When you're unable to provide safe public transport, you demand people move on foot. Thanks for all the lack of cycling paths and constant tax refund to car buyers I guess?
I mean, given all of the specific taxes in the UK and its municipalities on automobile ownership and operation, I don't find it credible that "car buyers" benefit from a "constant tax refund".
Also, as an outsider, I remember people chiding and undermining Boris Johnson as mayor of London when he tried investing in cycling in London, I literally heard expats making fun of it.
> When you're unable to provide safe public transport
Nobody manufactures any mass-market HVAC system for buildings or vehicles that can do continuous air sterilization at a rate that would reliably prevent the spread of this virus. I know how I would build this, but it isn't a standard component of any vehicle as of yet.
They should demand vehicles like this now, but given that nobody has experienced this sort of thing since public transit was invented, I'm not that let down that public transport isn't safe during a pandemic.
Well - the lack of safe public transport is due to this thing called "global pandemic". The scandal of public transport in the UK is not London. It is Birmingham and also some elements of the North West (connection of towns to greater Manchester in particular).
BTW - car's pay big taxes in the UK via fuel duty - 75% of the cost of petrol is tax.
UK roads are funded from the general tax pot and regular cyclists in the UK – those who cycle at least once a week – are disproportionately likely to have a household income of at least £50,000 per year which means they almost certainly pay more towards road maintainance than the general population (1).
In addition to this this, 83% of UK cyclists live in a household that pays VED in some form (2) anyway.
The argument that cyclists pay no tax and therefore don't deserve to use the roads is rubbish.
(1) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2010/aug/10/cyc...
(2) https://www.eta.co.uk/2013/05/24/more-cyclists-pay-road-tax-...