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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be annoyed at motorists who say that cyclists don't pay road tax

224 replies

toweraboveyou · 31/03/2012 19:21

There are a lot of motorists who insist that cyclists have no rights on the road as they don't pay any road tax. However, this is bollocks as road tax was abolished in 1937 and all road financing comes from general tax which means that cyclists, such as myself, pay as much towards the roads as anybody else and have just as much right to be on them safely.

OP posts:
perceptionreality · 01/04/2012 13:15

Yes but in the morning when traffic is very busy, there is no safe way to overtake. There is no way I'm going to risk knocking someone off their bike and cyclists are very vulnerable. So the result is a long line of traffic getting held up.

perceptionreality · 01/04/2012 13:16

Obviously there is not usually the need to overtake a car because they travel more quickly.

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 01/04/2012 13:20

If folk have an issue that cyclists don't pay 'road tax'. don't have insurance, don't have to pass a test etc then really it's best to campaign for that to change rather than vilifying cyclists as a group. After all I don't know of many groups who choose to do more than the law says they must.

There are crap cyclists there's no doubt but there are many, many more crap drivers who ignore far more of the highway code than going through a red light; speeding, mobile phone use, parking on the zig-zags/pavement/to close to a junction etc etc

People in glass houses comes to mind.

MNHelenisPansfavourite · 01/04/2012 13:23

yes, I ride defensively too, which sometimes means dominating the lane. If that means other road users are slightly delayed then so be it. My journey and safetly are no less important than anyone elses.
Would love to see a 'cycling premium' paid, but I guess I'll have to wait forthe flying pig.

perceptionreality · 01/04/2012 13:29

I don't mind being delayed for a short time, that's not really what I was saying. Most of the time it's not a problem but during the school run it can cause hold ups and hazards on one particular road in our town. Nobody has more rights than others but everyone should use their common sense based upon the specific situation and time of day.

MNHelenisPansfavourite · 01/04/2012 13:33

well I disagree on the scool run, or any particualr time of day tbh. IF a defensively-riding cyclist is causing 'hazards' behind them Hmm then drivers need to look to their driving habits and not blame the cyclist.

perceptionreality · 01/04/2012 13:33

In any case, everyone should be doing the speed limit of the road, whether a car or bicycle surely? The problem would not arise in that case.

MNHelenisPansfavourite · 01/04/2012 13:34

Er...no. It's a max speed limit, not a compulsory one.Hmm

TheBigJessie · 01/04/2012 13:35

It's. Not. A. Target.

TheBigJessie · 01/04/2012 13:38

Of course, if you really want to sneakily ban cycling, go ahead and decree that all cyclists must cycle at 40mph on 40mph roads, and so on.

Yeah, that's realistic for us all.

perceptionreality · 01/04/2012 13:39

It's not compulsory but road users should stick to it - it's not acceptable to be traveling at 10 miles an hour. If you hold up other road users you will fail your driving test in a car. My driving instructors taught me to stick to 30 on built up areas and not to go below 60 on dual carriage ways.

TheBigJessie · 01/04/2012 13:42
  1. Get a bicycle.
  2. Fit a pedometer.
  3. Go cycling.
  4. Look at your pedometer.
MNHelenisPansfavourite · 01/04/2012 13:43

perception - I have noo idea where you are going with your argument. Cyclists are not cars, which many car drivers fail to perceive.

ThisIsANickname · 01/04/2012 13:44

Everyone wants to blame someone else for their misery. Drive a car? Damn those cyclists! Ride a bike? Damn those car drivers!

If everyone were more concerned with the safety of themselves and those arounds them, rather than in getting to where they are going 2 minutes faster, then everyone would be a whole lot happier to share the roads with others.

perceptionreality · 01/04/2012 13:48

I know they are not cars. My point is simply that I think it is unreasonable for cyclists to hold traffic up for miles and miles. I have no idea whether cyclists have special rules which entitle them to do so, however.

Poulay · 01/04/2012 13:48

I think the ones that don't use their common sense are drivers.

Recently I was out on my bike with my son on his bike and we had to go 0.2 miles along the main road (30mph limit), then turn right.
The driver behind did not overtake, which is in accordance with Highway Code advice generally (don't overtake near junctions, etc.), but the one behind that started beeping his horn repeatedly at him. This was rather off-putting to us and we ended up turning when it wasn't entirely safe to do so.

Was there a queue behind us? Yes there was, five or six cars. Was anybody actually delayed, no they weren't.

I've been beeped for not overtaking a cyclist before too, in my car; given that the cyclist in question had just past me in the queue and there was traffic all the way ahead, there wasn't much point in rushing past.

While the situation might be different in other parts of the country, I have never witnessed a sitatuion where a cyclist has genuinely caused a delay - a short queue sometimes, yes, but are those behind actually getting to their destination any slower? No they are not, when they pass the cyclist they just accelerate to the next red traffic light. It's a nonsense.

I've spent four hours on the M25 before (in my car), due to congestion caused by motor vehicles. The idea that cyclists cause congestion is utter nonsense. Take for example school run time, you get big congestion through the town here, purely caused by parents picking up kids from school. It's got nothing to do with bicycles, because there are so few of them on the roads, and if parents switched to bicycles the reality is the congestion would go.

Personally speaking if I'm in an urban scenario (traffic lights, queues), I will always ride in the middle of the lane, to discourage the idiots who think that it's a good idea to try and squeeze past me to get to the next red light quicker (where of course I can filter to the front of the queue).

It's pretty breathtaking, given the numbers of cars on the road relative to the number of bicycles, and given the amount of congestion in places where there are no bicycles at all, that motorists blame congestion on cyclists.

You are not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic. Not someone else, not bicycles, YOU are the problem, you are using a scarce resource (road space) at a time of peak demand (school run), blocking the entire lane, then presumably obstructing the road (all cars parked on the road obstruct it) when you park at school, getting in the way of cyclists trying to go about their business (which is at least as important as yours) and generally being anti-social.
www.flickr.com/photos/carltonreid/5260106747/

Sorry to be blunt, but school running is highly anti-social. Bikes getting in the way of the parade of SUVs are neither the problem, nor the hazard!!!

MNHelenisPansfavourite · 01/04/2012 13:50

In that case I shall fill you in on your ignorance of the highway code. No, there is no special rule, and cyclist never hold up traffic for "miles and miles". You are characterising yourself by this suggestion.

TheBigJessie · 01/04/2012 13:50

The laws of physics, maybe?

Perhaps we should have a special levy to build a proper network of cycle paths across Britain, then. A network on a scale with our road network. That would solve your problem, wouldn't it?

Poulay · 01/04/2012 13:56

www.flickr.com/photos/carltonreid/5260106747/

It's not compulsory but road users should stick to it - it's not acceptable to be traveling at 10 miles an hour. If you hold up other road users you will fail your driving test in a car. My driving instructors taught me to stick to 30 on built up areas and not to go below 60 on dual carriage ways.

???????????

Was your driving instructor Michael Schumacher? Or Jeremy Clarkson?

Driving at 30mph in built-up areas is not only illegal in many places (20mph speed limits), but also rarely possible, and often not safe.

Average traffic speed in central London is ..... drum roll...... 10mph, the speed you claim is so preposterous and antisocial. I doubt other urban areas are any different. www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/topstories/804876.london_cars_move_no_faster_than_chickens/ If 10mph is so dreadful, why are so many people driving in London?

60mph on a dual carriageways is likewise illegal on many dual carriageways, and on those where it's legal you're more likely to see a Reliant Robin than a cyclist, and if you did see one (and manage not to kill him, which is sadly very common on dual carriageways), you could just use the other lane.

MNHelenisPansfavourite · 01/04/2012 14:00

yes Poulay, it was interesting to read "you are not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic" on some road side posting. ?And of course your very well made point about school run is excellent, imo. The car that hits me is no less likely to kill me if itis outside of school runnings. (why people need to drive their kids t oschool isanother oddity. Some do for the distance, but many many don't have that issue - and you perception wish to claim the road space for this as a priority when it is nothing short of an indiglence often).

perceptionreality · 01/04/2012 14:01

10mph in London - probably because of traffic.

Look, FYI it is a topic covered on driving theory tests so it is not nonsense. You are supposed to stick to it where you can.

I've had the same conversation with my dad who thinks it's perfectly ok to drive at 40mph on the motorway.

perceptionreality · 01/04/2012 14:04

I don't wish to claim anything Smile Your comments are unecessarily personal. All I've said is that I think it is unreasonable for any road user to hold up another road user when something could be done to avoid it.

MNHelenisPansfavourite · 01/04/2012 14:04

perception - cars should keep up with the ambient speed - there is no expecations that cyclist would unless you are Mark Cavendish.

MNHelenisPansfavourite · 01/04/2012 14:05

personal? Not seeing that at all - just arguing against your arguments nothing else.

ThisIsANickname · 01/04/2012 14:05

it is unreasonable for any road user to hold up another road user when something could be done to avoid it.

True dat.