• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Should cyclists pay road tax?

Hi Scandi

So does everybody else that neither drives nor cycles. I do not get why they should be exempt. ANYONE that uses a public road should contribute. It is a tax that gathers revenue for roads just as much as it is for gardens, councils, rates, amenities, public schools, the whole 9 yards.

That is not a big deal. When all is said and done, the congestion they cause results in frustration from drivers who would care a lot less if they KNEW everyone on the road paid their dues.

Just my 2 cents.

Mike
 
Scandichic said:
As all tax payers pay for the roads then we all have the right to use the road!
Click to expand...
No we don't Scandi.
Learner drivers are not allowed on motorways.
Small mopeds are not allowed on motorways.
Where I live most of the roads are very narrow twisting and sixty miles an hour limit with heavy and light traffic thundering along.
No pavements let alone cycle paths.
Cyclists are a great danger to themselves and everyone around them in those conditions.
The road will suddenly become a dual carriageway with no hard shoulder no pavement and the national speed limit ... 70mph.
Yet here they are ... push bikes with kids on ... families wobbling along on a summers day trip out to the country.
 
Would you cycle on this or let your kids?
There are many places where the dangerous country lane you are pedalling along risking your life turn into this without much warning and people can legally carry on pedalling because this isn't a motorway.
Have a click on the link and see the area where I live and why many here want bikes banning from roads over thirty miles an hour ......


https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=n...-wales-drivers-suffer-morning-8425667;480;270
 
So @JACKTHELAD, what you are saying is that people shouldn't have personal responsibility on where they choose to take risks and it should be dictated to them by law/government. Sorry, don't agree with that. If cyclists can't ride a bike on one of these roads, neither can pedestrians walk along the edge. They cause just as much of an issue. (Having lived in the countryside where there are plenty of narrow, windy roads, and being familiar with the roads around Aberystwyth and environs, I know precisely the ones about which you speak). As do the drivers who drive at inappropriate speeds on those roads. Just because it has a national speed limit applies sign, doesn't mean that you should drive at the national speed limit.

By the way, on a dual carriageway (or main road), where I can ride my bike, I can also achieve a speed of more than 30mph. Does that make me a dangerous cyclist now?
 
Many laws remove personal responsibility.
There's a good argument for banning pedestrians too but it isn't possible.
These sixty mile an hour roads are carrying business traffic small medium and large from cars to logging trucks and farm machinery.
People should be allowed to drive up to the speed limit without fear of some irresponsible person on a bike .... or a horse for that matter.
I take it you think it should be down to personal responsibility regarding riding you bicycle or moped on the motorway?
 
Actually we do Jack!
If you pay tax you do pay for the roads. There is no choice. I do not have the right to say what my cash is spent on, it is decided for me.
No sane person cycles down dual carriageway, especially not through choice.
From your posts, you seem to think that people cycle for leisure yet for many it's their mode of transport for getting to work. My husband has no choice but to cycle. We have one car which I need to use because it would take me nearly 2 hours to get there by public transport and I have lots of books to transport. We cannot lift share as there is a 3 hour time gap between our starts. I am at home just now as I have a broken wrist. Perhaps instead of criticising cyclists, you could do the unthinkable and SLOW DOWN!!!!!!
 
My no is no we don't all have the right even thopugh we all pay the tax.
Why aren't mopeds and bikes allowed on the motorway?
Why is it insane to pedal down the dual carriageway when that's what your narrow windy road suddenly turns into without much warning?
Should motorway drivers slow down to thirty to make it safe for mopeds bikes and horses?
Of course not.
People round here have to drop their kids off at different schools and then get to work.
They are not going to drive at thirty on a sixty just in case there might be a bike on the road.
 
Well if we don't have the right to use the infrastructure which we have paid for then presumably we are entitled to the money back or a say as to how it's spent. Such as cycle lanes for cyclists on said dual carriageway.
Of course you should slow down for horses. To not do so is irrational and dangerous for all. As I have already said, sometimes we do not have a choice as to the way available to our place of work.
You have deliberately misrepresented my argument about the dual carriageway. I would never cycle children down dual carriageway for leisure. To do so would be insane.
If the roads are narrow and twisty then you should be driving slowly. Especially if you don't know what's around the next bend - tractors, livestock, a broken down vehicle to name but a few hazards.
 
This thread is getting a bit fraught. Arguments for and against the original question are really dependant on your subjective views.
We are now on Page 5 and no nearer to a general consensus.

We will have to agree to disagree as the thread is going nowhere.

Perhaps the OP would like to conduct a poll?
 
i said should we slow down for horses on the motorway ... meaning make it safe for horses bikes learner drivers and mopeds to be on the motorway seeing as all these people are paying tax and you're saying they are all entitled to use the roads because they pay the taxes.
The motorways are mostly straight with clear views and no oncoming traffic so surely they are safer than the back roads for these people and it's only ten mile an hour faster than the back roads.
The motorway users of course aren't being asked to slow down to accommodate these things and neither should the users of the A roads.
It's the 21st century and life is faster now and I fervently believe there is no sensible argument allowing push bikes on roads over thirty miles an hour.
For the same reasons certain tax payers can't use the motorways.
 
Maybe this should have been a poll. No cyclist shouldn't pay a road tax, not until there are enough safe worthwhile cycle lanes throughout the country and main cities, so cyclist have a better safer deal, cars are the main form of transport and are the main pollutants. Cyclist are also exposed to drivers who don't care how they drive and very few drivers respect cyclist in fact drivers seem to get more and more wound up now because of cyclists, and most drivers when in their vehicle lack patience, so the two are at some kind of pseudo war, imo car speed limits should be capped to a very slow speed limit in towns, villages and cities and drivers should pay more road tax so cyclist can have better lanes and be safer. Motor vehicles are only a necessary evil and the average joe is too lazy to get off their derrière and think of alternative transports that don't pollute the air we breath.

The Netherlands have good road infrastructure for cyclist but backward Britain hasn't got an igloo. Infact the British are never mentioned in any cycling infrastructure development poll because they have a weird attitude to cycling and the cyclist. Probably beacsue the British are too hung up on themselves and too strung out by their nefarious addictions to care.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
this may have been mentioned, but road tax is based on carbon emissions, so cyclists wouldn't/shouldn't need to pay anything......
 
Holland is flat as a pancake so a bit of a paradise for bikes.
Here the car is king like it or not.
Across North Wales a small fortune has been spent on cycle lanes that are hardly used.
They are mostly empty and the tax payers around here believe the millions could have been better spent.
Though unused many parts are crumbling because of a lack of maintenance.
Ice frost temperatures that soften the surface snow rain bird pooh containing seed that germinate all contribute to the rot.
The tax payers now don't want to pay to maintain something of a white elephant.
Come the summer they get used a little more by the tourists but not much.
Unlike Holland of course Wales has massive inclines .... al hills and valleys and not at all bike friendly in the main.
Sea front and towns fine but everything in between is a bit difficult.
Farming forestry and quarrying are major industries here meaning some very heavy traffic.
No one can seriously expect delivery times to be made impossible dead lines not met for the sake of a few cyclists.
Traffic across North Wales to Ireland is of course heavy too and coming from all over Europe Asia Russia .... you can't expect all these people to be told to drive slow because of a handful of bikers. Business confidence would collapse.
One bad thing hereis the amount of motor bike accidents and deaths.
Bikers from across the U.K and Western Europe come here to enjoy the kind of roads tha6t nowadays mostly exist on video games.
When they get a taste of the real thing it becomes very dangerous for everyone.
North Wales police earned the nickname ... The Taliban Traffic cops for being so strict but they are strict for good reason.
We need to keep the traffic flowing safely .... not slowly.
 
There is lots of stuff public funds could be spent on. Public transport, for example, more staff in hospitals so staff are not overworked and unable to deal with unrealistic workloads but to bring you back to the point, cyclists do pay tax, road tax is for vehicle emissions and fast does not equal safe. Ask any traffic policeman who has ever had the awful task of informing someone that their loved one is injured or dead. People who drive cars need to take responsibility for the way in which they drive and be respectful of the fact that they have a potentially lethal weapon in their possession. Equally other road users need to be sensible and courteous too. If all road users are reasonable then there is room for everyone. Even Clarkson!
 
Scandi I keep saying I know cyclists pay tax I know road tax is rated on emissions.
Not sure why it keeps getting repeated so I'll say again .... learner drivers pay tax moped drivers pay tax horse riders pay tax but none of them are allowed on motorways for good reason.
It's a safety issue not a tax issue.
The cyclists have had their voice heard here and millions spent but now the infrastructure has been put in place for them it is mostly unused and going to seed.
Bad finance idea by someone.
Since I wrote my last post I've been down to town to the chemists shop and on a sixty mile an hour road come round a series of bends doing forty miles an hour fifth or sixth car back and had to apply the brakes sharpish because the guy in front nearly ploughed into three bikes .... the racer kind with spandex and helmets and drop handle bars .... I can only presume they were side by side as usual or swerving about to avoid holes dropped drains etc.
At least no one was killed .....
 

National Lampoons European Vacation comes to mind, especially in London with the cyclist ( one of The Monty Python team, it was Eric Idle) .
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…