Author Archive

Fiat drops ‘road tax’ from its adverts

Fiat drops ‘road tax’ from its adverts

It’s good to hear that Fiat is enlisting Olympic cyclists to front a ‘share the road’ campaign, as I reported on BikeBiz.com. Members of the British Cycling team will be working with Fiat to highlight the importance of cyclists and motorists sharing a finite resource: the roads of Britain. And Fiat has confirmed it no […]


Government minister sticks to his mistaken claim that motorists pay for roads

Government minister sticks to his mistaken claim that motorists pay for roads

Such a view would be disturbing if it was a junior minister in the foreign office. What makes it shocking is that the MP who holds this view is the Minister for Roads. At a meeting in parliament yesterday I asked the minister if he would retract a statement from last year when he had […]


Car website gets it, motoring mum doesn’t

Car website gets it, motoring mum doesn’t

On the same day that car comparison website Carbuzz.co.uk published an article about the ‘road tax’ myth, helmetcam cyclist Magnatom posted a video where a woman motorist, who had been sat in bumper-to-bumper congestion, is seen to tell the cyclist “Go and pay some road tax, you’re holding everyone up.” She also added an expletive. […]


“Lytex boys” shouldn’t ride in “middle of road” paid for by motorists, says aggressive Merc driver

“Lytex boys” shouldn’t ride in “middle of road” paid for by motorists, says aggressive Merc driver

The video below is funny in a Stephen Merchant sort of way but what’s not funny is the dangerous overtaking by a Mercedes Vito captured by a cyclist’s helmetcam. Calling Lycra “Lytex” and spouting forth on non-payment of “road tax”, the Mercedes driver committed a number of motoring offences in quick succession. First, the Merc […]


AA drops ‘road tax’

AA drops ‘road tax’

For many years, the AA’s landing page for Vehicle Excise Duty hedged its bets and said ‘road tax’, as well as VED and ‘car tax’. The ‘road tax’ part of that page has now been dropped, a recognition from Britain’s main motoring organisation that roads are paid for by general and local taxation not a […]


Institute of Not Very Advanced Motorists

Institute of Not Very Advanced Motorists

The Institute of Advanced Motorists is normally pretty good on facts. It’s not the Association of British Drivers, which often pays just a fleeting visit to truthfulness. IAM even has a cycling section. But last month IAM got road funding wrong and today the organisation with 100,000 members has issued a press release with more […]


Motorist says he pays for “driving surface”; would swerve to hit soft thing rather than hit hard thing

Motorist says he pays for “driving surface”; would swerve to hit soft thing rather than hit hard thing

The recent brouhaha over the ESPN sport anchor who said it was “hilarious” to watch two cyclists getting sideswiped by a car on stage 9 of the Tour de France brings into sharp focus whether some motorists view cyclists as fair game. Cyclists don’t pay for roads, goes the belief (a mistaken one) so shouldn’t […]


Nobody has the right for “their” tax to be spent on “their” projects, not even motorists

Nobody has the right for “their” tax to be spent on “their” projects, not even motorists

A press release on motoring taxation (“Motoring Tax is Highway Robbery Says IAM”) sent out today by the Institute of Advanced Motorists is getting car blogs and auto-centric news websites all in a tizzy. Many of them are talking about “road tax”, something that was abolished in 1937. Interestingly, neither the IAM press release nor […]


ASA: not so hot on truth in advertising

ASA: not so hot on truth in advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority recently asked a car company to pull its ad from daytime TV because it showed adult cyclists – in Copenhagen – not wearing helmets, something that could encourage child cyclists to go lid-free, too. Such a nannying response from the ASA is odd. The organisation claims it makes sure marketing is […]


Shock, a jock nixes the road tax myth

Shock, a jock nixes the road tax myth

Earlier this week BBC Leeds radio show presenter Adam Pope asked on Twitter: “Are cyclists saints or sinners on our roads? Nearly all of us own a bike, but far fewer use them. Why? Are cyclists a menace or menaced?” Follower Rich Cryer started a conversation with Pope, suggesting he go take a look at […]


Pay £5 and ride on a White Elephant

Pay £5 and ride on a White Elephant

Roll up! Roll up! Pay a fiver and you can ride on the M74, a yet-to-open motorway built with cash from cyclists (and every other British tax-payer). But it’s only for a day. Mind you, it’s not often you get to ride a bike on a motorway, legally. Motorways are normally forbidden to cyclists, even […]


Cycle path story in Daily Fail leads to comments so hackneyed they’re almost comical

Cycle path story in Daily Fail leads to comments so hackneyed they’re almost comical

On a Daily Mail story about a relatively useless – but no doubt expensive – road painting exercise, the ranters were quick to heap scorn on cyclists for “not paying road tax.” In fact, the first two comments related to this mistaken belief, and the third was also a classic of its kind: the commenter […]


Roads minister says motorists pay for roads

Roads minister says motorists pay for roads

Of all politicians, you’d think the roads minister would know how roads are funded. Apparently not. Yesterday in parliament, Mike Penning, the minister in charge of roads and road safety, said: “We also need to ensure that the motorist, who predominantly pays for our roads, is not inconvenienced too much.” He was talking in a […]


Projection bias, highway hegemony, and why cyclists rent the road, they don’t own it

Projection bias, highway hegemony, and why cyclists rent the road, they don’t own it

“They think they own the road”: This is a common criticism of cyclists from a large minority of motorists, a gripe seen on forum postings and letters to newspapers the world over. It would be laughable if it wasn’t meant so seriously. Do you really think you, a cyclist, own the road? A highway, let’s […]


Roadies should be stay-at-homeies, says doc

Roadies should be stay-at-homeies, says doc

Some drivers think cyclists should not be allowed on roads, roads which they mistakenly believe were designed and built for cars. Some drivers have a ‘Get orff moy laaaaand’ mentality because they feel they’ve paid for use of the roads through ‘road tax’ (they should apply for a rebate, backdated to 1937). This feeling of […]


“Even though I pay me road tax they treat me like a clown”

“Even though I pay me road tax they treat me like a clown”

Stewart Topp, AA’s Patrolman of the Year, has taken Ireland’s famous ‘Pothole Song’ and married it to bunch of roads-in-disrepair – and clown – images. The iPayRoadTax fake ‘road tax’ roundel has been placed into the video. It’s slightly out of the original cycling context of the logo but, hey, it gets the message out […]


Page, turn a new leaf, learn about how roads are *really* funded

Page, turn a new leaf, learn about how roads are *really* funded

Lewis Page is an intelligent bloke. He writes for The Guardian, Prospect and is a staffer on tech site The Register. An officer in the Royal Navy from 1993 to 2004, he’s siwritten books, such as Lions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs, a forensic polemic about financial waste in the armed forces. Page, then, is bright. He […]


Good Motoring mag gives columnist the heave-ho for ‘road tax’ gibe

Good Motoring mag gives columnist the heave-ho for ‘road tax’ gibe

Top marks to GEM Motoring Assist for its speedy retraction of the anti-cyclist article in the latest issue of the organisation’s membership-only quarterly magazine. 60,000 members were treated to a diatribe in ‘Good Motoring’ that was as inaccurate as it was distasteful. Columnist Jane King hated on both cyclists and horse-riders for daring to take […]


When motorists believe they’ve paid for use of the road, they can be dangerous

When motorists believe they’ve paid for use of the road, they can be dangerous

Some motorists believe cyclists are lesser beings, and shouldn’t get in the way of cars. Why? Because of the shockingly widespread belief that cyclists don’t pay for roads. In fact, we do. We all do. Everybody pays. Every tax-payer, that is. Road maintenance, road building and road design are all paid for out of general […]


Jeremy Clarkson: be a man, offend a Middle Eastern religion [UPDATED]

Jeremy Clarkson: be a man, offend a Middle Eastern religion [UPDATED]

On Top Gear, aired 6th February, Jeremy Clarkson made one of his deliberate errors in order to annoy a minority. Now, if he can get away with slanders about whole countries (France, Albania, Mexico etc) he’s sure as hell not going to lose any sleep over “jokes” about killing cyclists who “don’t pay road tax”. […]


Shock news: Tax Payers’ Alliance nearly accurate

Shock news: Tax Payers’ Alliance nearly accurate

Last year, the right-wing Tax Payers’ Alliance railed against ‘road tax’. Following iPayRoadTax.com complaints the “independent, non-partisan” organisation now rails against Vehicle Excise Duty. Sadly, when regurgitating parts of the TPA’s press release, The Sun yesterday went off-script and ranted about “road tax”, a tax abolished in 1937. MOTORISTS pay for their road use more […]


Keep warm with new iPayRoadTax Toastie jacket

Keep warm with new iPayRoadTax Toastie jacket

Those nice folks at Foska have produced a long-sleeve version of the iPayRoadTax jersey. And it’s a thermal jacket to boot. The Toastie jacket is suitable for use in temperatures -10° to 5°C (so, that’s now then) and is highly breathable and water resistant up to a hydrostatic head of 10,000mm (which is near as […]


Bike licensing doesn’t work, just ask Boris

Bike licensing doesn’t work, just ask Boris

Anti-cycling forum ranters the world over love to point out that motorists pay for roads (wrong!) so cyclists should steer clear, and in the same sentence, or shortly thereafter, they often bring up the ‘all cyclists should be licensed’ canard. How would this work? Number plates on the back of bikes. If only law-abiding members […]


Hoverboard Hammond screws up on long-dead tax

Hoverboard Hammond screws up on long-dead tax

He was meant to get a role overseeing the Treasury but instead David Cameron gave him the Transport brief. Yet despite being a know-it-all when it comes to the Consolidated Fund (the national coffers to you and me) Philip ‘Hoverboard’ Hammond isn’t so hot on a key duty. He ought to know that ‘road tax’ […]