Following recent comments about the misnomer of 'road tax or road
fund licenece' . I am enclosing the response I got when I raised
with CTC the idea that they should front a campaign to attack this
myth.
Regards
Martyn
Dear Martyn
You're right, there's a lot of mythology about the road fund, and it
comes up time and again when individual drivers are feeling aggrieved
with cyclists.
On the other hand, there are huge numbers of messages we'd like to get
across to drivers. CTC did produce a report some time ago ("Costing
the
benefits"😉 showing the cost savings to the wider economy from
achieving
a shift to higher rates of cycle use (e.g. reduced absenteeism, health
service costs, road maintenance costs, pollution costs etc). However,
"getting messages out to the wider population" is easier said than
done.
It generally requires megabucks marketing campaigns because so many
organisations are trying to communicate so many messages with the
wider
public! And we too have plenty of other messages we are trying to
communicate to drivers - "leave enough space when overtaking a cyclist
'cos s/he may need space to dodge a pothole", "obeying the speed limit
DOES matter", "cyclists are allowed on roads even when there is a
(frequently useless) cycle track provided" etc etc etc....
In short, it's fair to say we generally deal with these issues on a
piecemeal basis (e.g. in our responses when 'external events' put
these
issues on the news agenda), rather than trying to do so in a concerted
and proactive way.
Best wishes
Roger
-----Original Message-----
From: Cllr Martyn Bolt [[email hidden]]
Sent: 21 June 2004 17:35
To: Roger Geffen
Subject: car tax
Roger
Has CTC and other cycling groups ever tried to burst the bubble of
the
myth of road fund tax?
Many angry car drivers appear to think their meagre disc pays for the
whole repair to the highways network.
I think this is more accurately referred to as Vehicle excise duty or
Car tax, and is just that a tax on the luxury of owning a car.
the repairs to roads is paid by taxation raised from all sectors of
the
Populus.
I think if a campaign was waged on this issue we could
try and reduce the number of rage incidents
regards
Martyn