Nice little piece in the Guardian. Hope some of the gobby drivers out there read it!
When a driver scowls at a passing cyclist and shouts: “You have no right to be on the road – you don’t pay road tax!” are they right?
No, according to advisers at HM Revenue & Customs and the Treasury.
Firstly, “road tax” does not exist, and has not existed since the 1930s. What drivers do pay, however, is Vehicle Excise Duty, which is often known as road tax but is not strictly the same thing. Vehicle Excise Duty – what you pay for your car’s tax disc – is based on your vehicle’s emissions. Since a bike creates no emissions, it is not liable for Vehicle Excise Duty.
Secondly, the money from Vehicle Excise Duty goes into a central pot and does not go directly back into the roads. The maintenance of the highways is, in fact, funded out of general taxation. Cyclists – like everyone else – pay council tax and income tax, which pays for the provision of public services, be it hospitals, trains or roads. In terms of tax contribution, this gives cyclists the same rights as motorists – and, indeed, pedestrians – to use the roads.
And finally, research by British Cycling found that 87 per cent of cyclists also regularly drive cars, and so most cyclists have already paid the same duties as motorists for their cars back home on the drive.
So, from a tax perspective, a cyclist has as much right to be on the road as any other road user and an extra levy would not be warranted. Cyclists have the same rights as motorists to expect that public highways should be designed and maintained to be safe and inviting.
With that in mind, would drivers and cyclists alike please sign up to our ‘Cities Fit For Cycling’ campaign and help make the roads safer for everyone.
