First bicycle tax in nation leaves bike-crazy Oregon riders deflated

a reply to: seasonal

Central, Eastern and outside of cities is more Conservative on average there. Albeit may be less included to use the bikes in rural areas, being use seems more common in city areas. Overall the tax will likely hurt the lower income bracket as well as even the upper brackets who are hurting more noW days.

LMAO Just wait until Weed is legalized by the FED... Gonna be a heavy TAX passed for that...

I guarantee ...

When will everyone realize that a YUGE FED GUBMINT is very BAD for the Folks?

Ah, another way to stick it to people, especially transportation wise, because they can. Next up is bicycle licensing in cities-one source.

a reply to: seasonal

originally posted by: randomtangentsrme
Working in a bike heavy college town I'm of two minds about this.
Part of me really likes this idea and $15 per bike is not a lot of money (less than 1% of the bike's cost).

However part of me would rather not have the $15 tax, but would rather see the local law enforcement ticket bicyclists who break traffic laws.

I'm with ya. College town here too. I'd really like to see the cops start enforcing laws on bicyclists. Apparently most of them don't think STOP signs apply to them.

I'd also like to see them herding the people who walk down the middle of busy streets three abreast to the perfectly good sidewalk along that street. If it needs to be explained to them what the sidewalk is for, so be it, but they need to at least be warned that they can be charged with obstructing traffic.

They should also be required to have reflective materials on their bikes for night riding. We've had three incidents of students wearing dark clothes and no reflective materials on the bike being hit on a dark street. I'm sure those three have learned their lesson but I don't want to be the person who teaches #4 this horrible truth.

I think that in my region there is some small increase in hard core bicyclists, but IMO most people here have an attitude about it. Anyone who is riding a bicycle is either a youngster that can't drive a car, or they are some low life alcoholic with DUIs. There is little to no respect for cyclists, who ever they may be. In Michigan, licenses, registrations and insurance is only on "motor vehicles" everything else is a pedestrian, be they on foot, a bicycle, on horse back or in an Amish buggy.

The constitution is supposed to ensure free travel, of course with the lack of responsible taxation and out of control government expenses, the system is eating itself form the inside out. Naturally they will make you pay for any and every thing you do. Land of the free, sure, home of the brave, right.

I agree with Zimnydran. They aren't creating taxes and fees to help engineer a healthier or less wasteful society, it's all about making people pay for their God given right to exist. Parasites on the people who are just trying to do the right thing, all while letting the big polluters and resource exploiters go on getting rich by destroying the only planet we have to live on. Not a problem because a corporation is a person with rights, and yet are not a citizen, or even a human being for that matter. There's a hell of a loop hole for you.

As far as taxing toilet paper, they already do that along with the turds you flush down the toilet. Taxes will fix everything (yea right), like the so called sin taxes. I guess trying to live healthy and helping to save the environment is a sin now. It isn't adding any revenue to the government or the health system if you live a healthy less consumer driven lifestyle, so you are a bad person for not supporting the system like the rest of the lazy, unhealthy and irresponsible masses. And lets punish the poor folk who ride a bicycle year in and out in all weather, because that is the only transportation they can afford or are allowed to have.

More and more I'm driven to the idea that whatever you can do that is illegal and get away with it, is the only real freedom we can experience. Even if you are caught and have to pay your debt to the system, that is the consequence of living your life freely while not having the resources and connections to skirt the laws meant for the common sucker citizen.

I wish there was a middle finger emoji because I'd give one to the government.

.I..
( ) There, that's pretty close.

Carbon tax credits on cyclists ? I can see that. They emit much more CO2 than a person at rest.
I gotta remember to take medicine

I've always had issue with misuse of fuel taxes, they were and are intended to maintain and finance the roads, local, state and federal.

They are getting vacuumed up by urban mass transit and bike, walk, jog paths that nationwide are costing billions.

Meanwhile the very infrastructure fuel taxes were "supposed" to be for are crumbling and Congress pleads for more money on top fuel taxes.

Nearby a rural town just did 20 miles of these paths using State and federal grants from you guessed it, the highway funds.

That particular trail system is not used for commuting - its primarily used for recreational purposes. We'll ain't that nice! Meanwhile adjacent roads are poor shape but they sure do have some purdy bike paths.

I say let users pay for it via tolls and get your grubby hands off the highway funds.

Same for mass transit users, stop subsidizing your ride with highway fund and pay actual costs in fares.

You want shoulder widening and dedicated bike lanes on existing roads, pay for it!

Oregon has right idea doing its fee.

And yes following traffic laws and holding liability insurance should be heavily considered for adult riders.

To many Prima Donna snot heads among you that feel its "anything goes" and you've misrably failed to self police so it's time for change.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Thats an amazing insight. I hadnt thought of that. But your right. The more lanes they get, the fewer lanes for autos, reducing the governments take on taxes while increasing government expenditure.

a reply to: seasonal

What whiners! They want to tax those who drive a car, but not themselves? Hypocrites!! Deal with it. Seems fair to me.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: burdman30ott6

Thats an amazing insight. I hadnt thought of that. But your right. The more lanes they get, the fewer lanes for autos, reducing the governments take on taxes while increasing government expenditure.

Agenda 21 or 2030 My mind fails me.. but one of them is to shrink vehicle pathways in favor of walking and cycling...

a reply to: seasonal

This is a symptom of a systemic failure if justified simply as a means to an end FOR and BY a budget in mind.

The very notion of trying to tax this is probably linked to a carbon tax for the carbon footprint a biker makes with all the extra breathing and all.

What ever the notion, justification or reason otherwise it is abusrd in premise always.

They cant attach wheels to a frame with pedals and brakes without paying TAXES on the right to do so?

No. This is ABSURD.

EDIT TO ADD:

Who is going to enforce this? What if Oregoneans say no to new BS taxes? Who is called to put people back in check?

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
a reply to: seasonal

What whiners! They want to tax those who drive a car, but not themselves? Hypocrites!! Deal with it. Seems fair to me.

Oregon’s bike tax seems designed to address a familiar straw-man argument: that cyclists use streets without paying for them. Such a belief ignores the fact that all U.S. taxpayers pay for roads, whether or not they own cars—which most cyclists do. Furthermore, bikes’ physical impact on roads is close to nil. Some argue that bikes represent an infrastructure cost savings, in that they take heavy-bearing cars off the road.

*shrug* Property taxes are supposed to help with that as are taxes on the dollar. Paying twice already when it comes from car usage.

Legislators pushing the tax—an idea that’s swirled in Oregon, Washington, and other statehouses for years—“felt that bicycles ought to contribute to the system, bicycle owners ought to contribute to the system, irrespective of the fact that most of them also own a car,” Senator Lee Beyer, who helped write the bill, told Oregon Public Broadcasting in May.

Source
Ouch paying three times to use the roads.

That' not even to mention in come tax. -Oregon 9.9%

How does anyone afford Oregon anymore? LOL

a reply to: dreamingawake

Property taxes do not pay for roads my county gets a cut of state fuel taxes for that purpose that goes to a roads and bridges account.

If one is bicycle commuting one is not "paying as they go" for the highways as other drivers do when purchasing fuel.

I specifically don't have problems with that until money is spent out of highway funds for dedicated lanes or paths.

The bicycle commuters need to fund it if they desire special separate surfaces to ride upon besides existing roads.

The inherent dangers involved are a voluntary choice - not one others should pay for.

There is no double or triple taxation as you claimed or implied.

a reply to: Phoenix

Build the paved bike paths... install toll booths... let the bikers pay the fee for their exclusive asphalt... going green by having their own oil based track.... riding on cycles lubed by petroleum based products to ensure that the bike works properly and gets them cynically from point A to B...

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
I think that in my region there is some small increase in hard core bicyclists, but IMO most people here have an attitude about it. Anyone who is riding a bicycle is either a youngster that can't drive a car, or they are some low life alcoholic with DUIs. There is little to no respect for cyclists, who ever they may be. In Michigan, licenses, registrations and insurance is only on "motor vehicles" everything else is a pedestrian, be they on foot, a bicycle, on horse back or in an Amish buggy.

The constitution is supposed to ensure free travel, of course with the lack of responsible taxation and out of control government expenses, the system is eating itself form the inside out. Naturally they will make you pay for any and every thing you do. Land of the free, sure, home of the brave, right.

I agree with Zimnydran. They aren't creating taxes and fees to help engineer a healthier or less wasteful society, it's all about making people pay for their God given right to exist. Parasites on the people who are just trying to do the right thing, all while letting the big polluters and resource exploiters go on getting rich by destroying the only planet we have to live on. Not a problem because a corporation is a person with rights, and yet are not a citizen, or even a human being for that matter. There's a hell of a loop hole for you.

As far as taxing toilet paper, they already do that along with the turds you flush down the toilet. Taxes will fix everything (yea right), like the so called sin taxes. I guess trying to live healthy and helping to save the environment is a sin now. It isn't adding any revenue to the government or the health system if you live a healthy less consumer driven lifestyle, so you are a bad person for not supporting the system like the rest of the lazy, unhealthy and irresponsible masses. And lets punish the poor folk who ride a bicycle year in and out in all weather, because that is the only transportation they can afford or are allowed to have.

More and more I'm driven to the idea that whatever you can do that is illegal and get away with it, is the only real freedom we can experience. Even if you are caught and have to pay your debt to the system, that is the consequence of living your life freely while not having the resources and connections to skirt the laws meant for the common sucker citizen.

I wish there was a middle finger emoji because I'd give one to the government.

.I..
( ) There, that's pretty close.

Being in the same state, what this guy said ^^

I'll also throw in that taxing more won't fix much if you're trying to tax away the stupid. If you want to tax people that f# everything up for everyone, it's the drivers that earn it here (seriously goddamn awful drivers in MI, never bitching about New Yorkers or Q-tips in FL again), but this state already has stupid high insurance to try to remedy stupid drivers' f# ups (call it the Forever Medical Clause for simplicity's sake) and it doesn't work. Ergo, hiking taxes on them won't make it better, either. Taxing alternative modes of transport, or taxing them more, won't help fix stupid.

yeah, I remember way back when, when they said that increasing the tax on gas would be used to improve the roads,and then they said the money from lotteries would be used to improve the schools,so after 40 years of sucking the tax payers dry how are the roads and schools?

a reply to: JacKatMtn

They'll squeal when it hurts. Just like always.

a reply to: JacKatMtn

I'd hazard a guess that most bicycles use much less oil than a car...

All I see is a bunch of broke a$$ bicyclists and some lazy a$$ drivers. I work and I bicycle. Bring on the $15 for a bike over $200 With wheels over 26". Any children's bike is exempt. It's not an annual tax.... I don't see the problem with the tax at all. I do see a problem with motorists. Ripping into bicyclists not wanting to be taxed more than other people. No one wants to be taxed. S'why we had a damn revolution.