I was disappointed when I read the letter, "Fund bike lanes with cyclist use-tax" the first time [Aug. 26]. So when the second one came out [Sept. 2], I had to speak up.
If you want to tax me for more bike lanes, I'm OK with that. But if we are going to tax bikers for bike lanes, that means we have to start taxing walkers who use sidewalks. That dad walking down the street with his double-wide baby carriage better have a license plate on that vehicle. It might even need a lead vehicle that says "Wide Load" on it, before and after the baby carriage (for the carriage, not the dad!).
I don't think we should be taxing people who are putting their health first, your driving experience second, and the oil companies last!
I do have a solution that would help us fund bike lanes. Instead of taxing people who are making healthy choices, tax people who are making unhealthy choices. We have a "sin" tax on tobacco and alcohol to help control the sale of it and to generate revenue. Let's generate revenue to help benefit all those healthy bikers and accommodate car drivers. Tax Junk Food! According to the Coke web site, 20.72 billion servings of Coke drinks are sold each day in the US! If we put a 1 cent tax on Coke, the US would make $74.63 billion dollars per year. Now 1 cent isn't going to curb people from drinking a high-fructose, sugary drink, but a 25-cent tax might, thus earning the government $1.9 trillion dollars per year. Wow, with all this money, we could fund things such as care for the mentally disabled, veterans, universal health care — and bike lanes of course! $1.9 trillion dollars and we haven't even talked about Pepsi, Doritos and potato chips!
— Mark Strazzer
Mark, tax payers and those who purchase gasoline are already paying for roads and sidewalks. I think having cyclists chip in for the amenities is just being a good citizen. How about it pal? Chip and and help out?
Trav, we don’t ask carpoolers to “chip in” extra money for using the HOV lanes.
Besides, many people who ride bicycles ALSO have cars and ALSO buy gas and ALSO pay taxes.
Actually, since car poolers usually swap out drivers periodically, they ARE contributing toward paying for the HOV lanes.
Bikers should have to pay for bike lanes when wal mart pays to ship goods on public roads.
WalMart does pay to ship goods on public roads. Every trucker out there pays heavy road taxes based on the weight of their vehicle and freight rates incorporate those excise taxes.
so are ‘activist bikers’ like ‘activist judges’?
Motorists pay some taxes, but not nearly enough to cover the full cost of the roads. First eliminate these huge subsidies for driving, then maybe it would be reasonable to talk about bikes paying for their ~$50 worth of road use per year.
They need to work on improving the roads here before they start making bike lanes. I do not understand where the priorities are anymore, this is ridiculous.