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Budget Stupidity - I pay road tax
Our beloved Chancellor has announced this little turd in the budget.
"New VED tax for new cars from 2017. It will apply in three bands. It will be used to fund a roads fund from the end of the decade." Source - The Guardian
This roads fund will only increase motorists' sense of self entitlement over the nation's roads. George Osborne reversing the efforts of a far greater politician; Winston Churchill.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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- brooksby 5 hours 4 min ago
I trust that you also encourage motorists to buy white or yellow cars and to shun vehicles the colour of a wet road?
- stonojnr 5 hours 23 min ago
nah they just read the question as do you always not leave the recommended 1.5m when overtaking cyclists. I know people overestimate their...
- David9694 5 hours 30 min ago
Worcester hospital parking 'horrific' as petition handed in...
- stonojnr 5 hours 32 min ago
Ive never seen the figures broken down by who reports them, you can kind of infer things from stats, like Ive seen them break it down as careless...
- Hirsute 5 hours 59 min ago
Are you going to answer?
- wtjs 6 hours 11 min ago
No more of this! HP will turn to stone!!
- wtjs 6 hours 20 min ago
I'm using 700c, 9-speed 46/30 with a ?-34 cassette for all my cycling including the Bob trailer. It's about right - I can't get up everything on my...
- Bmblbzzz 8 hours 26 min ago
"A brutalist interpretation of a road" So true. Grey markings on grey paving slabs surrounded by other grey paving slabs...
- Simon E 8 hours 10 min ago
Driver in a Citroen travelling at 70mph crashes into the front of a house in Canterbury Road, Faversham at 5.30am on Sunday....
- arichman 8 hours 59 min ago
Somewhat confusingly, Velocio includes both a fit and a size chart, and says to use the fit chart (which uses height and weight) as the guide for...
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24 comments
What about a tax on the mass of a vehicle. Heavier vehicles will cause more damage to road surfaces (often they will also be the ones creating the most emissions) so penalise them.
We should not lose sight of the fact that local authorities are mainly responsible for road maintenance, and we pay them our Council Tax, albeit that is only a modest proportion of their income. Also if we follow the logic of certain motorists, then pedestrians should never be crossing the road, or in rural areas even walking along roads without separate footpaths. Of course as a motorist you also have the perceived right to park on footpaths etc as well as using the road.
Quite simply there are some drivers out there who are nothing short of selfish in their attitude towards other road users and will try to justify that attitude.
Why bother with VED ?
There are so many people who never pay it why not just add the cost of the VED onto the price of a gallon / litre of petrol. At least that way the people who use the roads, and ultimately cause their decay, pay for it.
I bet a lot of haulage companies would go tits up if that was the case but it would make the inner cities a lot more safe.
I agree. Forget about VED being linked to emissions, forget about VED, and just stick a higher rate of tax on the fuel. If you use less fuel, you pay less tax. Simples, as the meerkat says. Of course, then, to be fair you'd need to put a higher rate of tax on cake,,,
And this would be a good thing because...?
Few haulage companies = increased distribution costs. It's simple supply and demand economics. How do you think all our big stuff gets to the retailer? The pric of everything would increase. And I don't work in the haulage business so no agenda here.
I do find these us against them arguments about car drivers hilarious. Putting VED on bikes would have no bearing on drivers who think cyclists have no rights on the road and in the same way increasing it on cars won't increase their beliefs. This idea that the average car driver is a homicidal maniac intent on ridding the roads of bike riders is paranoia. Get a grip people.
"This idea that the average car driver is a homicidal maniac intent on ridding the roads of bike riders is paranoia."
if only. Maybe not the 'average' car driver, whoever that may be, but enough of them that it gets worrying.
I find (irrespective of how they drive) that I just treat everyone who is driving as someone whom is intent on doing me harm, therefore I ride defensively.
Fair or not, it works for me.
So this tax is applied only to new registrations for vehicles bought after 2017? Well there is a simple answer to this one and loath as i am to want to pay more for a bike just slap a £10 tax on a new bike to cover a road tax.
Drivers silenced. Job done.
If only that was the problem!
I agree. But it appears that the majority of drivers arguments stem from the belief that they pay for the roads and cyclists don't. Therefore a tax contribution to 'road funds' on a new bike would instantly wipe out this unfair and incorrect prejudice.
The new "road fund" won't be anywhere near enough to pay for the roads. The bulk of the road spending will still be from general taxation, including that from people who don't have cars. That is as it should be. But it won't help when we get told we have less right to the roads than gas guzzlers.
Economically stupid, environmentally stupid, fiscally regressive, cyclist endangering. Thanks George.
You could say as all roads are paid out of general taxation and bikes, kit are all 20% vat rated you already make a contribution? This banding means a zero emission car costing less than £40000 will pay £0 VED per year, a bit like a bike...
That's genius! Let's lobby for that.
Why should I pay twice ?
It's paying per vehicle. I'd prefer to not have to do it, and should be un-necessary, but from a practical point of view
- it'd be more or less unnoticeable on the price of a bike
- it'd be more money in the fund
- it'd take a lot of the wind out of the sails of those idiots who will be reviling cyclists for "not paying their way".
Thanks George, I wonder how many injuries might ultimately be attributable, in some way, to the increased sense of righteousness from some of the more idiotic motor vehicle drivers ?
Cyclists pay VAT, roads are paid for from general taxation, cyclists therefore do pay towards the upkeep of the roads when they buy a bike. Why not turn the argument around, why should the driver of a Nissan leaf have any right to the road, they DON'T pay VED!!!!!!!!
I know, as do purchases of other vehicles. I'm not necessarily advocating we do it, just agreeing with some that it's about perception in many ways.
..because you'd be just as stupid as the ignorant gits who complain about cyclists.
Your misjudgement, Sir, if I may be so bold, is to base your argument on facts and logic
..except the first sentence is unrelated to the new, proposed VED regime - in which its logic largely disappears (to the unwashed, enraged motorist) - and the second is merely the rewording of the nonsense cyclists have been fighting since forever.
The point was seemingly so far away when it sped by that it is perhaps unsurprising its passing was unheard.
It's worth noting that ZERO emission (e.g full electric, as opposed to the current LOW emission, e.g. hybrid, some small diesel) vehicles will continue to pay £0 in VED. So we're paying on the same basis as before.
So presumably the Chancellor will expect cyclists and equestrians to also pay into his new Road Fund? Or else make it bleeding explicit that we have a right to be there without being expected to pay. Otherwise, we'd better start gearing up (geddit?) for more motorists screaming about how we have no right to be on the road.
Not sure really how this will help anything - it's still the same money available isn't it? they're just ring fencing VED. Hmm - how long before other taxes start getting hypothecated? No kids? Don't pay for schools. In private healthcare scheme? Don't pay for the NHS (while we still have one). etc. etc.
I hope Carlton Reid does an analysis of this bantha pudu very soon.
I bet loads of us own cars and pay VED but just mainly choose to use bikes.
Perhaps a rucksack sticker or vest that says "My other bike is a car (and I pay VED)"
I picked that bit out as well. It'll mean that drivers are actually right when they whine about how they pay road tax.
One silver lining is that it might help pay for better roads though - depends on whether it applies to local roads (98% of them) or just the trunk and motorway network. Councils have been neglecting local road maintenance and diverting the money to other things.