petition to bring bike road tax in line with cars

[utopia]

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48869

Its about time we kicked up a fuss about this.
And if we don't, nobody else will.

[Akita Boy]

Signed, not that I can see the old Etonian millionaires reducing any sort of tax for anyone!

[simon_g]

Not sure where the 16.5g/km for the VFR comes from - this doc (http://www.righttoride.co.uk/virtuallibrary/environmental/emmissionsbasedscheme070909.pdf) has it at 158g, which is worse than many cars.

I agree in principle, but the reality would be that a lot of people on quicker bikes would pay substantially more than £78pa.

[jonzi]

This is doing the rounds on a few bike forums

And most of them say that bikers would be worse of

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=74&t=1311709&mid=0&nmt=HM+Govt%3A++Bring+Motorcycle+road+tax+inline+w ith+that+of+cars

[don_matese]

yeah, my carbie M600 would be stupidly expensive... in the old days where Vehicle Excise duty was based on engine size a 600 or an 800 would be cheap but gCo2/Km means its more polluting than any car (specially as its running rich)

[mintyhit]

... yeah I would hate to know what the Co2 would be on my bike, I barely get 20mpg on my bike in town!

[utopia]

I didn't really do the sums, but I guess that it is likely that many bikes would cause more emissions PER MILE than a lot of cars.
But my gut feeling is that a lot of the so called eco friendly car engines only live up to their clean image under certain limited operating conditions. And furthermore, their relatively minimal benefits over conventional engines are reflected in an eco concession which far outweighs their actual emissions benefits.
In my opinion, this is all a kind of sub/semi conscious economic policy which is really just designed to sell more new vehicles, when the environmental benefits of sticking with the old ones and avoiding all the production costs to the environment of making new ones in such large numbers would be of far greater environmental value.
Another point to consider, as I alluded to earlier, is that most bikes do far less annual mileage compared to cars. I would guess around 30% of the annual mileage of a family car is about average, which translates directly into a 30% reduction in emissions.
And still further, many bikers run two or more bikes, which further reduces the emissions attached to each tax disc that they buy.
I think perhaps the only fair answer would be to put road tax on fuel, and then the emissions would be naturally balanced against mileage and fuel consumption.
Or how about a road tax for bikers based on the rider themselves, rather than the bike. ... for example, it bugs me that I could go fishing today on my Dommie if it had some road tax, but instead I would be forced to go on the monster which is impossible to load the tackle onto, and would leave me in constant paranoia that it would be gone when I returned after parking it in the wilds, unattended all day.
So maybe this petition still doesn't propose the ideal solution, but anything that brings the issue to the attention of the policymakers is a good thing as far as I'm concerned, even if the logic is not quite perfect at the moment. ....despite my forum name, I have long since given up on hoping that one day we'll all see sense and sort things out properly, but its good to keep up some gentle pressure, I reckon.

[utopia]

Oh, and in fact, just for interest's sake, I regularly get over 50mpg from my 750 monster, whether I tootle around or thrash it on a trackday ....and that's with open termis on it. .......:biggrin:

[Black Bob]

The VED on a bike, even at 78 quid, is such a tiny proportion of a bike's running costs that it is not worth the bother, frankly.

[nambduke]

At least it's not £490 a year like it is for my M5

But it's great to drive so who cares!

Best regards
Mark

[gary tompkins]

I would say £50 a year would be fair for most bikes up to 1000cc that return at least 50mpg

Cars that average this and are quoted max 60mpg+ like my own only pay £35 tax a year

super efficient bikes like 125's that return over 100mpg should be tax free IMO

[popelli]

not signed, its poorly drafted and ill thought out as other people have said the way its worded may end up costing many bikers more money

better thought out and drafted properly I'd have no hesitation in signing it

[Nickj]

I once had an MR2 when this tax by emissions levels was bought in, this had one of Toyotas first real lean burn engines the 4A-GE but later changed to a GZE which was a bit poor but what can you expect from a supercharged engine (shed loads of fun, drifting before it became a more popular pastime).
So on testing it originally came out as qualifying for one of the new cheap bands under the emissions levels but was disqualified as it was old. I generated a whole string of mails from MPs, DVLA it was almost a fun hobby!!
The new green cars cost much more in energy costs to build than older cars, they use less fuel but on balance they are pretty equal over their lifetime. It sounds a bit contra intuitive but an old car is probably now 'greener' that a new hybrid and massively more so than any electric car which are all green disasters.


So this feckwit has put out a petition that begs to have a few new bikes qualify for a reduced rate of tax BUT most would leave the vast majority paying the same or even more.
Love it, if anyone knows this Paul Sealey give has arse a good kicking next time you see him

[OliRS]

I'm not signing any such thing, most of us will be worse off. We bikers get off pretty lightly as a rule! :)