"I think more people came to my birthday party": Cyclists react to 'road tax' and licence petition getting... 262 signatures; Lotto-Soudal take on DiCaprio; Cav on puncture duty; Liz Truss talks speed limits; Vuelta summit finish + more on the live blog

hirsute wrote:

Who says the police don't do anything about cyclists running red lights ?

High speed chase !

https://twitter.com/cyclegaz/status/1565428286955610122

I know the rider is a complete moron who will probably hurt himself or worse, someone else but I still had to laugh at him making the Police SUV look silly.

And not the only moron either. 

Amazing how the government allow the import and selling of obvious motorvehicles without insisting on pre-registration. 

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

Amazing how the government allow the import and selling of obvious motorvehicles without insisting on pre-registration. 

Registration is only required for using them on public roads, so it would be presumptious to insist that everything that can go on the roads, will go on the roads (though it does seem likely with e-scooters and e-bikes). It's perfectly legal to ride around on unregistered vehicles on private land e.g. a farm

Bloody cyclists better pay for their fair share of the damage they do to the roads!!

HMRC will be round for their 0.6p per year on the 1st of january. 

I would actually support a "Road Tax" system based on relative damage/wear caused to the road surface (based vehicle weight, ect), with a base rate of £1-2 that applies to cyclists. 
 

It'd be worth it simply to see the looks on the faces of all the DM readers when - having thought they've finally "won", and "stuck it to the bloody cyclists" - they realise it's going to cost them £15,000 a year to keep thier Ford Focus on the road. 

£12bn spent on roads, 40 million licenced vehicles. That gives £300 per vehicle, not quite £15,000.

I was referring to the actual relative damage caused to the road surface by a bicycle compared to a car - I forget the actual equation, but it's based on something like relative load per axle raised to the fourth power - that means that the average hatchback causes thousands of times as much damage to a given square metre of road surface by driving over it once as a bicycle would. 
 

So, if a Road Tax system charged a cyclist £1, the charge to a normal car would be relative to this. Which is where my comical number was coming from. 

I was referring to the actual cost of maintaining the roads, which I'd assume was a better measure of the cost. But I take your point if you are using £1/bicycle as the base unit charge.

I mean, it was quite obviously a joke, but okay. 

That's not the cost of maintaining roads, that is just what is spent each year. The actual cost to maintain is far higher.

Sriracha wrote:

I was referring to the actual cost of maintaining the roads, which I'd assume was a better measure of the cost. But I take your point if you are using £1/bicycle as the base unit charge.

Look at the roads. The actual cost of maintaining roads is not doing so. Deferred maintenance is why they are mostly rubbish.

BalladOfStruth wrote:

I was referring to the actual relative damage caused to the road surface by a bicycle compared to a car - I forget the actual equation, but it's based on something like relative load per axle raised to the fourth power - that means that the average hatchback causes thousands of times as much damage to a given square metre of road surface by driving over it once as a bicycle would. 
 

So, if a Road Tax system charged a cyclist £1, the charge to a normal car would be relative to this. Which is where my comical number was coming from. 

Looks like we need a chart.

By the power of math, I figure that a £1 charge for the heaviest bike rider would be equivalent to £16,666 for an average car.

The "average car" is heavier than a Rav4?

Sriracha wrote:

The "average car" is heavier than a Rav4?

Probably an average car for the U.S.

Especially if you include the occupants.

Sriracha wrote:

The "average car" is heavier than a Rav4?

Wouldn't surprise me. A Rav4 (at least the version that was out when the above table was made) is a compact crossover SUV - essentially a hatchback on stilts - and simply going by the amount of executive saloons, full-size SUVs, and stupid off-road pickups I see in these parts I wouldn't be at all surprised to find the average weight is heavier.

I read somewhere that the average weight of cars sold last year was 1.8t, which is ~200kg heavier than that model of Rav4 (I know that the average weight of the cars sold in a recent period isn't the same thing as the average weight of all cars in the UK, but it's a good indicator).

.

Yeh but. Accuracy, snaccuracy. Facts don't seem to be relevant when closed minds are having a rant.

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Rant? No, I can see a whimisical discussion on fair changes to VED (or whatever renaming is done) if cyclists are expected to pay it.

Only Rant is from you at the end for some unfathomable reason. Or do you want you bike to be taxed and registered?

It's now on iPlayer (until 7pm tomorrow), at 13mins 50sec in...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001bnz1/look-east-west-evening-ne...

Fat lad wasn't at the back !

hirsute wrote:

Fat lad wasn't at the back !

lol! apart from that, it's as you'd imagine!

I'm not sure why they feel the need to demonstrate disarming a knife wielding attacker by throwing a bike at them or apprehending an unsuspecting pedestrian with a skid and a rapid kickstand deployment (which I'm actually much quicker at, as experience means I don't have to stare at the kickstand!).

Police on bikes should be all about covering the beat more efficiently whilst remaining approachable to the public; more visible deterrent and public relations than high(ish) speed chases. You can do all that on a sensible dutch style town bike with dynamo lights so you don't have to stop when it gets dark!

HoarseMann wrote:

You can do all that on a sensible dutch style town bike with dynamo lights so you don't have to stop when it gets dark!

Although when you do stop, they go dark.

MattieKempy wrote:

Why no British National Champion's jersey for Cav? Did I miss something?

Probably in the wash.