Handy Hints To Save Anti-Cycling Keyboard Warriors From Wearing Their Fingers Out...

[Ming the Merciless]

 

[Ming the Merciless]

 

[SirDickieBird]

Well-written, yes and useful for the keyboard warriors (possibly) but hard to get it all across to the driver who's weaving around and up to your group tail, revving and trying to overtake with oncoming traffic repeatedly, shouting "Ride single file - it's the law" at you...

 

[presta]

“road tax” does not exist. You pay Vehicle Excise Duty (VED)

This argument irritates me intensely. It just makes cyclists a laughing stock in the eyes of motorists. They don't care what the tax is called, what they care about is that they pay it and we don't.

Whenever I get the "You don't pay road tax" I point out that it's non-motorists who are subsidising motorists, not the other way around, and hit them with this:

Unlike "No such thing as road tax", it works first time every time, and shuts them up immediately.

State of play of internalisation in the European transport sector - Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu)

 

[ianrauk]

This argument irritates me intensely. It just makes cyclists a laughing stock in the eyes of motorists. They don't care what the tax is called, what they care about is that they pay it and we don't.

My usual reply to this is that I pay the same amount of 'road tax' for my bike as I would an electric car. That usually stumps them.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Not 'road tax' but VED - there is a very important difference in that the first implies a tax paid for the use of the roads, and the second is a tax on the vehicle. It is worth trying to educate those who don't understand this. Of course many, if not most, cyclists will have paid VED anyway, and we all pay for the roads through local and general taxation. If drivers don't understand this they have chosen not to.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I no longer get drawn into VED/road tax arguments. They wouldn't give a fark about us even if we paid more than they did.

 

[Drago]

This argument irritates me intensely. It just makes cyclists a laughing stock in the eyes of motorists. They don't care what the tax is called, what they care about is that they pay it and we don't.

Whenever I get the "You don't pay road tax" I point out that it's non-motorists who are subsidising motorists, not the other way around, and hit them with this:
View attachment 605692
Unlike "No such thing as road tax", it works first time every time, and shuts them up immediately.

State of play of internalisation in the European transport sector - Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu)

One of my hobbies is commenting on Daily Mail stories in order to wind up the Mailista. I usually manage a negative score of -several hundred a week.

Anyway, whenever the old "Road Tax" moan turns up I always post pretending that I have a Nissan Leaf, claiming that I pay no road tax AND no fuel duty, and ask if that means I should nit be on the road? That usually earns me a few hundred dislikes.

 

[raleighnut]

Roads existed for hundreds of years before cars were invented

 

[Drago]

And theyll still exist when personal car use has become near extinct.

 

[kayakerles]

Jesus wept.Do you think before you type.?

…I've had my fair share of close passes but I would never want this to "teach them a lesson".Oh yeah your idea of a "punishment pass".

No wonder I rarely post on here anymore.Jeez.

Come on now, Lonestar… I'm sure, that neither @YoungOldBloke or any other cyclist would really want to put someone up to the described scenario, but it does create quite a mental image to ponder. Having grown up in NYC, as a foolish youth I had on more than one occasion stood way too close to the edge of the Subway track, and it really was quite a RUSH to feel the train blow by, practically sucking me off the platform to take me with it. (Now as an old fart in the Washington, DC area, I’m much wiser about doing that and know to stand WAY back to not give the push-people-on-platforms-onto-the-tracks types any opportunities.)

On my bike, as I am sure MOST of us have if we’ve ridden our bikes more than 10 times, I have experienced automobiles passing me so close that I have felt the draft from their forward motion. I also bumped side to side between a taxi and a city bus pulling away from a curb in NYC, but that’s a story for another day.

I only wonder what Jesus crying has to do with this? 🤔

 

[kayakerles]

…Handy Hints to save Anti Cycling Keyboard Warriors from wearing their fingers out...

As many have already commented, @LGC, I thought it was a good post too, but if I were the author, I would not have called it the above and started it off with… “If so, read this handy hints guide first. It’ll save you tiring your fingers frantically bashing the keyboard in some kind of fact-devoid, blind rage.” Somewhat condescending, wouldn't you say?
If only humans could more-effectively get others to see two sides of a coin. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[rogerzilla]

VED is hypothecated again, although it only pays for motorways and the like, as I understand it.

 

[Profpointy]

That's Schroedinger's (sp?) cyclist - going too slow and too fast at the same time.

Quite: scattering pedestrians riding like a bat out of hell on the pavement whilst riding in the middle of the road holding up traffic.

It's a bit like Shrodinger's immigrant who's idling about sponging off social security whist simultaneously stealing our jobs

 

[Profpointy]

Not 'road tax' but VED - there is a very important difference in that the first implies a tax paid for the use of the roads, and the second is a tax on the vehicle. It is worth trying to educate those who don't understand this. Of course many, if not most, cyclists will have paid VED anyway, and we all pay for the roads through local and general taxation. If drivers don't understand this they have chosen not to.

Not really: it's a tax you pay for certain types of vehicle to be allowed to use the road, QEFD it's a road tax.

A better argument is to ask how much extra tax I should pay for leaving my car at home and cycling instead?