Fun fact: beginning in 1919, American cyclists paid a federal excise tax on tires and tubes. Bike tires and tubes were taxed by weight at the same rate as truck tires, and the tax was ended in 1982 because it cost more to collect than it brought in!
Down in Texas, the legislature proposed a special sales tax on bicycles and all cycling gear. Every major cycling organization in the state supported this as a reasonable 'user fee' contribution to the state's transportation needs. The legislature subsequently enacted the tax...and gave the money collected to the Parks and Wildlife department!
Both of these comments illustrate the problem with bicycle taxes. The amount that can be collected is either too small...when taxed using the same formula as for motorists...or the ones suggested are punitive. It comes up a lot in my state and the number being thrown around is on the order of $25 per bicycle. That's about $1 per pound while my 6000 lb old truck is charged about $0.02 per pound. That hardly seems "fair".
Even Oregon's new (highly regressive) $15 per bike sales tax on new bike brings in very little money. The numbers I'm seeing are about $1.2 million. That's enough for about 5 miles of bikeway per year if 100% goes to bicycle projects. Of course there will be administrative fees which will cost a significant amount of money.
One fun fact about Oregon's bill is that it apply to bikes with "a wheel diameter of at least 26 inches." There aren't too many bikes out there with a wheel diameter of 26". Hint: tires are not wheels and the largest common rim is 622mm in diameter. Do the math
