For many years fuel duty was set at a high level to discourage car use. Since then it has become a large amount of money that the government doesn't want to lo

For many years fuel duty was set at a high level to discourage car use. Since then it has become a large amount of money that the government doesn't want to lose. But it is a bit ironic how it is treated as a source of revenue for road building in the public consciousness. It just doesn't seem to work very well at discouraging driving. People include fuel tax in a basket of other costs and factors they have to contend with.