[Closed] Taxing cyclists to use the road...

Free to ride in England 🙂

Ian Munro - Member
Free to ride in England

How long do you think it would take your mates in the English political parties to adopt the idea if it worked in Scotland?

What a stupid idea, especially as nobody actually pays a tax to use the roads. You pay a tax to own a vehicle, not to use the public highway so the idea that cyclists should pay tax to contribute to the upkeep of the roads is plain daft as even motorists don't.

I can't see how such a tax would ever be enforceable. The DVLA has a hard enough time keeping track of people who don't pay the road fund licence.

Will I have to get a SORN notice for my road bike which is currently in bits in the garage?

Did anyone actually read the last line of the article?

I'm sorry to say that this is what passes for journalism in Scotland these days.

You pay a tax to own a vehicle, not to use the public highway

Do you? I can own a car, park it off the road and not have to pay for a tax disc. It's only when I have to take it on a public highway that I'd have to get a tax disc.

[i]A ROAD tax on cyclists is being considered by Scottish Government civil servants.[/i] First line

[i]A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Scottish ministers have no plans to charge cyclists for using the roads in Scotland."[/i] Last line

Made up shit...

and how does it work, when VED is based on emmisions? I am sure a bike and rider produces less emmisions than a Volkswagen Polo.

If you follow the logic, the disc would cost nothing to buy, but would be horrifically expensive to administer

I'm not having no disc spoiling the sexy clean lines of my bikes (won't mention the crudguards). Do you get a refund if you take your bike off road on your commute?

since the road wear is proportional to the cube of the axle weight, the tax for a bike would be <£1 per year

I'm up in Scotland at the moment, it's front page on the actual paper edition. No doubt it'll generate a few pages of letters over the next week or so then that'll be it.

It's a load of made up rubbish - Ken Livingstone came up with a similar idea when he was Mayor of London and it generated a load of headlines, some publicity and the usual mix of outrage (from cyclists), support (from stupid people) and a resigned shrug from those who knew it would never get off the drawing board.

It's worth reading the comments to be reminded of the sheer stupidity of some people. My favourites are:

1. taxing road users makes them obey the Highway Code (how come that doesn't work with car drivers then?)

2. how some of them manage to drop in some vitriol about Gordon Brown, even though the article is ostensibly about the SNP introducing a law in Scotland.

I can now relax into my Sunday evening knowing I am smarter than the average Scotsman reader.

Although I have no evidence to back it up, I was once informed that road tax revenue actually only provides about 1/3 of the cost of road upkeep in Britain. If this is true, I'd say we're already paying more than our fair share in road tax. If it's not true, I'm still not bloody paying!

It's only when I have to take it on a public highway that I'd have to get a tax disc.

True, but the principle of hypothecation does not apply to road fund licences (AKA car tax). In fact the cost of maintaining the roads comes from your community charge payments. None of the money you pay to use a car on the road makes its way back to the highways agency.

Everyone pays road taxes, even if you don't own a car... via council taxes. The nominal tax you pay for a disc on your windscreen is of almost no consequence if you add up the real cost of paying for roads and the carnage repair cost they add to the NHS... not to mention pollution and other invisible nasties.

I would take up jogging if they did tax us.

Thing is what would be acceptable? 50p?

Number plate? gawd that would look bad.

Thing is what would be acceptable? 50p?

the administration costs would be far higher than that 🙁

Actually, thinking along the "no taxation without representation" lines, why don't cyclists offer to pay say one fifth of the average car "road tax"?

In exchange, one fifth of all roads should have dedicated cycle lanes and one in five parking spaces should be for bikes!

i'm just gonna drive everywhere and get heart disease just to prove the point.

I thought tax was based on your vehicle emmisions there for bikes have no emmisions like electric cars so no payment required. The flaw in the scheme is the sorn declaration, take it off the road and dont have to pay tax but you can have it sat there on your drive with the engine running and not pay.

I thought tax was based on your vehicle emmisions there for bikes have no emmisions like electric cars

not true, the emissions of an electric car take place at the power station (unless windmill/wave powered), and the extra food required to power a cyclist does have environmental costs associated

Complete non-story. Amazing that they'd print such sh1te on page 1 of the paper.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😡

druidh - Member

Did anyone actually read the last line of the article?

I'm sorry to say that this is what passes for journalism in Scotland these days.

I actually read that last line first 😉

followed by:

"It would be completely impractical. Something like that would cost ten times the total investment in cycling to administer. The message missing from this plan is thatit is a great way of getting around that's pleasurable."

Mel Gibson was unavailable for comment

A number plate on my bike!?!

Phuc dat.

Oooohhh, I seem to have gone all urban.

Cripes and indeed blimey.

We already pay the correct rate for a zero emissions vehicle - nothing.

We should have two plates on our bikes, just like cars 😀
Just imagine riding your M6 with them, looovely!

It's the road which knackers my bike more than my bike that knackers the road so I think the government should actually be paying me.

As cars are now taxed on the pollution they produce as they work, then should the same apply to bikes.

Bottom line like pedestrians, cyclists use the highway by right, not by tax or license. So if the queen happy for me to ride my bike thats good enough for me.

<i>Complete non-story. Amazing that they'd print such sh1te on page 1 of the paper. </i>

Agree.

But the worrying this is people will read it and believe it and you know what that will lead.. some MP will jump on the idea and raise it as a private members bill with 'massive public support'!

[i]and the extra food required to power a cyclist does have environmental costs associated [/i]

I'd debate that your average road cyclist eats no more than a non-cycling person. I'm not talking about tour riders, just your run of the mill cyclist like people who commute ten miles each way or do a bit of road riding for fun.

For a start your average cyclist is going to be a lot more efficient than your average couch potato plus I'm guessing they generally have a lot less weight to haul around.

I already pay the road fund licence because I own a car.

If the fund was actually used for repairs, then it must be proportional to the wear-and-tear, and that is proportional to axle weight.

So trucks would pay thousands of pounds and we would pay pence.

Pehaps we should start a counter scare story that road tax for cycling could devistate the tourism sector in the scotish boarders as mountain bikers stay away from scotish trail centres. How you going to prove you've not put a wheel on tarmac. 🙂

So trucks would pay thousands of pounds

they already do, but it should be £100,000s!

Would we be allowed on motorways if we paid 'road tax'? I'd want my monies worth. And would we get free roadside assistance if we broke down in road works?

If they tax cyclist then why not tax [u]all[/u] people who use the roads? Should be fun taxing people to cross the street as they'll be using the roads. How will people walk down a country lane? What about pelican crossings? Only pedestrians need those so we can get rid of them or let the pedestrians pay for them.

Would we be allowed on motorways if we paid 'road tax'?

I'd be careful with this argument as the car drivers might then demand reciprocal access to bridleways 🙁