You are hereForums / General Discussion / NoBMoB Chat / Bike Tax - Are they serious??
Bike Tax - Are they serious??
Drivers want bikers to pay tax on bikes
Dunno how they would enforce it, number plates???
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
Tags
This is a tricky one and comes up now and again.
The pros are that if riders paid tax then drivers might not moan so much and be as aggressive to riders. However, any tax might be so low that it didn't placate drivers and could end up making them even more agro. Clearly any bike tax isn't going to be able to fund cycle infrastructure, just as rego can't possibly come close paying to the billions of dollars the road infrastructure costs (anyone have figures on this? perhaps fuel tax helps?). We've had some figures on expenditure before, but can't find the other side of the equation - income from rego and fuel taxes:
http://nobmob.com/node/7436#comment-25799
Then again, as a rider we already pay plenty of tax, thank you very much! Assumption: bike riding isn't cheap - so we must have an income (taxed) and have paid GST on our bikes. We also pay rego for our cars that are sat idle while we're riding our bikes. Assumption: there are pretty poor selection of trails local to where most people live and public transport the rest of 'em sucks so we all have to drive
We hardly ever ride on the road, and we already pay for NPWS all parks passes (incidentally, a cost that is approaching the price of rego) and the like that fund NPWS land that we do ride on.
Basically - this is a can of worms. Shall we run a survey?
If I am to pay road tax for my bike I would expect to get a discount off the car rego to reflect the fact I don't drive it much and the bike does far less damage to the road...
As a resident of the "North Suburbs" of Sydney we already pay excessive road tolls for entering and leaving the city.
And now we have the privilege of paying extra during peak hours “time of day tolling” (even if you use the tunnel and bypass the city) what a joke!
So, as for the idea of registering bicycles yes why not but only for those that live north of the bridge, nobody else enters the city do they?, and for simplicity the E-Tag could be inserted under the skin of our foreheads with a battery pack shoved where the Lycra doesn’t see day light.
It’s only a matter of time. (Don’t blame me I voted Liberal)
Pikey
-------------------------------------------
The Government is Evil and must be punished
-------------------------------------------
Not a bad idea, paying for using the road. After all, this is 'fair' by any standard definition of the word 'fair'. You must pay to use any infrastructure provided by the government. However, this should be a token fee for a year. That seems simplest. However I do not agree with this rego idea. That is silly and unworkable.
Due to the large no of bikes being sold
maybe just add a one off fee per bike??
1 or 2 % of bike price??
Dad who only gets on his bike on a Sunday to ride with his 2 young lads around Centennial Park? And his 2 sons?
The uneducated bloke who rides to work every day come rain or shine 'coz he's in a low paid job, lives with his mum and can't afford a car or train fare?
People who choose to ride on the road instead of driving their car on the road-you know, the already taxed, insured car sitting in the garage?
The girl who isn't confident enough to mix it with the cars on the tarmac so does all her riding on firetrails at the weekend?
People who only ride track?
Bike couriers?
Unfortunately my fine cycling friends, the RTA will eventually get us all. How else will they be able to afford the $10mil a year rent on their new pad in North Sydney http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22...
As a kid I remember going into the Roads and Traffic Authority with my father holding these yellow number plates and renewing or obtaining the rights to ride on the road. Don't remember if a riders license was required? They had to be attached to the underside of one's seat (very sexy).
This would suck..there is no way i'm placing a license plate on my bike!
Similar thing used to happen in SA (the country) where a small metal tag was attached but it fizzled out. Too difficult to manage/police.
Some form of ID will 'encourage' better behaviour from commuters/road cyclists (not just roadies) as I find it amusing when cyclists go on about having equal rights on the road etc. only to bend/break the road laws when they see fit. Don't get me wrong, I think a large number of motorists are inconsiderate and at times idiotic when driving near/past cyclists but you can't have cyclists adhering to the rules only when it suits them.
Similar example is J-walking... when last did you hear someone being booked for that?
A plate of sorts (visible by cameras) would be the easiest option to implement, but not necessarily the most viable option from a cyclist's point of view.
As with most things this solution needs to be managed at all levels. No good introducing bike taxes when motorists can still take out groups of cyclists and get off with a few hours of community service.
If we had chips inserted in our index fingers, or bar-codes on the side of our head, we could avoid these ugly number plates. Lets just embrace the furture and go full cyborg. I'd like to have small wheels in the soles of my feet like those kids at the shopping center have in their shoes. Bring it on!
I'll be happy to pay rego for the sweatwheels when the make bloody pedestrians pay it too. Then they can put a 'ped-cam' on the Epping rd cycleway and book all the overweight retards who can't understand the little white paintings on the cycleway and insist on walking 3 abreast. AND while we're at it, how about 'doggy-cam' for the dog walkers with the long extendo-leashes who fail to comprehend the concept of a bicycle travelling at over 10 km/h.
I finally got to post that on the internet...I feel so much better now!