A half a mile isn’t even a long walk.
I think we ought to ban automatic transmissions and the people who buy and drive them.
Nonsense. We don’t want special rights at all. I just want to be able to ride back and forth to work. Hardly anything that I think could be considered sinister.
So when you see an 8 year old kid on a bike, or a poor guy getting to work the only way he can afford, your first thought is "tax cheat"?
What you should be thinking when you see on of those guys on a $4,000 bike wearing "spandex panties" is "guy that probably pays way more taxes than me and , given my tendency to sit on my lard butt and carp about stupid things on internet forums, is happier and more productive than me".
Being that bicycles and cars are remarkably different vehicles, it should be no surprise to anyone that different practical rules/laws would apply. For example, many of my clients would let me bring my bicycle into the office while denying others the right to park their personal cars alongside their desks. Different rules? Of course.
...and they don't pay one damn cent for road taxes, gasoline taxes, inspections, license plates, operators' licenses, or insurance
Yes, this is a popular myth among many who feel that a person who conducts a personal errand in their car is more noble and should have greater privilege than a lowly cyclist doing the same.
First of all, unless the cyclist in question is a minor or completely without access to any motor vehicle, they pay gasoline taxes, inspections and license plates - its for their vehicles that are parked at home. The last time I checked, inspections, license plate and operator's fees are not contingent on mileage driven. In most cases the bracketing of insurance mileage makes the insurance paid for that parked car the same as that which is on the road. One can also argue that any commerce that involves a motor vehicle at some point, those taxes are passed along to the consumer in the costs of the goods or service. Bicyclists don't live in caves, they are engaged in all kinds of economic activity - in fact, the cost of road taxes are calculated in the retail price of the bicycle.
As for "road taxes", they come in two varieties - the taxes colllected from gasoline, and from license fees. If I have a plate on my parked car, I paid the same road tax as the guy who drives for a living. If anything, amortizing the cost of these fees, and provided that a cyclist rides as a replacement for driving (rather than purely recreational) my costs are higher per mile driven. IOW, I'm paying more per mile of road than you whenever I takes the bicycle out rather than drive.
In terms of the "road tax" from gasoline, at least in Texas, half of that gets squandered within the government school system, the other half allegedly goes towards all budget items related to the roads. (ie. pensions of retired DOT employees). The money that remains goes towards paying for the building and maintenance of limited access State freeways and rest stops, which are by law off-limits to bicycle traffic anyway. Those local roads that you see the vast majority of cyclists on, are paid for in sales and property taxes. I lay odds that bicyclists have homes and they buy things, so they are paying taxes that directly support the roads.
If anything, motor-vehicle traffic is costing ME since my bicycle comes nowhere near the level of damage to the roads that your car does. My "carbon-footprint" is carbon-dioxide and occasionally methane. Your mode of transportation is allegedly so bad that according to the enviro-wackos, you will destroy the entire planet just by idling your car. At the very least, some Mullah in the M.E. thanks you for your transportation choice.
I also see another issue that comes up - apparently it isn't some horrible thing if a person commutes to work on their bicycle, but once the spandex comes on, that same cyclist is transformed into a "yuppie" or a "homosexual" that (by some who I have read here) only deserve to "be shot" or "run off the road".
Lets say that I want to ride 50 miles for recreation. At my weight class, thats a lot of calories shed which is supposed to make me healthier. In this new political environment, where my personal health is now of government interest, I would think that the occupant in the car shoving a Big Mac down their throat as they are whizzing past me would be a larger burden on society than me, who is reducing my chances of requiring medical services (unless that driver shoots me or tries to run me off the road).
Furthermore, why is my recreation "evil" and "selfish" when that Big Mac eater was heading off to watch a movie? We are both using the road, ultimately to satisfy our own recreation. Why is the movie-goer consuming road-space noble, and the cyclist using a tiny fraction of the same road the epitome of all that is wrong with the world?
Most of us learned as kids to not ride bikes on the sidewalks, but these adult "children" are pitching their little spandex hissy fits to have their way
So we pay more per mile in "road taxes", do less harm to the environment, work to reduce the taxpayer's costs in long term healthcare, consume far less road-space, far less likely to kill someone with our transportation choice but once we wear appropriate sports related gear we are transformed from "adults" into "children". No bigotry here. (sigh)
Right, because none of have cars. This is the dumbest thing I've read all day.