Why iPayRoadTax.com?
iPayRoadTax.com is all about getting people to call VED car tax and not road tax but the site itself uses the wrong term. What’s going on?
The site name is deliberate; ironic even. “I pay road tax, you don’t,” is an insult sometimes thrown at cyclists by motorists, a barb that says cyclists don’t pay for [...]
‘Road tax for cyclists’ proposal kicks up stink, again
In the summer of 2009, a civil servant is believed to have added a line to the Scottish Government’s Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS) consultation document. This line – no doubt innocuous to the bright spark who inserted it – kicked off an almighty stink in the Scottish press and totally obscured the [...]
Do low emission cars have less right to be on the road?
Owners of those cars which emit the lowest amount of pollutants pay zilch for their ‘road tax’.
Those motorists who think ‘road tax’ still exists must be awfully confused by cars which pay £0 VED. Here’s a class of car which looks like any other class of car but which doesn’t ‘pay for the roads.’ [...]
New Year’s Resolution for major orgs: call VED ‘car tax’ not ‘road tax’
The AA, Mazda, What Car, the police, the RAC, Renault, HMRC, DirectGov and others all get it wrong when they mention the long-dead ‘road tax’. This tax hasn’t paid for roads since 1936, and even then only paid for larger roads, never local ones.
Even fringe groups such as the Association of British Drivers know ‘road [...]
The organisations which get ‘road tax’ wrong and why this matters
This site is called iPayRoadTax.com but quickly stresses there’s no such thing as ‘road tax’. It was abolished in 1936, a process started by Winston Churchill ten years previously. ‘Road tax’ might have been pushing up the daisies for 74 years but it’s a term still in widespread, erroneous use.
The correct term is VED, [...]
Bring back the Road Fund!
In 1936, road tax was finally abolished, a process started by Winston Churchill ten years previously when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Up until 1926, British trunk roads had been – partially – built by the monies that accumulated from this tax on motoring. The road tax pot was called the Road Fund. This [...]
“Cyclists don’t pay road tax, they shouldn’t be on the roads; roads are for cars.”
It’s not just right-of-Genghis-Khan taxi drivers who spout such piffle. Sensible and otherwise sane motorists also like to trot it out. “Why should my road tax pay for cycle facilities or bus lanes?” is another common complaint.
Yet road tax doesn’t exist. Hasn’t done since 1936. Those little perforated discs pay for Vehicle Excise Duty. VED [...]
