Hacker News Reader

Comment by xradionut | Hacker News Reader

The article mentions "free riders". As a motorist who's auto and gasoline taxes pay for the roads, has an annual auto inspection, it's mildly annoying to be trapped behind a slower cyclist who's not subject to those requirements. It becomes enraging when they break traffic laws and stage mass rides just to fuck with drivers.

View on HN

Cyclists usually make use of less congested, slower moving roads, which are funded by local taxes, not federal and state taxes. As far as I know, most local transportation taxes are contributed as regular taxes, not as use taxes, so bicyclists pay their share. Also, not all state and federal transportation funding is paid by motorists, either. Bicycles put negligible wear and tear on the road, and a bicycle malfunction is unlikely to harm anyone but the cyclist, or to poison the air.

The bigger issue with your comment is just how entitled the attitude behind it is. Car driving is an incredibly privileged activity on many levels in the US. Cars are subsidized on every level from manufacturing to international policy to transportation planning policy on every scale. Car right-of-ways take priority almost always, almost everywhere (with good reason much of the time, but explain that to a kid trying to get around town without a car and having to cross a 10-lane freeway on an 8-lane road with 45 mph traffic to get from home to school, a common occurrence where I live).

So the next time you become enraged by a cyclist messing with your right to go fast, why don't you go ask your city council to fund more bike overpasses and dedicated bike lanes in your community? They're an incredibly cheap, great investment that doubles as recreational park land. And if your city has no room for bike lanes, think again about the car-centric planning policy that got you where you are.

As a cyclist, pedestrian, and occasional driver, it's mildly annoying how ignorant the typical driver such as yourself is about such things. Most of the roads on which you encounter cyclists are funded by taxes other than gasoline taxes. In cities, it's typically property taxes. Motorists are the biggest free riders on the roads in nearly all cases.

If you think that that auto registration and gas tax covers all of the costs of road ways, you're sadly mistaken.

I forgot that I had a toll tag too! :)

That cyclist means one more free parking spot for you, and one less source of pollution though.

Not in my area. In the large urban-surban-exurban spawl areas in the US, cycling is not a practical method of commuting for the majority of workers.

Correction: Telecommuting means, one more spot, less pollution and one less annoying cyclist/motorist on the road. :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com