Confused.com have commissioned this survey. I for one am not in the least bit surprised that a company with a vested interest should be biased..

I am however more concerned with the fact that more cyclists are feeling less safe on the roads than a year ago..My extra 2p is that EVEN as a pedestrian I feel less safe than before..What is it with some road-users that once behind the wheel they feel that 1. they are invulnerable..2. pedestrians & cyclists become viable targets for them to intimidate..

Now Im no weak-willed wallflower & Im not scared easily..but lately a few incidents have led me to question the sanity of more than just a few motorists..a cab driving vearing towards me as a I crossed the road..some idiot using a cut-through as his idea of the Nurburgring..

ps I have a car, its a 4×4, I live in London..flame me..I dont care.. 😉

Overall the press release on the confused.com website comes across as pretty childish.

I love the 2nd biggest complaint from motorists:

“A cyclist slowed down my journey and made me late”

Well boo hoo 🙄

I don’t suppose they’d complain about all the other motorists slowing them down by causing traffic jams…

I posted it on the bike forum, where not much interest was raised 🙁

I love the 2nd biggest complaint from motorists:

“A cyclist slowed down my journey and made me late”

Huh. Odd. When I’m late in a car, it’s not the cyclists that cause it, it’s the billions of other cars cluttering up the roads that get in the way.

Bikes do not hold car drivers up – they are the quicker around town and even if the car driver has to slow for a moment they will end up behind the same car in the next jam

Cyclists should pay road tax. This was plastered across the Metro yesterday with no effort given to balancing the argument (other than ‘cyclists feel less safe’) and establishing facts about said mythical ‘road tax’.
People are useless.

Bikes do not hold car drivers up – they are the quicker around town and even if the car driver has to slow for a moment they will end up behind the same car in the next jam

gentle heads up here TJ, the way thats worded makes it sound like you’re presenting that as a fact. i’ve had journeys held up by cyclists and as a cyclist i’m sure i’ve made an impact on the progress of drivers going in the same direction as me. the main thing being that not everyone rides/drives in town centres where there’s bound to be more traffic ahead.

^ yeah but. Overall the impact cyclists make on car drivers journey times is negligible to non-existent compared to the delays caused by other 4 wheeled traffic. Even in rural areas when you might get slowed down in a car, you can easily make the time up after you get beyond the bike. Especially as you are more than likely to subsequently find yourself behind a lorry/bus/flat cap wearer if you decide to drive at the speed limit.

I posted it on the bike forum, where not much interest was raised

See, that’s where you went wrong. Over here, we’ll argue about any old guff. (-:

Cyclists should pay road tax

“I have just paid £260 for my ‘road tax.’ Therefore Mr crappy-Saxo man if right of way is determined by amount of road tax paid I shall remain in front of you.”

Cyclists should pay road tax

It’s brilliant isn’t it.

Motorists want ‘us’ to pay a tax that doesn’t even exist 🙄

And they’re so committed to their prejudices that they’ve even convinced themselves they’re paying it 😆

I’d love to take out a big full page ad in national newspapers with a catchline something like “Don’t Want To Pay Road Tax? Then Read This” which then went on to explain the fact there really isn’t any road tax.

Sadly I suspect people with these opinions can’t read.

What really confuses them is when you point out that even if VED was a “road tax” (which it obviously isn’t), there are a couple of million cars that don’t have to pay it (low CO2 cars, disabled drivers, classic cars etc).

Or as ipayroadtax puts it:

Do those cars have no right to be on the road either?

And does a Band L vehicle paying £445 a year have twice as much right to the road as a Band I paying £210?

And does a Band L vehicle paying £445 a year have twice as much right to the road

… think you find that the extensive use of pavements and parking in zig zag zones is what you get for that kind of money

For me the problem isn’t the survey, its not exactly a shocker, the problem is that it continues to show the wider public simply don’t understand the situation, they are typically car drivers, not cyclists so will never understand without being taught what its like from our side. peoples perceptions need changing by education.

Personally I think car drivers need to do a cycle test, as part of the car test, of riding in rush hour a couple of miles into a major city centre.

They need to understand that road tax doesn’t exist. All tax payers pay for the roads.

Cars hitting a bike, will probably kill the cyclist. Cyclists hitting cars might scratch the car.

Car drivers arent worried about safetly when cyclists run red lights, they are just pissed off they cant do it in a car and that we’re therefore passing them by.

Finally they need to understand we are vulnerable road users, but still humans, still somebody’s brother/father/son/daughter/cousin, we have the right to protect ourselves however we see fit. And yes some of us are complete knobs and dangerous, just in the same way some, but not all car drivers are.

“road tax” terminology aside, isn’t it a fair assumption that most cyclists will own cars too (outside of London anyway)?

scuzz – Member
Cyclists should pay road tax. This was plastered across the Metro yesterday with no effort given to balancing the argument (other than ‘cyclists feel less safe’) and establishing facts about said mythical ‘road tax’.
People are useless.

Quite right.

1) there is no such thing as road tax
2) lots of cyclists are also drivers and they pay vehicle excise duty
3) if VED was applied to bikes, because they are zero emissions vehicles the cost would be £0… the costs of administration for millions of extra vehicles, however, would be huge.

I don’t pay “road tax” in my classic Alfa – but the Daily Maul seems to be quite relaxed about that 😛

if VED was applied to bikes, because they are zero emissions vehicles the cost would be £0… the costs of administration for millions of extra vehicles, however, would be huge.

I’ve tried to make this point to “PayRoadTaxers” before. There are a LOT of bikes out there. Many, many, many more than cars.

So if you introduced a nominal VED charge for bikes, say £10, then you’d have to set up an organisation at least the size of the DVLA to gather the tax, administer and police it – which would cost WAAAY more than the tax gathered.

(When I can be bothered to look it up I link to the DVLA annual budget which shows how much it costs to run per year. It’s a lot!)

Should we really pay much notice to this.

Confused.com also ran an ad campaign saying that the internet was the best invention of the 21st Century.

Is annoying to see the whole “road tax” myth perpetuated though

If their figure of “a quarter of motorists questioned felt cyclists should pay road tax” is even remotely correct then it does suggest that one/all the cycling advocacy groups could do with spending some money on this exact issue.

Well actually the government should clarify it – but fat chance of that!

If their figure of “a quarter of motorists questioned felt cyclists should pay road tax” is even remotely correct

If it’s correct, that means three quarters of motorists don’t think cyclists should pay, so that’s alright then.

“Road Tax” – some people talk b*ll*cks about something they know nothing about, shocker…

If it’s correct, that means three quarters of motorists don’t think cyclists should pay, so that’s alright then.

True but that means one-in-four think like this delightful couple:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-t5kSZPHus[/video]

I really am dying to meet one of the “you don’t pay road tax” crowd

“I think you’ll find I pay more road tax for the car parked in my driveway than you do for that diesel shitbox* you are driving… fatty!”

*Extensive studies (which I have just made up) show that the type of whining, sniveling tight wad who worries about cyclists not paying their way most likely drives a circa 2001 Renault Megane Scenic DCi or a Nissan Almera DCi of similar vintage with at least one dented panel

the figure of 1/4 motorists isn’t quite correct there is a ranting article over on roadcc that points out it is a 1/4 of a subset in the survey – never let facts get in the way of a good headline

[http://road.cc/content/news/48078-confusedcom-confused-dotcom-pr-campaign-goes-spectacularly-wrong….the link to the original press release is there to and probably worth reading as it has something to say about road user attitudes, the assumption that you don’t/can’t drive a car/own a car if you ride a bike seems very prevalent (there was a lovely letter in Sunday Times a while back about how allowing cyclists to get away with dangerous riding will mean one day they will become bad drivers!) similar because i always walk the kids to school people assumed we don’t have a car
the notion of choosing to ride a bike or be a pedestrian is alien to many*

edit* as is the idea that there are other road users and that they don’t come with airbags and metal jackets

“You don’t pay road tax.”

“No i don’t, but i earn considerably more money that you, you little oik, so i subsidise your driving, and the heart bipass it looks like you’re heading for in a few years…. fatty.”

The other thing with the road-tax-means-more-rights bollox is that I bet it doesn’t apply to anyone paying more than them.

the assumption that you don’t/can’t drive a car/own a car if you ride a bike seems very prevalent (there was a lovely letter in Sunday Times a while back about how allowing cyclists to get away with dangerous riding will mean one day they will become bad drivers!) similar because i always walk the kids to school people assumed we don’t have a car

I do wonder whether people think that about me as I’ve never taken my car to my son’s school and religiously use a cycle of some variety if I’m in a hurry to go to or from there (it’s far quicker than driving).

Back more on topic, what’s the betting that some of those who think cyclists should pay road tax drive group A cars? 🙄