AA scraps 'road tax' references on its website in victory for I Pay Road Tax campaign

I think the government should " do away " with VED completely , as more cars reduce emissions then this will mean that most motorists will have Nil Rate Banding anyway.
This will have the best effect possible.
VED should be changed to an Insured On the Road disc, this will be provider from the DVLA and used to prove the car is fully insured to be on the road . The website checks the insurance database and MOT at the time of purchasing or not when it is NIL. The actual disc represents something totally different. Road Insurance Disc.

As fretters, I've said 'look I pay the same as a Toyota Prius owner does' but the best response is 'I'm a car owner too. It's taxed and at home.'

i wonder if the drivers of cars such as the Toyota Prius get told to "pay their effin road tax" Pretty sure they don't

The last time I was shouted at to "pay your effin' car-tax, you clunt", it came from a passing construction worker driving home with three of his mates in the car...I gave them this information: "I pay my "effin' road-tax" on my car---and then I leave it parked at home and ride this bike, you twerp!" Amazingly, they drove off blushing and pharting without saying another word.
P.R.

Motorists who like to go on about 'road tax' also tend to use the term 'push bike', in order to emphasise the primitive, non-motorised nature of the bicycle, and shift the emphasis away from the fact that they are frustrated fat blokes* stuck in traffic who have issues with fit people getting about in a cheaper, healthier and happier manner.

*In my experience anyway - there must be some female road tax bigots out there as well.

Winston Churchill had first expressed concerns about official use of the phrase a dedicate earlier
Do 10 dedicates make a certainty?

Its good to see AA doing something helpfull.
Many years ago our AA equivalent here in the state of Victoria, the RACV, faced with the likelihood of laws favouring cyclists and money being spent on cyclist infrastructure, got directly involved in ensuring a helmet law for cyclists. This ensured that the other changes, of some disadvantage to motorists, would never happen.

Here's something that may make you giggle, that happened to me quite few years ago. I was stopped by an irate motorist cutting me up after a set of lights. I actually knew just him by face although we had never talked.

You should seen this rather irate motorist face growing redder and redder when I pointed out that I too pay for the roads in my taxes from the general taxation fund. You could say he was hopping up and down steam coming out of his ears, demanding to see my car tax disc or as he referred to it 'road tax' disc. It was something out of Asterix. Him being one of those Roman generals driven to absolute frustration and annoyance. Definately pythonseque.

He really didn't like being corrected with the correct term for the disc either. It was quite humourous really, he was very very very angry but as I was at the time teaching his wife and friend in a combat self defense class at the time, you could see he really wanted to push this but didn't dare. I also had two of my coaches stop as they went past after training to see what was going on.

I couldn't help thinking is this really necessary as nothing had happened except I didn't get away from the lights quick enough for him and his Nova.

Needless to say his wife and friend didn't come back the next week. Fun though I quite enjoyed it !!!

Churchill again - very clever chap. A remarkably prescient point about perceived ownership. It's amazing how many intelligent, reasonably informed people do not know how roads are paid for. However, it's a little easier arguing the point with petrolhead mates in the pub than on busy London road in the rush 'hour'.

Good news. Now for all those car ads still using it.

As far as showing drivers the error of their ways by presenting them with the facts when they shout at you, it's never going to happen. People don't like to admit they're wrong in the best of circumstances, never mind while arguing not only with a stranger but a stanger on a bike and probably in funny clothes.

cyclists own more cars per head than the average too, so we're actually paying more.

Which they don't (since you're there by right and they're licensed).

Tell them you don't mind sharing the road with them as they have just as much right to be on it as you do.

i find they wither don't listen when you explain or lamp you one anyway.

Arrogant sod that I am, whenever I get this canard thrown at me by a motorist, I point out to them that there is no such thing, that roads are paid for from general taxation, and as I am comfortably in the 50% bracket (actually uncomfortably, but that seems fair enough to me) it is statistically probable that I pay several times as much of that as my interlocutor.