I thought I would try a bike ride to start you off this morning:
"Cities see bicyclists as a possible new source of revenue…. some type of cycling registration and tax…. tax on the purchase of a new bike…. the idea that cyclists aren’t paying their fair share has resonated."
This after the propaganda pre$$ and ma$$ media mouthpiece of elite wealth told you it was all to $ave the planet! I warned you about greedy, bankrupt, money-grubbing government that gives your tax loot to well-connected corporate interests while funding their own lavish political lifestyles.
Now you know why "conservatives" don't like bikes.
Yeah, that's the answer to the poisoning of land, sea, and air, the corexit and goop oil in the Gulf, and the endless Fukushima radiation dump: more bike paths!
"As city cycling grows, so does bike tax temptation" by Jason Keyser | Associated Press, December 27, 2013
CHICAGO — Early blasts of snow, ice, and below-zero temperatures have not stopped a surprising number of Chicago cyclists from spinning through the slush this winter, thanks in part to a city so serious about accommodating them that it deploys mini-snowplows to clear bike lanes.
Yeah, just take your life into your hands after swallowing that fart-misting lie.
The snow-clearing operation is just the latest attention city leaders have lavished on cycling — from a growing web of bike lanes to the nation’s second-largest shared network of grab-and-go bicycles stationed all over town.
But it also spotlights questions that have been raised here, in a city wrestling with deep financial problems, and across the country.
Who is paying for all of this bicycle upkeep? And shouldn’t bicyclists be kicking in, themselves?
As long as it is anybody but the top 1%.
A city councilwoman’s recent proposal to institute a $25 annual cycling tax set off a lively debate that eventually sputtered out after the city responded with a collective ‘‘Say what?’’
A number of gruff voices spoke in favor, feeding off of motorists’ antagonism toward what they deride as stop- sign-running freeloaders. Bicycle-friendly bloggers retorted that maybe pedestrians ought to be charged a shoe tax to use the sidewalks.
I actually saw that the bikers are turning into assholes now.
‘‘There’d be special bike cops pulling people over? Or cameras? What do you do [to enforce this]?’’ asked Mike Salvatore, owner of Heritage Bicycles, a new hangout that blends a lively cafe with a custom bike-building workshop in a 19th-century building.
$ounds like a plan. Already have the cameras and getting more.
Chicago is by no means the only place in the United States tempted to see bicyclists as a possible new source of revenue, only to run into questions of fairness and enforceability. That is testing the vision of city leaders who are transforming urban expanses with bike lanes and other amenities in a quest for relevance, vitality, and livability — never with enough funds.
Citibank making profits though!
Two or three states consider legislation each year for some type of cycling registration and tax — complete with decals or small license plates, said a National Conference of State Legislatures policy specialist, Douglas Shinkle. This year, it was Georgia, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. The Oregon legislation, which failed, would have even applied to children.
Who do you think would be paying that, parents? I would tell the kid no bike, sorry.
‘‘I really think that legislators are just trying to be as creative as possible and as open to any sort of possibilities to fill in any funding gaps. Everything is on the table,’’ he said.
Except taxing well-connected intere$ts or indu$tries as a strong stock market and better business climate have continued to concentrate American wealth in the top 1 percent.
It’s not a new idea. The Netherlands, where a cycling lifestyle has long been the norm, had bike taxes from 1924 to 1941, when the Nazis did away with it in a gesture meant to win over the Dutch.
Those damn Nazis! First they throw out central bankers and then they revoke bike taxes! No wonder the jew$paper hates them so much!
Related: Boston's Breakfast Box Bomb
Also see: Hiding Hess
The drug-addicted murderess is out of jail?
Hawaii has had a statewide bike registration law for decades, as has the normally tax-hating city of Colorado Springs, though in both cases, they are one-time fees and all proceeds go toward bicycle infrastructure.
In Colorado Springs, the proposal came from the cycling community itself. The $4 tax on the purchase of a new bike has been in place since 1988, and no one seems to mind. It raises only up to $150,000 a year, but it is useful as a local match for federal grants.
And it gives cycling advocates leverage when pushing for bike projects. For one thing, it has revealed that 25,000 bikes are sold each year, a big number in a city of 430,000.
I think I'm going to get off the Boston Globe bike now.
‘‘The idea was to legitimize bicycles,’’ said Al Brody, a cycling enthusiast and retired Air Force officer who once coaxed a city councilwoman on a trek up Pikes Peak to lobby for opening up the mountain roadway to bicyclists. ‘‘It’s in your face: We’re paying taxes, this is how many bikes we’re selling.’’
I don't like anything or anybody in my face. Is there anyone who reacts well to that?
Portland, Ore., is handing over entire traffic lanes to cyclists downtown, irritating some business people.
Uh-oh.
Robert Huckaby, who owns a moving company, tried but couldn’t raise $1 million to get a measure on Oregon’s statewide ballot to require a bicycle registration fee and licensing. He acted after the city permanently closed a road that was a main entrance for his business, because cyclists blowing a stop sign were getting hit by vehicles making turns.
‘‘The unfortunate part is that we want to be known as the bike-friendly city of the United States, but no one’s listening to John Public,’’ Huckaby said. ‘‘They’re just listening to basically the City of Portland and the bicyclists.’’
Welcome to the ignored club. I think there are seats in back behind the environmentalists and latest groups to realize that. Us antiwar folk are in front.
In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made bike lanes and bike programs a signature issue, believing it makes downtown an attractive place for bright young people and innovative companies.
Why does that not $urpri$e me at all?
More bikes means less pollution, less traffic congestion, practically zero wear and tear on the city’s roads, and a healthier population.
As long as you get safe passage.
Nevertheless, the idea that cyclists aren’t paying their fair share has resonated.
But not the wealthy and rich, huh -- except around election time.
But many bike riders are also car owners who pay the fuel tax that helps fund highway construction, or homeowners who pay property taxes, which go partly toward road work.
The city councilwoman didn’t do herself any favors by trying to sell her bike tax as an alternative to a hike in cable TV taxes; opponents accused her of wanting to subsidize couch potatoes at the expense of healthy cyclists.
Oh, the word subsidy actually made my whoreporate pre$$. Totally out of context, of course, but hey, what's one more diversion off the beaten trail?
Good or bad policy, some bikers feel the debate heralds cycling’s reemergence into the American mainstream.
This as the former bicycling nations of China and India are taking to cars while U.S. auto manufacturers continue to build overseas factories and offshore American jobs.
Translation: The re$urgence of the bicycle means a LOWER STANDARD of LIVING for you, Amurkn.
‘‘Who would have taken [the councilwoman] seriously 10 years ago?’’ Salvatore, 32, said.
‘‘Seriously, 10 years ago, there was [only] a handful of nut cases who biked around Chicago.’’
We have a few here, and I used to be one when I (embarrassingly) believed all the fart-mist and altruistic appeals.
Never again!
--more--"
Also see: Providence moving ahead with bike share program
