A Facebook post featuring a photograph of a group of cyclists in Westbury ‘acting like they own the road’ has started a ‘road tax’ debate.
A resident, who has asked to remain anonymous, submitted the dashcam photograph to Spotted Westbury, a Facebook page sporting 13,000 followers.
They said: “It’s like they own the road! How do you start a petition to make the idiots pay road tax? They get get all fierce when you beep at them? Single file please ladies!”
Many posted a comment purely to point out that ‘road tax’ isn’t a thing. Road tax was abolished in 1937 and replaced by Vehicle Excise Duty – a tax for cars, not roads.
Others announced that the Highway Code says “never ride more than two abreast”. However, from the photograph, it is not confirmed that they are breaking this part of the code.
Robin Mark said: “Personally I would rather they cycle together like this then you can pass them all in one go. Having a long single file line of cyclists would be a far harder obstruction presenting more danger than passing one large group. I’m not a cyclist but I am a motorist and that would be my preference.”
Elliott Tree said: “I expect they pay their council tax so they have paid their road tax as it’s included. They are not driving a vehicle so do not need to pay vehicle excess duty.”
James Engledow said: “What you think of as ‘car tax’ is based on co2 emissions, as bicycles produce zero co2 they would pay £0!”
Tom Parsons said: “I and most other cyclists pay road tax because we also drive cars. Like others have posted it is easier to overtake when the group is like this.”
