No such thing as road tax!

Addison Lee to train its drivers to be cyclist-aware

Addison Lee to train its drivers to be cyclist-aware

I met John Griffin today. I gave him an ipayroadtax jersey (later in the day I also gave one to the editor of The Times). I don’t suppose Griffin will ever wear it (the editor of The Times told me he cycles so I’m hoping he wears his), but just because he won’t be squeezing […]


How could Addison Lee repair its relationship with cyclists?

How could Addison Lee repair its relationship with cyclists?

All last week the media section of the Addison Lee website was topped by a press release giving John Griffin’s (law-breaking) views about his minicab drivers entering London’s bus lanes. This press release has now disappeared. This could be significant. [UPDATE: it was. Transport for London’s injunction was (mostly) successful. However, there’s still some wriggle […]


Who pays for roads?

Who pays for roads?

Motorists pay for roads, yes? No. All tax payers pay for roads, not just motorists. Those who pay income tax and those who pay council tax are the ones who pay for roads, and that’s not just motorists. And anybody who buys anything in Britain also helps to pay for roads because VAT also contributes […]


Oh dear, Addison Lee’s £23m smartphone app appears to be getting a roasting

Oh dear, Addison Lee’s £23m smartphone app appears to be getting a roasting

Paging Gerald Ratner! Paging Gerald Ratner! [UPDATE: Addison Lee has updated its app and this has nudged up the star rating from one-and-a-half stars to two-and-a-half stars. The 250+ bad reviews are now shunted backwards, leaving a shiny new space for some more comments. UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: At 16.30 on Monday 23rd April, the […]


Break-the-law minicab boss tells cyclists: “You want to join our gang? Get trained and pay up”

Break-the-law minicab boss tells cyclists: “You want to join our gang? Get trained and pay up”

John Griffin, the Addison Lee boss at the centre of a bus lane storm in London, uses his editorial in the latest issue of his corporate magazine to take a pot-shot at cyclists. Griffin recently told his ‘self-employed’ drivers to break the law and use bus lanes in London. Currently only black taxi cabs – […]


Man (with motor) v horse v bike

Man (with motor) v horse v bike

Cyclists are not the only ones to come under attack from we-pay-for-the-roads motorists. Horse riders are also abused by ignorant, impatient drivers. Last week a white van man was jailed for ten months for reversing into a young equestrian riding her horse on a Lancashire country lane. The horse suffered bruising; the female rider hurt […]


[UPDATE] Speeding killer driver given lenient sentence; BBC reporter belittles death of the cyclist, says “[cyclists] don’t pay road tax”

[UPDATE] Speeding killer driver given lenient sentence; BBC reporter belittles death of the cyclist, says “[cyclists] don’t pay road tax”

Kevin Hill, Assistant Editor of BBC East Midlands Today, has sent out a boilerplate answer to all those who complained about a road death story broadcast in mid-April. He admits that the presenter at fault could have asked the “road tax” question “more carefully” and then gives what he believes to be the more carefully […]


The Times posts new, correct “road tax” article

The Times posts new, correct “road tax” article

This morning, as part of its mostly excellent cycle safe campaign, The Times seemed confused on what paid for roads and included the two words that, when placed next to each other, are often spat at cyclists by motorists: “road tax”. Following much twittering back and forth, Times reporter Kaya Burgess got the following article […]


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 […]