Why shouldn't cyclists pay road tax?

[Drago]

Yes I know. I weight over an eighth of a tonne.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

So - based on the table above

and assuming Road Tax (yes - I know) is about £200

then a bike causes1/50,000th of the damage to the road

so should pay 1/50,000th of the Tax

which - based on the above assumptions - is about 0.4p

where do I send the cheque??
(and - for that matter - how much would it cost the government to process and collect the tax
and also how much would it costs to modify the systems to allow for it - and what would be that payback time to collect enough tax to pay for that upgrade
all of which is something the "cyclist should pay Road Tax" segment of society fail to bother thinking about!!!

 

[Gwylan]

So - based on the table above

and assuming Road Tax (yes - I know) is about £200

then a bike causes1/50,000th of the damage to the road

so should pay 1/50,000th of the Tax

which - based on the above assumptions - is about 0.4p

where do I send the cheque??
(and - for that matter - how much would it cost the government to process and collect the tax
and also how much would it costs to modify the systems to allow for it - and what would be that payback time to collect enough tax to pay for that upgrade
all of which is something the "cyclist should pay Road Tax" segment of society fail to bother thinking about!!!

Cheque?
Things have moved on out there.
No more men with red flags or boys with buckets following horse drawn carriages.

 

[nellietheelephant]

When you say 'from council tax', do you mean they're funded by the local/county council?

Yes. Look at the breakdown of your council tax bill. Where I live, out of a total £347.6m budget, £30.4m goes on "fixing and maintaining roads."

 

[Drago]

Where I live, out of a total £347.6m budget, £30.4m goes on "fixing and maintaining roads."

Thats a bit misleading.

£30.4 million smackers may set aside, but the company that has the highways contract will take a profit out of that so the amount actually spent on the roads will be rather less than claimed.

 

[sevenfourate]

Tax should of course be based on the damage done to the road by the vehicle used.

View attachment 686341

….and / or emissions blown out the exhaust. As per cars and motorcycles are currently calculated.

Either way: true ‘bicycles’ footprint and cost would be truly minimal. Or zero as now !

Electric bicycles could / should perhaps be a different ballgame of course. The notion mining the materials: the electricity production needed for the manufacture / upkeep and replacement of the batteries being 100% environmentally friendly is a nonsense of course…..

 

[Dogtrousers]

The notion mining the materials: the electricity production needed for the manufacture / upkeep and replacement of the batteries being 100% environmentally friendly is a nonsense of course…..

Careful, we'll get a tiered bike tax. Probably Titanium frames at the top (it's very energy intensive to refine, but on the other hand is recyclable) then Carbon, then Aluminium (maybe t'other way round). Steel definitely cheapest

 

[Andy in Germany]

Careful, we'll get a tiered bike tax.

Does that mean a two tiered bike costs more?

By selbst fotografiert - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28288232

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Tax should of course be based on the damage done to the road by the vehicle used.

View attachment 686341

They've missed pedestrians and horses off that.

 

[FishFright]

And a very good example showing that ChatGPT is not Artificial INTELIGENCE.

It is a predictive algorithm deriving text from analysis of past usage. If said past uses contains bolleaux it will, by definition itself produce bolleaux. Hence the second sentence.

ChatGPT isn't a full A.I. , it's only Large Language Model using machine learning. It's the way it interprets written inputs and then extrapolates on from there that's amazing but A.I. is a much easier a concept to communicate.

This line of research having one those periods of exponential growth that follow a conceptual break through, but for the life of me I can't remember the details of the paper that started it.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Does that mean a two tiered bike costs more?

View attachment 686499

By selbst fotografiert - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28288232

The rider would need really, really, really long arms to reach that bottle cage...

 

[MontyVeda]

Yes. Look at the breakdown of your council tax bill. Where I live, out of a total £347.6m budget, £30.4m goes on "fixing and maintaining roads."

yes but... that's the proportion of council tax set aside for road maintenance. What's the proportion of business rates, parking charges, etc that the Council raises? My point is, it's not solely council tax.

 

[classic33]

The rider would need really, really, really long arms to reach that bottle cage...

But look at all the optional mount positions.

 

[simongt]

I wish I only weighed 0.1 of a tonne.

Then at my 61kg., maybe I would get a rebate - ?

 

[nellietheelephant]

yes but... that's the proportion of council tax set aside for road maintenance. What's the proportion of business rates, parking charges, etc that the Council raises? My point is, it's not solely council tax.

All roads, with the exception of motorways and some trunk roads (which are funded by general taxation, of which VED plays a small part) are funded from council tax. Not business rates, parking charges and so on. Check with your local council where the money comes from, and where it goes. Go on, do it. Why are you asking me?
The OP raised the issue as to whether cyclists should pay 'road tax'. There is no such thing as 'road tax'. All roads, with the exception of motorways and some trunk roads (which are funded by general taxation, of which VED plays a small part) are funded from council tax.