Saving Hawaii

It still wouldn't be fair... my little sister can jump on her trampoline until she grows up and it'll be fine, but if I were to jump it'd be falling apart in fewer jumps than I could count on a hand (at best!).

Saving Hawaii

All things considered, I hate the "taxpayer advocates" who ***** all day long about the "horrendous" taxes and yet couple that with this notion that they should receive some kind of obligatory service without even paying.

banjo_mole 

I do this because I love it.

That made me laugh, props to you!

HoustonB

Obviously you are choosing to compare use of a child's trampoline by a child and ignoring that there are trampolines designed for adults. Also how is it possible to compare a child using something designed for a child with vehicles using a road - unless I am very much mistaken roads are designed for vehicles, please correct me if i am wrong.

In my opinion it would be eminently fair for people to pay according to their use - heavy vehicle combined with high mileage equals pay through the nose. People are free to choose a lighter, more economical vehicle or cut back on superfluous journeys.

Allister

That old chestnut.

I refuse to validate the prejudices of the ignorant. I have no more desire to be an 'ambassador for cycling' than I do to be an 'ambassador for white men'.

I don't antagonise drivers. They antagonise me.

fordfasterr

You are wrong.

Roads are designed for transportation.

mcgreivey

Just brainstorming here....

Let's say it costs $100 a year to register my car (I don't remember the actual number offhand). My car weighs something like 2500 lbs. My bike weighs 25 lbs or so. So I should have to pay $1 a year to register my bike. Yeah, I could live would that. Of course, they'd probably have to charge $51, to offset the administrative costs of processing bike registrations. Hey, look! a jobs program!

Then they'd need to expect the police to inspect bikers' registrations. You'd need to hire more police. But there'd be fines, which would (depending on the state, I guess) go to the town or the county, to help offset the cost of more police. Local revenue enhancement! If the fines are set at the right level, municipalities could actually make a profit. Cool.

Maybe shoes should be registered as well. Let's say, to make it easy, that every pair of shoes weighs 1 lb. I guess that's 7 cents registration fee (rounding up...is my math right?), plus $50 admin, $50.07. You have to display a registration sticker on your left shoe, and an inspection sticker on your right shoe. Yeah, you have to take your shoes in for inspection once a year. If they fail, you have to walk home barefoot. Just think of the increased revenue for shoe stores and shoe repair shops! It could save our economy!

I'm still thinking.

hurricane harry

one dollar per pound.

andrelam

For the fun of it I just pulled our the registration on my 2 cars. Registration is good for 2 years to eliminate yearly paperwork. These numbers are from NY State famous for all its taxes...
Car 1 - 2003 Station wagon that weights 3525 - 2 year cost: 65.00 (32.25 per year)
Car 2 - 1998 Sedan that weighs 3272 - 2 year cost: 52.50 (26.26 per year)

Car 1 - $0.009 per Lbs
Car 2 - $0.008 per Lbs

Clearly NY State does not price the registration cost per Lbs in an exact linear fasion, but my sample is too small... either way, I'll average the two and come to $0.0085 per Lbs.

Bike 1 (hybrid) weights about 33 Lbs therefore my yearly registration should be: $0.28
Bike 2 (road bike) weighs about 19 Lbs therefore my yearly registration should be: $0.16

Since cost of postage is about twice what the state would collect then how about a lifetime registation fee. How does 10 years sound? That would mean I'd pay $2.80 for my hybrid and an other $1.60 for my road bike. Now that is REALY going to help the state coffers

Ofcourse this is all sillyness. I pay plenty of local taxes and those are the funds that go to maintaining the streets I ride on. I already have a drivers license so that lets me drive any car, or truck up to something like 22,000 Lbs. I think that should cover my 19 Lbs bike. If not, why not add some difficult questions to the road test:
- A bike should ride on what side of the street (right or left)
- A bike should (stop/run) red traffic lights
- A car should (share the road with/run off the road) any bicycle they encounter on the road
- A bike (must/should not) use lights after dark
- A drivers license (can/cannot) be revoked if you ride/drive your bike/car at or above the legal blood alcohol content
Now everyone will have proven that they understand how to interact in traffic with a bicycle so the licence should automatically add the right to ride a bike to the basic license.

If road users could answer the above 5 questions correctly life would be much better on the roads for veryone .

Happy riding,
André

banjo_mole 

You know what, I ride a bicycle because its free.

And I realize now that what i'm being told is that the government is going to invade my personal life and force me to register to ride my bicycle.

Next what, registering my shoes?

This is ridiculous.
I will not have people controlling my choice of transport unless it is an automobile.

To me, a bicycle represents freedom.

The Human Car

On the subject of specialized tax, why are walkers and joggers exempt? They supposedly exist in greater numbers then bicyclists and they utilize some portion of the transportation right-of-way. So if there is talk of getting each mode to pay their way we should also have a shoe and sneaker tax.

If we can't get people to see reason maybe we can get them to see folly.

trekker pete

It pretty much already is. Fuel taxes paid are directly proportional to fuel used and fuel used is roughly proportional to vehicle weight.

This whole fuel tax question is going to be coming up in the relatively near future. As we start to use electric cars, and trust me, we will, fuel use will drop, along with fuel tax revenue.

You know what that means. The pols will be coming after us for road use tax on electricity.

I think bikes will be safe for now. Mainly because there's no money in taxing such a small group. If the US starts looking like china 30 years ago with bikes everywhere, you can damn well bet they will be after us.

atbman

For a thorough debunking of thebike tax/licence argument:

https://www.toronto.ca/budget2005/pdf...censingcyc.PDF

Recommend it.

The Human Car

As much as I love that link it is talking about Canada and not USA.

dougmc

But there's little about it that's only applicable to Canada -- in general, the same thoughts apply to the US.

Here is another page that debunks the idea that `cyclists don't pay taxes'. Granted, it's Missouri rather than {whatever state one may live in}, but again, the ideas generally apply to the entire country.

tandemedge

I'll pay taxes to ride on the road if I can get a refund on taxes paid on items that I don't use like schools. We could have a point of use tax using only the moneys collected to fund the project. Let's be real ... taxing and registration on bicycles is just a moronic answer to our self centered life style in this country. Wake up and smell the exhaust!

The Human Car

Another good link, thanks. But the rub is that while I would guess generally there are similarities between states and between countries every state in the US handles highway funding differently and just being different can be enough ammo for those who don't want to hear that we might possibly be paying our own way.

ProsecutedBiker

Hmm, how does a tax make sense? Bikers cut down on air pulution and get excersize, the government should give us tax BREAKS definently not Taxes lol

Pig_Chaser

Yeah, and i bet every cager that takes the time to write in to the editor thinks they're the first one to come up with it "ooo ooo ooo i have an idea!"

Are u sure you're only 14?

frymaster

the "lol" is the dead giveaway

ProsecutedBiker