I'm sure there's a bridge missing your presence, but here goes...apologies if the Guardian's a bit too lefty to be considered your reading material, but beggars, etc..if it's troublesome you could always ask a responsible adult to read it to you
http://www.guardian....d-way-for-roads
best read the whole thing, but as a snippett:
"Cyclists' organisations, such as
Cyclists' Touring Club in the UK and
League of American Wheelmen (LAW) in the US, lobbied county surveyors and politicians to build better roads. The US Good Roads movement, set up by LAW, was highly influential. LAW once had the then US president turn up at its annual general meeting.The CTC individual in charge of the UK version of the Good Roads movement,
William Rees Jeffreys, organised asphalt trials before cars became common. He took the reins of the Roads Improvement Association (RIA) in 1890, while working for the CTC."
"The CTC created the RIA in 1885 and, in 1886, organised the first ever Roads Conference in Britain. With patronage – and cash – from aristocrats and royals, the CTC published influential pamphlets on road design and how to create better road surfaces. In some areas, county surveyors took this on board (some were CTC members) and started to improve their local roads.Even though it was started and paid for by cyclists, the RIA stressed from its foundation that it was lobbying for better roads to be used by all, not just cyclists."
The majority of road spending/development in the early decades of the 20thC was funded from council/government - only a fraction came from then 'road tax'. Even when there was a 'road fund' some time later (hence the term 'road fund licence' the intention was to be used for maintenance - ie *damage* done by motor vehicles - rather than roading building as such - and is was later to be wound up anyway:
http://ipayroadtax.c...-the-road-fund/
Partway down that page there's a 5yr-by5yr breakdown of relative revenues/spends...
As I 'm sure has been posted already, VED is now a behaviour modifier - cyclists pay same as any other low emmisions vehicle - and if some figures I've seen recently (mebbe a thread here discussing it) are accurate then roads are effectively subsidised, VED only pays a proportion of all the cost involved.