the driver incurs time costs as well. The social marginal costs (SMC) has the same base as the PMC (i.e. petrol costs) but as traffic increases, not only does it represent the time cost to that one particular driver, there is also the time costs that each driver imposes on every other driver. As is to be expected, at the moment, drivers act according to their PMC curve and the level of traffic on the road increases to the point (Xo), where the PMC is equal to the MB. Thus as the economic theory states, we are at a level of traffic above the social optimum, because the social optimum occurs when the SMC is equal to the MB. This is shown at the point X*, which is the social optimum and the optimal level of traffic. To get the level of traffic reduced from Xo to X*, we have to impose an extra charge or tax â€Å"P† (= P*-Po). This is referred to as the Pigouvian tax amount. This amount (P) forces the road user to take into account the costs of the externality that they are generating, and thus induces them to operate at the efficient level. Since this â€Å"tax† is a congestion charge, it should only be imposed where congestion arises, and the level of charge should be directly related to the amount of congestion. Therefore the inner cities (i.e. urban areas) and motorways, having high levels of traffic, should have higher charges than areas with low levels of traffic. Traffic imposes a cost on society over and above the PMC. To achieve the socially optimal solution, these costs should be passed on to the driver. In doing this, only those drivers who were willing to pay society for the externalities they cause would use the road network. Thus levels of traffic would fall to the optimal output level, reducing congestion and pollution in the desired areas of urban areas and the motorways. It could be argued that if drivers were charged for the delays and road congestion they impose on one another, some of them would arrange to travel at different times, by different means e.g. rail and bus, or arrange to use different routes where road use charges can be avoided completely. There are various technological methods of charging for road uses. The simplest method is buying a license to enter a zone at certain times. The license, like a tax disc, would be prominently displayed with traffic wardens policing the system. However this would mean that only people parked in these zones would get checked; it would not include people just driving through them. To do this, traffic wardens would somehow have to physically stop cars and charge them for entrance into the area. To set this up in the UK would be very difficult with our complicated network of motorways, urban and rural roads and actually stopping cars would cause more congestion rather than reducing it. Another method that uses the new technology of electronic tolls/beacons, no longer requires motorists to halt at tollbooths. As motorists drive past these tollbooths, the toll registers the electronic number plate and sends a signal to a recording computer. This is a very direct way to charge the amount specific to the road and to the time of day with the amount due being deducted from their bank account. However, this would infringe on privacy rights, as it would enable people to derive individuals' locations. Hence the use of smartcards would be more preferable like the method used in Hong Kong. The driver inserts a prepaid card, like a telephone card, into the electronic number plate and payments are debited from it when a tollbooth is passed. Only in a case where the card runs out of credit do the central computer monitors start charging directly for road use. The installation of electronic technology would have the drawbacks of being time consuming and very costly. Not only is there the construction of tollbooths, the installation of smartcards on every single car, but maintenance as well. A type of security system would also be needed to prevent free riders1, for example they could remove the smartcard or tamper with it. A method of overcoming this would be the use of cameras on each booth to capture an image of the license plate if a smart card was not detected. The most technical method, and therefore probably the most expensive, would be satellite car tracking technology. This uses existing Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to track vehicles via electronic black boxes fixed to the dashboard of all vehicles. The problems associated with using satellites are similar to that of the above; that is the infringement on privacy rights and costs of setup and maintenance. However one possibility with this method is that it can also be used in conjunction with locating stolen cars. From a technical point of view smartcards seem to be the most sensible option. Although it would be more costly than just buying licenses, this method would lead to less congestion, as there is no stopping to enter the areas being charged. It is less expensive than using satellites and would not infringe on privacy rights. However there are difficulties and limitations with implementing any of these road use charging methods; the general public will have to be educated in the use of them, which will be quite complicated due to different regions and the specific times of the day having varying charges. The aim of this report was to analyse the argument that as elsewhere in the world, road charges should be introduced in the UK, both for motorways and for urban areas. On addressing the argument the environmental and the consequential factors of congestion needed to be considered. On considering the environmental factors the conclusion is that the reduction in pollution levels would only occur if the road charges reduced private road use and increased the use for public transport (i.e. there were no alternative routes that people had switched to avoid the charges). However a reduction in congestion on motorways and urban areas could certainly improve a firm's economic profit as the investigation into consequences of congestion revealed. Having decided the obvious need for charges with the economic principles supporting this, whether the application of schemes is technically possible became important. For this factor the smartcard road-charging scheme emerged as the best option. On bringing all these points together road charges are both necessary and feasible for UK motorways and urban areas. Except by environmental perspectives where additionally there have to be few alternative routes, thus preventing people congesting other roads and avoid payment.