Road Tax?

[Cyclopathic]

http://ipayroadtax.com/shop/

Fill your boots.

This is a great marketing idea because you will have to renew your top when the "tax" is shown to be out of date or risk punishment passes from irate drivers who think you have let your tax lapse. Genius.

 

[jarlrmai]

What about electric bikes? They use fosil fuel to run

Yeah so do electric cars, it's about the emissions of the vehicle as it moves.

Realistically the food we eat to get the energy to ride our bikes is the product of an industrialised farming system that uses fossil fuel to create it, per calorie that you consume a fair bit of CO2 etc is released in the growing/harvesting/processing and transport.

 

[PedalCat]

Just like high street rubbish bins, the roads are free to use. This notion might be more likely to get the point across to somebody who struggles along with the road tax idea.

 

[Arfcollins]

http://ipayroadtax.com/shop/

Fill your boots.

It's a good little joke, but the only people who would get it are cyclists in the know. I don't think it will change any minds. If I wore a teeshirt saying 'I am not a w*****r' that wouldn't give the motorcyclist pause for thought before he shouted at me last week that I was one. He probably couldn't read anyway, the twunk.

 

[classic33]

I've owned three cars and not one of them has had Road Tax

Did they have trouble filling the forms & getting them accepted.

 

[400bhp]

Does it matter what it is called? Semantics really.

I ride a bike, I don't pay to ride it on the roads. There are some cross subsidies from somewhere for me doing this but so what - that's how a society works. Give and take.

 

[HLaB]

Did they have trouble filling the forms & getting them accepted.

 

[CopperCyclist]

road tax is as real as homophobia.
neither exist.

Actually, homophobia does exist (although rare) the term is just widely misused. As you point out, it's often used as an excuse for being ignorant and intolerant. I however like pointing out to people who happily claim to be 'homophobic' that what they are actually saying is they are afraid that they are homosexuals, as this (I believe) is the original meaning of the phobia.

 

[ufkacbln]

There was a guy in the pub that I used t enjoy winding up about this

Pointing out that I didn't pay "Road Tax" on my car either as it was below 100g CO2 emission was a red rag to a bull!

Then changed tack and claimed that I also owned a Fiat Doblo in band H and as his Audi was merely a band C I was paying far more than him which by his argument gave me more rights than him!

He had no (coherent) answer to either

 

[StuartG]

I pay road and fuel taxes. A tax doesn't have to be called a tax to be a tax. Ask the US Embassy about the Congestion Charge

Saying to me, as a motorist, that I don't pay road tax just makes me feel you are on another planet out of touch with reality. Accept motorists pay road taxes - just not enough to fully pay for the costs of motoring to the community. That's the real issue and one they may have difficulty combating. Especially if you have done your homework.

 

[Spinney]

Actually, homophobia does exist (although rare) the term is just widely misused. As you point out, it's often used as an excuse for being ignorant and intolerant. I however like pointing out to people who happily claim to be 'homophobic' that what they are actually saying is they are afraid that they are homosexuals, as this (I believe) is the original meaning of the phobia.

And judging from some of the stuff you read about 'homophobic' (mainly) republicans in the USA, that could be quite accurate!

 

[youngoldbloke]

I pay road and fuel taxes. A tax doesn't have to be called a tax to be a tax. Ask the US Embassy about the Congestion Charge

Saying to me, as a motorist, that I don't pay road tax just makes me feel you are on another planet out of touch with reality. Accept motorists pay road taxes - just not enough to fully pay for the costs of motoring to the community. That's the real issue and one they may have difficulty combating. Especially if you have done your homework.

You do not pay "Road Tax" when you "tax" your car. You are making a payment to HMG based on its emissions. VED, or Vehicle Excise Duty. Some motorists do not pay if they drive low emission vehicles. Of course ALL tax payers contribute towards the costs of roads through general taxation and council taxes. Even those who don't drive! Of course it's semantics - it is to do with the meaning of words. "Road tax" implies that ONLY motorists pay for roads, and therefore ONLY motorists are entitled to use them. Stop using the expression.

 

[StuartG]

You do not pay "Road Tax" when you "tax" your car. You are making a payment to HMG based on its emissions. VED, or Vehicle Excise Duty.

And when I get my pay packet I find I am making a payment to HMG based on my earnings, tax code and both PAYE and NI. Now is NI a tax or not even though it is called Insurance? Does it go into a fund sequested for social security payments. Nope.

Do Google Congestion Charge and the Vienna Convention and stop being a tiresome and probably mistaken pedant. I, and other motorists, pay this money - the same money for the same purpose to the same recipient for the same uses. I, like nearly everybody else, call it a tax. Call it a poodle if you want but what really is the point beyond winding folks up and alienating motorists even more?

There are more important things to argue about these payments rather than the label.

 

[jarlrmai]

the label carries with it the unsaid meaning or implication which is "I play this, it pays for the road, you don't pay this therefore you should not be on the road", that's the problem. The false name it is given carries a meaning which is not true.

 

[youngoldbloke]

And when I get my pay packet I find I am making a payment to HMG based on my earnings, tax code and both PAYE and NI. Now is NI a tax or not even though it is called Insurance? Does it go into a fund sequested for social security payments. Nope.

I agree. Very misleading. VED is a tax too. I'm in favour of hypothecated taxes myself. But lets get the labels right. It's not difficult