Make them pay road tax then, like motorists do!!

[ClichéGuevara]

Sounds like a sensible idea to me. Extend the VED to cycles in the same format it is for cars.

A bike, zero emissions, zero cost to the user but...administrating the cycle disc costs and needs paying for from the VED pot, so the excise on higher emission vehicles is increased to pay for it.

Cracking argument they're offering there.

 

[smithy92]

Oh of course it was. My memory is going with age

"Neil your bedrooms on fire!"

 

[youngoldbloke]

Isn't it an indication of incredible stupidity and ignorance to express the opinion that cyclists should pay 'road tax'? Why do journalists and others continue with this sh.. stirring?

 

[cd365]

Why even bother responding to this type of journalism, let them wait until the Government starts to listen and asks for a feasibility study on it, these lazy journalists will then be up in arms about children having to pay the equivalent of VED, how fair is that, etc.

Just ignore them

 

[Jezston]

I thought The People went bust years ago?

Can't say I've noticed it in newsagents for years.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Why even bother responding to this type of journalism, let them wait until the Government starts to listen and asks for a feasibility study on it, these lazy journalists will then be up in arms about children having to pay the equivalent of VED, how fair is that, etc.

Just ignore them

Even you seem to be falling into the trap - the point is: there is no such tax as 'Road Tax', and even if bicycles were required to register for VED there would be nothing to pay, adult or child, as pointed out a couple of posts ago, and the administration costs would be enormous, for no benefit whatsoever. We all pay for roads through general taxation, and council tax. I also pay VED, as do so many of us, and as has been pointed out so, so many times, if you are riding your bike you are not driving your car. Most serious cyclists are insured too, through membership of BC or CTC. Do the simpletons who write these pieces seriously imagine the RLJers and pavement riders would rush to conform to any authority that required compulsory registration or insurance?

 

[abo]

Vehicle Excise Duty is paid directly into central government revenues and hasn't been used to directly fund roads since 1937.

All taxpayers, cyclists included, fund roads.

I have two cars as well as a bike. So I've paid twice...

 

[SquareDaff]

I stopped reading as soon as this idiot showed his massive knowledge of the road by inferring that a zebra crossing had traffic lights!!

And for those of you in embroiled in the road tax debate. Didn't I read on another topic that cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians don't need to pay road tax as they're allowed to use roads by royal decree? Car users have to pay for a "licence" to use the road!

 

[cd365]

Even you seem to be falling into the trap - the point is: there is no such tax as 'Road Tax

I'm not falling into a trap, I'm I am trying to point out what these small minded journalists will type if there was some sort of proposal to try and tax a cyclist, call it VED, "Road Tax", whatever. Their views will change if it happens "why should my little princess pay a tax to cycle", it will be called a tax on fun etc.

Journalists having a go at cycling are jumping on a bandwagon at the minute, just ignore them, they will find something else to have a go at soon!!

 

[youngoldbloke]

Can we please stop using the expression 'Road Tax'. There is no such tax. Nobody pays 'Road Tax'. There is NO 'Road Tax' debate. There can't be - it does not exist - if we who are being criticized can't be clear about this why should we expect those who want to stir up anti cycling feeling to get it right? The debate can ONLY be about whether cyclists should be made to register their bicycles and be liable to Vehicle Exicise Duty - VED - for which they would be zero rated anyway, under current emissions legislation. So - a pretty pointless exercise.

edit: my reply prompted by SquareDaff. cd365 - I expect you're right!

 

[swee'pea99]

Can we please stop using the expression 'Road Tax'. There is no such tax. Nobody pays 'Road Tax'. There is NO 'Road Tax' debate. There can't be - it does not exist - if we who are being criticized can't be clear about this why should we expect those who want to stir up anti cycling feeling to get it right? The debate can ONLY be about whether cyclists should be made to register their bicycles and be liable to Vehicle Exicise Duty - VED - for which they would be zero rated anyway, under current emissions legislation. So - a pretty pointless exercise.

edit: my reply prompted by SquareDaff. cd365 - I expect you're right!

Yeah there is. It's what you pay to get your tax disc. Everyone knows that.

Insisting 'there's no such thing' whiffs of nerdery, and it's the kind of pedantry that gets people's backs up, and serves only to entrench them in their conviction that cyclists are a bunch of self-righteous pedants, adrift from the real world and stuck up their own bums.

Why not accept that (in the real world) yes, there's road tax, most cyclists (having cars) pay it, and even those that don't contribute to the cost of maintaining the roads through general taxation.

 

[cd365]

Since "road tax" changed from being a flat rate for a car driver to a rate based on your car's emissions I would have expected car drivers to realise that there is no "road tax", it is an "emissions tax". Personally I just say when I get that nice reminder "damn, I have to pay for my tax disc again".

 

[youngoldbloke]

[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1309179106' post='1724099']
Yeah there is. It's what you pay to get your tax disc. Everyone knows that.

Insisting 'there's no such thing' whiffs of nerdery, and it's the kind of pedantry that gets people's backs up, and serves only to entrench them in their conviction that cyclists are a bunch of self-righteous pedants, adrift from the real world and stuck up their own bums.

Why not accept that (in the real world) yes, there's road tax, most cyclists (having cars) pay it, and even those that don't contribute to the cost of maintaining the roads through general taxation.



[/quote]

That is rather like saying National Insurance is an insurance scheme - but I suppose I am just being a self righteous pedantic nerd (and proud of it) and getting peoples backs up. I must live in an alternative reality where it is important to get facts straight - I pay VED, and other taxes, part of which is spent on roads (as you rightly point out in your last sentence). That is THE point - WE ALL pay for the upkeep of roads. If the demand is for a CED - Cyclist's Excise Duty - well that is something else altogether.

 

[youngoldbloke]

More pedantry - note that Direct Gov now refer to VEHICLE Tax My link

 

[Rhythm Thief]

My car has a free "tax" disc. It's a great feeling, getting 12 months' road rent and paying nowt.