Shouldn cyclists pay road tax too?
This argument too comes up regularly, and the answer depends on what you think road taxes are for; The anti argument can be summed up thus; Pardon? If you think that cyclists actually cause any discernable damage to the roads then you’ve got another think coming. Per vehicle, the amount of damage caused by cars over cycles is a couple of orders of magnitude out. A car causes around 1000 times more damage. Cyclists do not weigh much. Cyclists cannot generally get up to the sorts of speeds where their tyres could start ‘ripping’ at the tarmac. Cyclists should not pay road tax. But then; It is not unreasonable to argue that road taxes are not for the roads; they are just taxes. Indeed this argument is a favourite of those who consider that motorists do not pay enough. If this argument is correct, then the argument that cyclists should not pay road taxes because they do not damage the roads, cause congestion, etc., collapses. Cyclists use the roads. They should pay taxes.
