The success of an internet petition against road pricing has illustrated a worrying gap between most policymakers' enthusiasm for pay-as-you-go road charging and most motorists' suspicion of the idea, according to transport experts.

The petition, on the 10 Downing Street website, has attracted more than 1m signatures asking the prime minister to "forget roadpricing". The petition says satellite tracking, which might form part of a scheme, would be "sinister and wrong", that there is already an effective tax in the form of fuel duty and that poor people would be unable to afford the charge.