Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

:smt046

At some point near an election either local or national an announcement will be made about spending lots of money to improve the roads.

Having crashed on my bicycle because of a pothole I do care about the state of the roads, as some of these potholes are killers, I was lucky, my helmet save me from a head injury, but it's the only one I've not walked or cycled home from.

If councils filled these in, there'd be less damages cases against them.

Use this app to report them, because once reported the council becomes liable for any injury claims

https://www.fillthathole.org.uk/

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

There's a few idle politicians in NI who would be pleased to help. A pothole is likely smaller than the one they're basking in

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

I've noticed, having had a winter break from motorcycle commuting, a significant increase in the number of potholes this winter. Some are so deep there's exposed steel reinforcing wires visible.

I'll be reporting these as soon as i can memorise their locations. Hopefully not in a bad way.

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

VED is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. I reckon I pay more income tax every day I work than the annual VED on my motorbike.

So can someone start a petition for abolition of VED, and a change to fuel taxation so that the tax rate reflects the fossil carbon content of the fuel. Effectively taxing the actual carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles.

That would make renewable fuels much more competitive, but it would make running a traction engine ruinously expensive.

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

No disrespect intended mate but how do you not see a pothole big enough to have you off? I was only slightly tongue in cheek with my earlier post, I do wonder if we're going just a little bit to far with this trend to absolve drivers and riders of all responsibility for their own safety. We all know the roads are traditionally worse at this time of year, we also all know that potholes are not being fixed as quickly as we like. It follows that we should be driving and riding with that in mind and acting accordingly.

It may be that my view is a little distorted having grown up and learnt to drive in South America in a time and location where tarmac on the road was a real bonus, or it may be the thirty years I subsequently spent listening to all the excuses people offer as to why it wasn't their fault they crashed, but I'm definitely not as sympathetic to these issues as some would like.

Rather than jumping up and down and firing off e-mails every time you hit a pothole why don't we just tell ourselves what a muppet we were for not paying attention and resolve to do better next time. It's generally a whole lot more rewarding an approach! I particularly enjoy seeing the hole early and then deviating at the very last moment so the plonker tailgating me gets it full on......

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

I have been out today driving in Shropshire and there are patches of road where it is literally impossible to dodge potholes because they have bred into a rash and cover pretty much the whole width of road. Some you can dodge as long as there is no-one coming the other way as you need to take up most of the other half of road to miss them. I have been driving and riding for more years than I want to remember and cannot honestly think of a time when roads were in such a bad state. A lot of the road signs and names are becoming unreadable because they don't get cleaned any more, road marking are disappearing.

It is not just this time of year either, but seems to be all year round and I bet some potholes are celebrating their first or second birthday. We have just come back from Wales and their roads looked in better condition, as do Scotlands roads when we have been up there. It is often hard to see potholes when they are full of water, so as well as avoiding obvious ones you have to avoid driving through any water on the road - it gets pretty tiring after a while.

There is plenty of money around (if the worlds 5th largest economy cannot spare a few bob to tidy the roads up there is no hope for anyone).

I have lived in both South Africa and Australia where dirt roads were common outside of main urban areas, and paved roads were called 'all weather roads' - sure you were happy to get off the 'washboard' surface onto tarmac or concrete no matter if they had a few potholes (you had to go above 60mph on the straights of dirt roads so that you just kept hitting the top of the ripples and they felt quite smooth, but try to go around a bend at that speed and you literally 'vibrated off the road', and many unwary people did just that). But we are talking about large countries with small populations, so you can understand they may not have had a lot of money for roads except the main highways.

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

TBH it's bad enough where I ride dodging things that are supposed to be there. The more things to look out for, the more likely something will eventually catch you out. There aren't really any excuses - roads should be maintained.

I've seen potholes near a kerb where a cyclist would ride longer than a wheel and over 6 inches deep. In the dark, in the rain, reflections everywhere, in the shadow of a car or van - someone's gonna come a cropper with it. They need fixing.

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

Are better roads in Scotland and Wales linked to grants from Europe?


(I'll now duck)

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

More to do with being subsidised by English taxpayers via skewed Barnett formula which has effectively isolated them from austerity cuts south of the border (or east if you are Welsh), and even if money came from EU as part of the fraction we get back major part of still undoubtedly paid by English taxpayers.

Re: Vehicle Excise Duty Petition (Road Tax)
 

Is that similar to 'Grindr'. ?

:rolleyes: