More cyclists might mean fewer cars on the road

Did I really see someone berating cyclists in the Evening Post and saying that they ‘don’t pay road tax’?

This old chestnut is regularly aired by people who are very much out of touch.

In Great Britain, according to the DVLA, road tax disappeared in 1937, but it is still, seventy years later, used in anti-bicycle arguments. Take a look at this website, from cycling journalist Carlton Reid, that is actually called ‘I pay Road tax’;  http://ipayroadtax.com/.

Our local cycle registration scheme proposals are even mentioned on the site, together with some comments on how well clearly numbered bikes are doing in London.

All Barclays Hire Bikes have a clear registration number on them so that any law breakers can be easily identified, or not, as the case may be. Here in Jersey, road tax went in 1994 and instead a tax was put on fuel. This was an unusually sensible move that meant the more miles you covered, the more you paid.

After all, this was a tax that paid for the upkeep of the roads among other things. This came as a massive relief to all of us who used to make the annual pilgrimage to the Chelsea Hotel in Gloucester Street to pay the tax on our vehicles.

Huge queues would build up as people renewed their motor tax in the 1960s

In those days the Motor Taxation Department – I think that was what it was called – moved lock, stock and barrel to the hotel which was closed for the winter.

This must have been a mammoth task, because at the time, the department kept all its records on paper. I’ll never forget the huge queues assembled in front of the temporary wood and chicken wire counters, a scene reminiscent of Soviet Russia.

So there you are, cyclists don’t use any of the earth’s diminishing fossil fuel reserves, so they don’t pay the fuel tax, and nobody at all pays any road tax.

Even if motorists did still pay it, surely it is a benefit for them to have more people cycling? Just think, more cyclists would mean fewer of the Island’s 113,605 vehicles on the road.

This would mean fewer vehicles in front of you on your daily commute, it would free up more car parking spaces, and there would be more fuel around. Taking the thinking a bit further, cyclists are generally much fitter, so there would be a lot more space in the hospital.

It’s almost worth paying people to cycle!

Sprint Bonuses

Good news if you have any SRAM components on your bike; SRAM have just opened a Dealer Direct Service centre in Windsor to service the United Kingdom.

Although this is primarily to look after cycle dealers and bike companies that fit SRAM as original equipment, for the cycling public it should mean a quicker turn-around of warranty issues and also that more cycle dealers are SRAM trained.

You’ll find the importer for SRAM in the United Kingdom at: http://www.fisheroutdoor.co.uk/fisheroutdoor.html

Could the tide be turning, at last, against careless drivers who kill innocent cyclists through their appalling driving? Last week, lorry driver, Dennis Putz was imprisoned for seven years and banned from driving for life at London Crown Court. While he was one and a half times over the drink- drive limit, and on his mobile phone, Putz had turned left in front of 39-year-old cyclist Catriona Patel and crushed her to death.

During the trial, it was revealed that Putz had had twenty disqualifications, including several drink-driving convictions and several for careless driving. The maximum sentence for this offence is fourteen years imprisonment.

The 2012 Tour de France will start in Liege in Belgium. The first event will be a prologue time trial. Because the 2012 London Olympic Games starts at the end of July, the tour will start earlier than usual on the 30th June.

If you need brilliant advice about bike touring you could do a lot worse than go to www.bicycletouringpro.com. This site that is produced by young American Darren Alff is full of good information. Darren is leaving the States to tour Peru very shortly, he plans to pick up a suitable bike when he gets there. That should be interesting.

Another site that is well worth a visit is the Adventure Cycling Association: http://www.adventurecycling.org/

A new campaign that has been going in the United Kingdom for just over a week is ‘Bike Aware’. This campaign was created by David Love, vice chairman of the London Cycling Campaign and long term cycle activist. At the heart of the campaign are plans to get cycling incorporated into an overall driving test.

http://www.bikeaware.org.uk/

Back to his roots for Lance Armstrong?  It looks like the seven-time Tour de France winner is returning to triathlon. He makes his return to the sport in Rotorua in New Zealand at the end of January, a week or so after his last bike race, The Tour Down Under. There are rumours that Armstrong is considering the 2011 Hawaii Iroman. Look at this clip from 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKhIhHyAXVA&NR=1

And Finally,

You must visit the site of the Melbourne Bikefest. Apart from being a very interesting and switched-on site, the short ‘Once Bitten’ films are great! Do car drivers really regard cyclists as vampires?

http://www.melbournebikefest.com.au/

Arthur Lamy is a freelance writer and tourist guide specialising in cycling : www.cycleinjersey.com