Lets turn this whole issue on it's head. How about a campaign by cyclists to pay road tax on bicycles? This would really cause the anti cyclist lobby to sit up and think! How would it work? How would it affect other VED rates? The more I have thought about this, the more I can see massive benefits for us.
It could never happen for many reasons, but what an effect such a campaign could have!
I want to pay road tax!
Re: I want to pay road tax!
hexhome wrote:Lets turn this whole issue on it's head. How about a campaign by cyclists to pay road tax on bicycles? This would really cause the anti cyclist lobby to sit up and think! How would it work? How would it affect other VED rates? The more I have thought about this, the more I can see massive benefits for us.
It could never happen for many reasons, but what an effect such a campaign could have!
Well I won't enjoy declaring SORN on my bikes when there off the road.
Re: I want to pay road tax!
@hexhome: Nothing is stopping you giving money to the DVLA, if that's what you want to do. If you think all cyclists should pay "road tax", why? How much should it be? What effect would it have on cycling? On congestion, health, etc?
Do you have any evidence that the anti-cycling lobby is capable of thinking?
hexhome wrote:This would really cause the anti cyclist lobby to sit up and think!
Do you have any evidence that the anti-cycling lobby is capable of thinking?
Re: I want to pay road tax!
hexhome wrote:Lets turn this whole issue on it's head. How about a campaign by cyclists to pay road tax on bicycles? This would really cause the anti cyclist lobby to sit up and think! How would it work? How would it affect other VED rates? The more I have thought about this, the more I can see massive benefits for us.
It could never happen for many reasons, but what an effect such a campaign could have!
You are not wrong. It would get them well confused if nothing else.
For me, though, it's not being about pro or anti cycling, it's just the common sense position of we are all sharing the space. So my approach would be simply to say I'm happy to pay it if it's that important to you. Happy to have a registration plate too on the same basis although it's a poor argument that having a registration number would stop annoying behaviour. I watched the bloke driving the car at the side of me this morning tie his arms in knots so he could use his mobile phone while pulling away from traffic lights. Right hand to left ear - how he managed to steer, change gear etc defeats me - answers on a postcard, please
If it wasn't for cars, there wouldn't be the amount of tarmac that there is.
Re: I want to pay road tax!
You need a licence for a TV set but not a radio and it used to be that a colour TV licence allowed you as many B&W sets as you liked in addition to your colour set.
So I think my motorcycle group on the licence covers me to ride a push bike and my car tax disc should allow me as many cycles as I want.
So I think my motorcycle group on the licence covers me to ride a push bike and my car tax disc should allow me as many cycles as I want.
Yma o Hyd
Re: I want to pay road tax!
I guess something like this could derail the other persons arguement nicely.
It's similar to the insurance thing. "Well you cyclist's don't have insurance". Reply; "Well actually I do because I belong to CTC, as do many racing types with their British Cycling membership. So most keen cyclists (admittedly spinning things a bit there?
) probably do have insurance, it's just that motorists don't realise...." That's won countless arguements for me at the work lunch table with the originator immediately changing the subject and neutral onlookers looking at me admiringly....... 
It's similar to the insurance thing. "Well you cyclist's don't have insurance". Reply; "Well actually I do because I belong to CTC, as do many racing types with their British Cycling membership. So most keen cyclists (admittedly spinning things a bit there?
) probably do have insurance, it's just that motorists don't realise...." That's won countless arguements for me at the work lunch table with the originator immediately changing the subject and neutral onlookers looking at me admiringly....... -
PaulCumbria
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 23 Mar 2012, 1:52pm
- Location: Kendal
Re: I want to pay road tax!
Surely what Hexhome is suggesting is that we lobby to be allowed to pay VED, confident that the furore it causes would highlight how nonsensical it is to suggest cyclists should pay 'Road Tax' (VED) when some cars are zero rated?
I think it's a witty and imaginative idea - I'm all for it!
I think it's a witty and imaginative idea - I'm all for it!
Re: I want to pay road tax!
It would almost certainly be £0 but would we still need to present an insurance certificate and be liable to a £1000 fine for failure to get a free disc and £5,000 for failure to SORN?
Friends of mine have been fined £80 for failure to tax £0 rated vehicles!
Friends of mine have been fined £80 for failure to tax £0 rated vehicles!
Yma o Hyd
Re: I want to pay road tax!
meic wrote:It would almost certainly be £0 but would we still need to present an insurance certificate and be liable to a £1000 fine for failure to get a free disc and £5,000 for failure to SORN?
Friends of mine have been fined £80 for failure to tax £0 rated vehicles!
And don't forget the MOT once it's more than 3 years old!
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PaulCumbria
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 23 Mar 2012, 1:52pm
- Location: Kendal
Re: I want to pay road tax!
Any politician whio took seriously an overtly tongue-in-cheek campaign, and tried to bring a whole new class of vehicle into the VED legislation with the express intention of zero-rating it, would be roundly ridiculed.
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Steady rider
- Posts: 2791
- Joined: 4 Jan 2009, 4:31pm
Re: I want to pay road tax!
There are about 12 million who cycle, many kids have bikes.
Think of the time, cost and effort to keep track of all these bikes, all the paperwork or time on line, to what end?
Would they all need a number plate or plates?
Cost wise, possibly say £3 per cycle per year, £36 million per year.
It would be a waste of time and money, plus it would increase the cost of cycling overall.
Score -2 from 10.
Think of the time, cost and effort to keep track of all these bikes, all the paperwork or time on line, to what end?
Would they all need a number plate or plates?
Cost wise, possibly say £3 per cycle per year, £36 million per year.
It would be a waste of time and money, plus it would increase the cost of cycling overall.
Score -2 from 10.
Re: I want to pay road tax!
broadway wrote:And don't forget the MOT once it's more than 3 years old!
Not at all, many motor vehicles on the road are exempt from MOTs.
Re: I want to pay road tax!
Steady rider wrote:There are about 12 million who cycle, many kids have bikes.
Think of the time, cost and effort to keep track of all these bikes, all the paperwork or time on line, to what end?
Would they all need a number plate or plates?
Cost wise, possibly say £3 per cycle per year, £36 million per year.
It would be a waste of time and money, plus it would increase the cost of cycling overall.
Score -2 from 10.
I don't believe that it would ever happen, it's an idiotic idea, but that's the whole point!
Re: I want to pay road tax!
So, let me get this straight. Anti-cyclists want us to pay "road tax". To defeat their evil aims, we cyclists should start our own campaign to demand that we pay road tax. This will confuse the anti-cyclists until they realise the error of their ways. "Doh!" they will say, smacking their foreheads. "How could we have been so wrong? Now we are pro-cycling!"
Yeah, right. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Yeah, right. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Re: I want to pay road tax!
Exemptions required for car owning cyclists.
If I'm riding my bike I am not driving my car I have already paid VED on.
Maybe even a rebate as the cycle is zero emission, less congesting and less damaging to wear and tear of the road surface. Would this rebate be worked out on the average persons use and applied globally or would we have to keep a milage log and submit at the year end along with car finantial / milage accounts to work out a pro rata rebate?
Also exemption for those younger cyclists under the age of legal responsibility who own a non adults bike.
That should keep the pen pushers busy for a while and raise the eyebrows of the anti bikers.
If I'm riding my bike I am not driving my car I have already paid VED on.
Maybe even a rebate as the cycle is zero emission, less congesting and less damaging to wear and tear of the road surface. Would this rebate be worked out on the average persons use and applied globally or would we have to keep a milage log and submit at the year end along with car finantial / milage accounts to work out a pro rata rebate?
Also exemption for those younger cyclists under the age of legal responsibility who own a non adults bike.
That should keep the pen pushers busy for a while and raise the eyebrows of the anti bikers.