Road Tax - for cyclists !!!!

[very-near]

It is about time they abolished VED relief for low emission vehicles. They still take the same space on the road, they still demand the same quality of surface as a regular car. They still wear out the roads at the same rate as regular cars.
The only ones which can justify low rate or zero rate are ones which only do a very small mileage each year as they neither emit large amounts of CO2, or wear out the road surface.

 

[Perry]

Quite a few have written about the wear on the road, what about the damage to the bike from bad roads?

I really doubt if this would ever get pulled off.

 

[u9ge]

SNP are hardly looking good for cracking ideas as of late.

Anyone seen that great video of Alex Salmond saying he wants scotland to be a financial powerhouse like iceland? the overweight moron should maybe hop on a bike to loose some pounds and come to his senses.

 

[HJ]

For the Scots amongst us ...

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/latestnews/-Government-in-talks-over.5642372.jp

That has just reminded my why I stopped buying The Hoosman and "Scotland on Sunday", the quality of the journalism dropped dramatically when they brought in a London based managing editor. Both paper now have a London based view of Scotland, which bares no resemblance to reality of what is really happening here...

According to the article (which is just crap journalism) the proposal is in the draft Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS), yet going to the source I find that CAPS talks about "Encouragement and Incentives" to increase cycling, not taxing cycling to discourage it...

 

[J4CKO]

To be honest, if done correctly some regulation may well not be a bad idea, a small fee each year that includes the "Road Tax" element so drivers can STFU about it once and for all and an element of basic insurance.

It will never work though, would require more resources to collect it than can be paid for based on the small environmental impact of a bicycle, seeing as how thats how they collect for other means of transport, discounted of course for the fact we cant use motorways, a lot of A roads due to it being death on a stick and only the leftmost three feet from the kerb without getting irate motorists going on about road tax.

 

[Woz!]

At least 50% of the BMX riders around here have stripped the bikes back to such a degree that they're basically a frame and forks with wheels on it.
If they can't even ensure that bikes have brakes then who would be the mythical person who would check they have a tax disc?

 

[GAVSTER]

That has just reminded my why I stopped buying The Hoosman and "Scotland on Sunday", the quality of the journalism dropped dramatically when they brought in a London based managing editor. Both paper now have a London based view of Scotland, which bares no resemblance to reality of what is really happening here ...

According to the article (which is just crap journalism) the proposal is in the draft Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS), yet going to the source I find that CAPS talks about "Encouragement and Incentives" to increase cycling, not taxing cycling to discourage it...

The Cycling Action Plan for Scotland does talk about taxation in the legal powers section.

It says: 10. Should all road users pay road tax? If so, how much should it be for cyclists and how could it be enforced?

 

[Crankarm]

The Cycling Action Plan for Scotland does talk about taxation in the legal powers section.

It says: 10. Should all road users pay road tax? If so, how much should it be for cyclists and how could it be enforced?

..... these are the same clowns who released Abdelbaset Ali al McMegrahi

 

[HJ]

The Cycling Action Plan for Scotland does talk about taxation in the legal powers section.

It says: 10. Should all road users pay road tax? If so, how much should it be for cyclists and how could it be enforced?

After some searching I did manage to find it, but lets get real about this, it is a stupid non question, all road users already pay tax. Roads are paid for out of general taxation, and we all pay tax, whether we like it or not! CAPS is a consultation document, the questions are to encourage discussion in the focus groups, this is not policy. The "story" has been manufactured by a journalist to sell papers. In the consultation for the Land Reform Act 2000 there was a similar suggestion that walker should be charged to use the countryside. For the most part CAPS is about how to increase the number of people cycling on a regular basis, somehow imposing an extra tax on them just isn't going to do that.

It is just really sad they the good things in CAPS were completely ignored...

 

[HJ]

..... these are the same clowns who released Abdelbaset Ali al McMegrahi

Is stupidity wonderful, are the fens full is village idiots, or is it just you?

 

[GAVSTER]

To be fair I don't think the journo manufactured the story as it appeared in another Sunday paper.

It looks to me like the Green Party may have brought it to people's attention but I might be wrong.

 

[semislickstick]

Is stupidity wonderful, are the fens full is village idiots, or is it just you?

Good point, well made.

 

[Crankarm]

Is stupidity wonderful, are the fens full is village idiots, or is it just you?

No, they're full of disgruntled dour Scots who cannot string a sentence together .

 

[killiekosmos]

To be fair I don't think the journo manufactured the story as it appeared in another Sunday paper.

It looks to me like the Green Party may have brought it to people's attention but I might be wrong.

It's just the HOOTSMON stirring up more anti-SNP tripe.

The consultation was published in May and ended in August - so why is it a story now?

Anyway the Scottish Government has no powers to levy Vehicle Excise Duty

 

[chap]

Sorry, I have skipped a number of posts (thus may concequently reiterate previous thoughts on the matter) but I think that this is an excellent idea and once again something that England should be following!

Perhaps, cyclists should not be singled out but we should ALL be made to pay for roads pedestrians and road users, and the car road tax spent solely on motorways.

This way, some opposition politician (notice lowercase 'p') shall jump on the bandwagon in attack - and hopefully mention that:

• Car throughput is highly inefficient when compared to a Bus
• Car throughput is extremely inefficient when compared to that of Rail
• The damage per square foot of a car exceeds that of bus or rail (throughput)
• Car-centric towns and cities: the majority of neighbourhoods (urban & suburbab) are shaped around, and suited to, cars to the detriment of the citizen, local business, children, the elderly, and the community.
• Ungoverned private bus monopolies ensure that certain routes are poorly served, or completely neglected
• Many pavements in urban areas are poorly designed and involve crossings at dangerous junctions
• Many pavements in more 'rural' areas (outskirts of cities) are discontinous and involve walking on verges or fast A-roads.
• Chuck in a few arguments about the nations health
• Compare the throughput with that of bicycles (esp. with the Green Wave [Copenhagen])
• Talk about road damage from bicycles (negligible)
• Point out that the parthian-shot (about road tax for cars ergo roads for cars) is null and void

This unintended own-goal about car-centric cities should hopefully open a few eyes, before the next day's Daily Mail scare-tactic about 'Big Brother replacing our cars with immigrants' diverts attention, as usual, towards opportunistic soundbites and misguided jingoism.