Why don’t cyclists pay Road Tax like the rest of us?

I heard it again the other day. That old chestnut about cyclists. If you’re driving a car on British roads, you’re paying a fortune in road tax. But if you cycle on our roads, you get to cycle for free. It’s political correctness and wokery gone mad. How fair is that? Someone should resign. This is a crazy state of affairs and things need to change – now!

Lest we forget, Road Tax was introduced in 1909, which feels like another century, on the grounds that it was. It was specifically introduced to fund the building of roads. BUT – it’s only car and lorry drivers who get to pay it. So unfair.

I was still going completely mad with the sheer unfairness of it all when I checked some actual facts. Facts tend to get in the way of a good rant and they certainly did here. Because Road Tax was abolished in…er…1936. But hang on, don’t we still pay Road Tax today?

The simple answer is no. Instead we pay Vehicle Excise Duty (VED for short), which many people call Road Tax, all the money from which goes to the Treasury, which spends the money how it likes, as it does with duties on alcohol, cigarettes and petrol. As is common with these things, the government taxes specific things in order to fund lots of things, which include roads, but also other stuff we need.

But hang on. Why don’t we just make cyclists pay VED? They use the same roads as motorists. Well, the thing is that VED is largely based on emissions these days, not a simple presence on the road and anyway some 85% 0f cyclists also drive a car. And anyway, can you imagine how difficult it would be to introduce VED on bicycles and then enforce it? Actually, it wouldn’t be difficult: it would be impossible.

Don’t get me wrong. Cyclists, of which I am occasionally one, drive me mad. Shooting red traffic lights, not using lights at night, riding line abreast on a narrow road and, my favourite, not bothering to use the bicycle lane right next to the road are major irritants. But trying to extend a tax that doesn’t actually exist could prove tricky.

Eventually, we will all need to accept that the twain will need to meet. That somehow we will need to find a system whereby all methods of transport can co-exist, like for example in the Netherlands where there are literally different roads for different uses. Of course, this works much better in a country which is almost completely flat, but let’s be honest bikes are not going away any time soon.

If cyclists drive you mad, like they sometimes do me, then we’d better get used to it. Cycling is A Good Thing, Road Tax or not (it’s not).