Compulsory Insurance and VED

[icowden]

It's also important to note that the amount the treasury takes in duty on fuel is going to rapidly decrease as the number of electric cars increases. That's why the oil barons push so much anti Tesla propaganda. Less profit in oil. Of course, many of them have access to great places to build solar farms and battery tech instead.

It therefore makes more sense to move to a duty based on distance traveled as electric uptake increases. Personally I think we will see massive changes over the next 10-20 years with the advent of driverless and electric moving into the mainstream.

 

[classic33]

Do they routinely consider cycling an extreme sport? That's a new one on me.

As I suggested earlier, I think compulsory insurance will never happen, not least because of the rarity of cyclists featuring in motoring claims (less than 0.1% according to the Association of British Insurers).

I don't consider it an extreme sport. The insurance does however, and requires more to be paid to cover it.

Started this as a result of the court result and the seperate thread in which insurance cover was raised. It'd be a knee jerk reaction if it came in anytime soon. Making it the worst kind of reaction.

I've had the "you don't pay insurance/road tax/have to pass a test/have to have the cycles MOT'd arguments thrown at me whilst cycling. Like many on here I'd say.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

There is already a check for non insured cars. The DVLA will automatically spit out a fine for cars that aren't either insured or sorned.
And anyone that is determined to drive uninsured wont care about not having VED either. Plus the fact that VED discs aren't shown anymore so even easier to evade VED.

I can confirm that, a couple of years ago I changed insurance companies when I renewed the insurance, the company didn't put the new policy on the database, a few weeks later I got a letter from the DVLA asking why my car wasn't insured or sorned, I then had to chase the insurance company to get it put on the database.

 

[tom73]

There is already a check for non insured cars. The DVLA will automatically spit out a fine for cars that aren't either insured or sorned.
And anyone that is determined to drive uninsured wont care about not having VED either. Plus the fact that VED discs aren't shown anymore so even easier to evade VED.

Not forgetting the DVLA number plate camera vans that can be found going round the streets.

 

[Smudge]

Not forgetting the DVLA number plate camera vans that can be found going round the streets.

Yes, i've seen a few cars in my town that have been clamped and had a DVLA sticker put on the windscreen by those vans.

 

[tom73]

So have I inc one down the road.

 

[mjr]

There is already extreme poverty in some rural areas, it is not all 2.4 children a Range Rover and a Labrador. I think the last thing we want to be doing is urbanizing further.

If you don't want to urbanise rural areas further, then please make fuel more expensive! So many villages have become little more than glorified detached suburbs because villagers think it's cheaper to drive to the edge-of-town retail parks than to pay the higher prices in some small shops, while we're priced out of most farm shops that now think it's more profitable to market themselves as boutique shopping destinations for driving townies than offering reasonably-priced direct-to-consumer fresh produce sales.

The village I grew up in used to have a thriving high street with a bakery, butcher's, grocer's, post office and so on, with a daily milk round and a weekly frozen produce van, but now there's only one combined newsagent/convenience-store/post-office left (unless it's gone under since I was last there for a family wedding) and that's not an unusual story. Yet some villages which are further from towns have kept their range of shops and managed to market themselves as "service villages" for nearby villages and hamlets, because they're already far enough away for the drive to seem expensive enough.

So who's to say that gradually raising fuel taxes wouldn't save some currently-borderline village retail businesses and maybe encourage some to (re)start?

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I don't consider it an extreme sport. The insurance does however, and requires more to be paid to cover it.

I still don't see where this extreme sport categorisation is coming from. My cycle commute to work, or shopping trip, is not an extreme sport.
If I was competing in the Downhill World Cup at Fort William then insurance companies might have a point, otherwise I'm struggling to see the relevance of the term to the everyday cycling most of us enjoy.

Started this as a result of the court result and the seperate thread in which insurance cover was raised. It'd be a knee jerk reaction if it came in anytime soon. Making it the worst kind of reaction.

You're manufacturing a scenario that's not going to happen and arguing against it, what's the point?

I've had the "you don't pay insurance/road tax/have to pass a test/have to have the cycles MOT'd arguments thrown at me whilst cycling. Like many on here I'd say.

Simple answer to that is: "Fark off".

 

[Drago]

59 pedestrians die for every billion journey miles.

53 cyclists die for every billion journey miles.

Therefore, if cycling is an extreme sport, then strolling to the shop for 20 Bensons and the Daily Sport must be up their with crocodile wrestling.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

59 pedestrians die for every billion journey miles.
53 cyclists die for every billion journey miles.

UK or Worldwide?

 

[Drago]

UK I believe, but I'm not entirely certain old chap. It was in the CUK chipwapper, and once they've done duty in the bottom of the budgie cage I just throw 'em.

 

[youngoldbloke]

If you don't want to urbanise rural areas further, then please make fuel more expensive! So many villages have become little more than glorified detached suburbs because villagers think it's cheaper to drive to the edge-of-town retail parks than to pay the higher prices in some small shops, while we're priced out of most farm shops that now think it's more profitable to market themselves as boutique shopping destinations for driving townies than offering reasonably-priced direct-to-consumer fresh produce sales.

The village I grew up in used to have a thriving high street with a bakery, butcher's, grocer's, post office and so on, with a daily milk round and a weekly frozen produce van, but now there's only one combined newsagent/convenience-store/post-office left (unless it's gone under since I was last there for a family wedding) and that's not an unusual story. Yet some villages which are further from towns have kept their range of shops and managed to market themselves as "service villages" for nearby villages and hamlets, because they're already far enough away for the drive to seem expensive enough.

So who's to say that gradually raising fuel taxes wouldn't save some currently-borderline village retail businesses and maybe encourage some to (re)start?

It is, much cheaper, even taking into account fuel costs.
However, our local village shop is thriving, it has become a 'service shop' and the result is a blocked village High Street, and heated tempers, as parking for locals becomes difficult and daily deliveries from numerous wholesalers are made in vehicles totally unsuited to narrow village streets. Then there is the ever increasing number of online shopping deliveries. The bus company threatens to withdraw the (minimal) service because of problems getting through the restricted street. It's not only in towns that congestion is a problem. Successful businesses in villages can create their own issues.

 

[TheDoctor]

Not being funny, but it is feasible to do things differently.
NZ has a compulsory nationwide accident compensation scheme that covers everyone. This means you don't actually need car insurance, as all third party risks are covered. You can take out fully-comp cover, if you like, but there's no obligation.
There's also the handy benefit that compensation culture just doesn't exist.

 

[mjr]

59 pedestrians die for every billion journey miles.

53 cyclists die for every billion journey miles.

Therefore, if cycling is an extreme sport, then strolling to the shop for 20 Bensons and the Daily Sport must be up their with crocodile wrestling.

Shouldn't we focus on those dishing out the injuries rather than those receiving them? After all, it's the perpetrator's insurance that should pay out.

 

[Illaveago]

I'd rather not see VED abandoned for cars, as it's an annual check that they have valid insurance and MOT (with a few exceptions).

I totally agree. They have made a complete mess of things by removing tax discs. By removing VED you will encourage fuel theft .