New highway code rules

zandvoort blue said:
Be careful what you ask for - you know it`s coming - equality on the highways will result in road tax for cyclists
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This is the most braindead argument I see when this subject is discussed. Road tax was abolished years ago. You now pay a road fund licence dependent on emissions. Electric cars pay nothing. Low emission cars pay nothing.
Cyclists and pedestrians pay nothing. Do you think you, as a pedestrian, should pay "road tax" to have equality on the roads? What is equality anyway? Not being run down or driven at by a fully paid up "taxed" car?

The argument is that because cyclists don't pay road tax they should not be on the roads as they don't contribute towards them. Wrong. Roads are maintained via council tax. My three cars contribute the grand total of £20 a year in road fund licence fees. Not even enough for a one metre long white line to be painted!
 
ctwrd said:
Odd thing about the new rules is you have more rights as a pedestrian now at generic road crossings than you do at a pedestrian crossing.
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Not really. The new hierarchy of road users rules say 'should give way' with respect to non marked crossings, and 'MUST give way' with respect to Zebra crossings. A violation of a 'must/must not' relates to a direct criminal offence under the Road Traffic Act. A violation of 'should/should not' can be used against you in court, even if violating them is not an automatic criminal offence.
 
Personally I think the new rules should work fine in towns and cities but outside major conurbations not so well.

Living on the edge of the pennines, I can tell you that there are significant groups of both motorists and cyclists who are equally culpable when it comes to acting irresponsibly and the new rules will do nothing to change their behaviours.

Taking the cyclists first, there are those who seem to think they are in the tour de france where maintaining momentum is everything. The main bugbear being where they are climbing hills and the whole peleton is waggling their backsides at about 6mph across the whole of the carriageway on an unrestricted A road, unwilling to stop at a safe point to allow other road users to pass or ride single file. Under these circumstances it should be mandated that they ride single file not just recommended. Then they will reach the top and you get the decent down the hill where they will be doing upwards of 40mph where they will compete to see who gets to the bottom first rather than in a controlled manner, again this is irresponsible.

Then there's the motorist who thinks they are a professional motorsport driver, regularly to be found in a hedgerow as they arent as good as they think they are or end up as another statistic, who drive along country roads without any regard whatsoever for pedestrians, cyclists or horse riders. One particular issue is the idiots who insist on having their engine mapped such that it causes the car to backfire on change downs or those with their modified wastegates. Ive seen horse riders thrown off due to horses being startled by the backfire nosie.

The common factor between the two groups is people thinking that they are better than they are and by default better than anyone else i.e. the narcists. Maybe analysing the psychology of people before granting them a licence might be a step in the right direction.
 
manchester blue said:
This is the most braindead argument I see when this subject is discussed. Road tax was abolished years ago. You now pay a road fund licence dependent on emissions. Electric cars pay nothing. Low emission cars pay nothing.
Cyclists and pedestrians pay nothing. Do you think you, as a pedestrian, should pay "road tax" to have equality on the roads? What is equality anyway? Not being run down or driven at by a fully paid up "taxed" car?

The argument is that because cyclists don't pay road tax they should not be on the roads as they don't contribute towards them. Wrong. Roads are maintained via council tax. My three cars contribute the grand total of £20 a year in road fund licence fees. Not even enough for a one metre long white line to be painted!
Click to expand...

Let’s see if electric vehicles pay nothing in 5 years time…
 
There will be an increase in rear end shunts when cars stop on the major road to allow pets to cross. Win win for insurance companies.
 
I don’t know, I’ve always found it quite easy to avoid hitting cyclists and pedestrians with my car. I suppose using my eyes and common sense has helped but hey, who am I to stop people frothing at the mouth if they want to get all irate over something. It seems to be the in thing nowadays to whinge at anything and everything so crack on.
 
I live in Levenshulme and, as far as I'm aware, going off the actions of those driving around me, there appears to be an amnesty on any traffic regs/laws round us and you can basically do whatever the fuck you want. The new Levenshulme druid twats driving around like cunts on their stupid eco-kid-taxi bikes, with most of the cars doing their best to impersonate scenes from mad max. I wish we could go back to "you can't drive through red lights", but that seems to have gone out the window in the past few years.
 
zandvoort blue said:
Be careful what you ask for - you know it`s coming - equality on the highways will result in road tax for cyclists
Click to expand...
"Road Tax" does not exist, hasn't done since 1937 when it was abolished.

Care and upkeep of the roads is paid for through Council Tax, something most people pay, cyclist, car driver, public transport user and pedestrian.

If you mean "Vehicle Excise Duty", that is based on vehicle emissions, which a bicycle produces 0%. Not even electric, zero emission vehicles are subject to paying VED.

Insurance costs for bicycles? Around £2-5 a month. The issue has been looked at many times in Parliament and they've realised it simply isn't practical or logical to treat cycles as motorised vehicles. The only other solution is a dedicated section of the road primarily for bicycles to use, but such an infrastructure would cost billions.

Much cheaper to just ask every road user to share the road, be patient, follow the rules and treat each other with respect.
 
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