AS a solution to the traffic congestion crippling Britain, it's nothing if not radical. Little black boxes a bit like a mobile phone computer chip in every car on the roads, an eye in the sky high above, watching where we all go - and a regular bill at the end of the month for the number of miles we have driven on busy roads at peak times.

It's meant to be a way of getting traffic moving again by hitting motorists who insist on driving on busy roads at peak times where it hurts most - in their pockets.

The organisation which has come up with the idea, - the Commission for Integrated Transport - insists it is not simply another way of punishing drivers. Despite charges of up to 45p a mile on the most congested roads - central London at rush hour, for example - many motorists could even see the cost of using their cars fall, it says.

How can that be? Because the pay-per-mile road charges under the new satellite-monitored system would only apply from 7am to 7pm, and only when traffic on a particular road was particularly congested, says the commission. At other times, and on other roads, there would be no charge.

To offset the pay-per-mile charges fuel duty could be cut by between 2p and 12p a litre, and road tax could be reduced or even scrapped altogether.

That could mean motorists on quiet rural roads or those who chose to avoid peak-time travel would be better off.

"For most road users, most of the time, in fact there would be no charge at all," insists commission spokesman Martin Helm. "This is not about punishing motorists. It is about getting traffic moving. For rural motorists, their charges could actually go down. You could find, for example, that not only people who live and work in the country, but also those living in areas where there is no congestion, could see their cost of motoring going down by as much as ten per cent." Try telling that to motorists, however.

Die-hard driver Mike Usherwood, familiar to Evening Press readers through his regular correspondence in our letters columns, is less than impressed with the whole idea.

"It is totally ridiculous!" thunders the 74-year-old from Huntington. "Nobody goes and sits in a traffic jam for fun. You're sitting in traffic jams because of the incompetence of the traffic authorities who keep closing our roads!"

But surely, if a pay-per-mile system for using congested roads encouraged people to travel by different routes or at different times, or even walk or cycle to work, it could help?

"If people could stagger their journey times, they would," he insists.

Clearly, selling the British public on a satellite-controlled system of monitoring and charging for road use is not going to be easy.

The commission was obviously anticipating some resistance because it had its arguments marshalled well in advance of the publication of its report on Monday.

The system, which should only be brought in once the Government's ten-year transport plan has delivered improvements in public transport, could reduce road congestion in the UK by up to 44 per cent, the commission claims.

It could cut the amount of time busy Brits sit fuming in traffic jams each year by a staggering 25,000 years. The average travelling salesman, says Martin Helm, could save 40 hours a year he might otherwise spend stuck in traffic jams.

Then there's the argument comparing roads to other public utilities such as telephones and electricity.

"Our starting point," said the commission's chairman Professor David Begg, announcing publication of his report on Monday, "was that roads are the only public utility that are free at the point of use.

"As a result, everyone wants to use the most popular roads at the same time. Result gridlock. There has to be a better way.

"For generations other utilities have managed demand by giving people a choice - a premium price for peak time use and cheaper charges for other times. Electricity and telephone prices vary with demand. It works with airlines, trains and cross-Channel ferries: and it will work with roads.

"At the moment we have a very blunt and unfair taxation system with those who can sometimes least afford it - users of quieter roads at off-peak times - subsidising commuters competing for space in the rush hour."

On the face of it, plausible enough. But Mike Usherwood isn't the only one with concerns. Many have questioned the ethics of a 'spy' system which would be able to keep tabs on us all at any time of the day when we're in our cars. There have been dark mutterings about 'Big Brother'.

Then there is the whole question of whether the system would work at all.

The problems with stolen mobiles, where thieves can switch SIM cards and then make calls themselves and charge them to you, are well documented.

Could the same happen here? It's bad enough when we get slapped with a parking ticket we don't think we deserve. Imagine our apoplexy at being charged for travelling 500 miles up and down the A1(M) at rush hour when we had never been near the place - all because some clever criminal had fiddled with the little black box on our car.

Then there would be the possibility of freeloaders 'jamming' the signal from their black box - so they could travel free as and when they wanted, and the rest of us were left to pick up the bill.

And who could guarantee the GPS system would work well in built-up areas - which is where many congested roads are - since the signals can't apparently travel through buildings and you need a fairly clear horizon to get pinpoint positioning?

Martin Helm insists the technology is there, and is reliable - it is simply a question of using it.

And he has little time for the Big Brother scares. Anybody who carries a mobile phone - which is most of us - has already signed up to someone, somewhere, knowing exactly where they are at any time, he points out. Why should a black box on a car be any different?

But computer software expert Andy Ormsby, a director of York software company Lexicle, says there are legitimate concerns.

He admits he is no expert on satellite communications - but he does know that any such system, just like mobile phones with their SIM cards, would be open to abuse. Jamming the signals or cheats getting their mileage charged to someone else's account could be real problems, he says.

And then there's the inconvenient fact the global system of GPS satellites is owned and operated by the US Department of Defence, he says.

One day they may, in time of war or for whatever reason, decide they wanted to switch it off.

And then where would we be? Can you imagine how choked our roads would become if we suddenly knew the spy in the sky wasn't charging us for using them any more?

Updated: 10:21 Wednesday, February 27, 2002