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In a nutshell, I, like many if not most adult cyclists in the US, also own a car and already have a driver's license and have already been vetted by the state for operating a vehicle on a public road: I have paid like the rest of us motorists do!!
That's right. In fact, we think of cars as bike accessories.
I agree that bikes should be registered, pay excise tax, some equivalent of a road tax, and be subject to the same laws that apply to unregistered automobiles driven on the street. The only free lunch should come from a soup kitchen.
... and usually less than a hundred a month on this, unless I'm going on a road trip to SF, Vegas, or San Diego:
I pay for registration every year; pay for a driver's license renewal every few years; paid thousands in sales tax on this car when I bought it; pay for gas taxes that go, in part, to maintain public roads; pay income and sales tax which also, in part, go to maintain roads; and also shell out for insurance, as is legally mandated.
In a nutshell, I, like many if not most adult cyclists in the US, also own a car and already have a driver's license and have already been vetted by the state for operating a vehicle on a public road: I have paid like the rest of us motorists do!!
Of course, sales tax, registration, gas tax, insurance applies to EVERY car/truck/bus/motorcycle/etc separately you drive on the road. Let's apply that to all vehicles, including the human-powered 2-wheel types. We had to register mopeds when we were kids, and they only had 49cc motors. Shouldn't matter if the power comes from internal combustion or legs.
To be honest, I think it is inevitable that some bureaucrat will come up with ways to make cyclists lives as difficult and costly as every other road user. Cyclists insistence on their right of passage on roadways which carry all manner of vehicular traffic will ensure that I reckon. Bureaucracy has numerous and rather long tentacles and one day one of those tentacles will stick to the cyclist and drag him/her into some form of regulatory 'conformity'.
What's that old adage?..."The future ain't what it used to be", Yogi Berra I believe.
I agree that bikes should be registered, pay excise tax, some equivalent of a road tax, and be subject to the same laws that apply to unregistered automobiles driven on the street. The only free lunch should come from a soup kitchen.
"Bicycle Registration Repealed : The bicycle registration law permitted any city or town to require residents to register their bicycles, to require bicycle rental businesses to register their bicycle fleets, and to require bicycle shops to file reports identifying the purchaser of every bicycle. The registration law was not being used or enforced anywhere in the state."
One might want to consider why localities stopped using these laws.
Again, its a red herring. No states are adopting this. It does not add to safety, and is not a useful way to finance infrastructure. Its just brought up to whine every now and then.
To be honest, I think it is inevitable that some bureaucrat will come up with ways to make cyclists lives as difficult and costly as every other road user. Cyclists insistence on their right of passage on roadways which carry all manner of vehicular traffic will ensure that I reckon. Bureaucracy has numerous and rather long tentacles and one day one of those tentacles will stick to the cyclist and drag him/her into some form of regulatory 'conformity'.
What's that old adage?..."The future ain't what it used to be", Yogi Berra I believe.
In the US and in western europe govts are trying to encourage cycling.
And in general lives for other road users are not so difficult and costly, or there would be far fewer of them. Sorry things are so rough in Australia.
Well I guess it's like I said earlier, if you want to mix it with the traffic then best you start paying for the privilege like the rest of us motorists do. Introduce registrations requiring plates to be displayed and pay for it, pay to attend a class for bike riding on the roadway, and if you fail to pass, pay to do it again, pay to get a license which covers the bike which has to be renewed, and pay for some form of insurance. If you want 'equal rights' ~ then pay for them like the rest of us motorists do!
I own a car, too. I pay for the privilege just like you do.
When I ride my bicycle instead of my car, I'm putting less wear and tear on the roads. I'm creating less pollution that someones taxes are going to pay to deal with sometime, one way or the other. I'm buying less gas, decreasing demand and thus prices.
And you're indignant that I'm not paying for the fact that I'm costing the state, and thus you the taxpayer, less money by sometimes riding my bicycle rather than driving my car? Brilliant...
Bicycled on the road through four municipalities today (sorry, short ride). Didn't pay bicycle tax in any of them. I'm wondering, if these taxes pass, will my bicycle tax have to be apportioned like an OTR trailer? Maybe I'll have to submit a report as to how many miles I did in each jurisdiction every quarter?
I think it requires changing attitudes from both sides of this argument. I see to often, not just bicyclists, but pedestrians too mindlessly wander through busy intersections with out giving a second thought to there surroundings. Sure pedestrians have the right of way, but they need to realize that when you dart in front of a car that is doing 30-40 mph you stand a very little chance. People in cars need to realize that, especially in city/urban areas that there is a lot more foot/ bike traffic and to keep an eye out for that sort of thing.
I lived in Davis, CA for 7 years. It's the perennial winner of top cycling organization awards for towns its size; there are supposedly more bikes than cars in Davis, and about 17% of the population commutes to work by bike, as did I when I lived there.
However, when my son (who biked to school every day for years) was learning to drive, he said the cyclists were harder to deal with than the other drivers, because he never knew if they were going to stop at a stop sign and they often rode on the wrong side of the street. I saw some bad bike-on-bike accidents there and was almost involved in one myself when some nitwit rode on the wrong side of the bike path where a pole separated the two "lanes." I couldn't move over because bikes were coming the other way in that lane, as they were supposed to.
Driver can be jerks, that's for sure, but so can cyclists who don't obey road rules.
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