Should Cyclists pay Tax?
This is an issue I have been pondering quite a bit recently myself… Personally I feel that if Cyclists did pay a road tax, then we may get more respect from other road users who frequently consider cyclists to be lower class citizens because we don’t pay a license fee. I’m perfectly aware that most of car driver’s road tax actually goes on admin and to Hospitals for cleaning up the mess they leave behind, but I consider it more of a levelling tax than anything else. I have also been wondering if some sort of licensing test for cyclist would be in order, because as far as I’m concerned, the increase in cyclists has also led to an increase in the amount of dangerous, inconsiderate and frankly stupid cyclists…
Anyway, that’s a discussion for the future, in the meantime, have a read of this article on TreeHugger.
April 26th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
I think the idea of a tax for cyclists will be somewhat controversial, but – and I say this as a one-time cyclist – you are right about the presence of dangerous cyclists. I think what is needed is for cyclists to gain some understanding of car driver behaviour if they do not have that… about how they can be invisible to drivers, how they should not suddenly dash across in front of moving cars… how they should not assume that card drivers have seen them… simple stuff like that.
The other thing is that on shared foot/cycle paths it’s best that they don’t come up behind pedestrians and insistently ring their bell to force walkers out of their way. That’s the same mentality as some car drivers have to cyclists… and that they give way to pedestrians on shared ways.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Just found your blog via Radical Cross Stitch – looks great!
I often wonder about this as well as some idiot fellow cyclist shoots past me while I’m stopped at a red light. (Although at least there is now the same fine for this on a bike or in a car, something I support.) I was telling a friend that I’d be happy to pay such a tax if it led to being considered a legitimate road user, but he pointed out that he owns a car which he already pays taxes for, but he chooses to leave it in the garage all week while he cycles or runs to work, so for him it would be a disincentive to own and ride a bike if he had to pay a second time. Just another point to ponder.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Just to continue the topic, here’s another interesting link…
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/are-bicyclists-free-riders/