Do you really think that a group of people with an average per-person income of over $90k who are riding a vehicle that does no damage to the road are a horrible succubus on the average counties road budget?
> First, 90% of Americans of driving age own a car and pay gas tax.
Yup. For which they pay for their automobile’s use of the roads, the road’s maintenance and for new roads being built.
> Do you really think that a group of people with an average per-person income of over $90k who are riding a vehicle that does no damage to the road are a horrible succubus on the average counties road budget?
That’s not the point. Bicycles use the roads, bicycles should pay their share. Using your logic, if you owned a truck and paid truck gas taxes you should be allowed to drive your car tax-free. That doesn’t work!
And why should it matter whether bike riders earn $90,000 per annum or $10,000 per annum? It doesn’t.
Bicycles often require bike lanes, which nobody but bikes are allowed to use. There’s one not far from where I live: it runs from Te Atatu to Auckland along the Northwestern Motorway — a significant stretch of pavement. I doubt as many as 200 bikes use it each day, making it one of the most expensive pieces of pavement in all of New Zealand. For which the bike riders paid not a cent!
Why should my gas tax pay for that bike lane?
Bike riders are all freeloaders who do not pay their fair share of the transportation infrastructure. Bike riders have an expectation of a God-given right to ride for free, which makes them the Welfare Bums of the Hiway.