Is the proposed road tax a threat to racing?

Originally posted by Warbler@Jan 4 2007, 02:33 PM
I can't help feeling that this a political point, especially as there's an invitation to sign a petition tenuously being presented as a threat to racing so as to include in the racing section?
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Absolutely agree. This has no place in the Racing section.

On the topic itself, my vote goes to the environment and against Top Gear.
 
Originally posted by SteveM@Jan 4 2007, 04:02 PM

A poll-tax style revolt is predicted: “Governments will upset at their peril society’s wish to do what it wants to do and that is to move around,” according to Professor Garel Rhys, director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University's business school.
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I wonder who sponsors his research.
 
There are definitely too many idiots out there with licences - as for the old, I think they should retake their test yearly once they reach 70, as well as undertake physicals.

I also have another proposal - anyone who owns, drives, buys or wants to buy/drive a BMW should automatically have their licence stripped from them. Every last BMW driver is a complete and utter prick and shouldn't be allowed on the roads in the first place. The amount of the bastards in BMWs who think it is their God-given right to sit in the fast and/or middle lane doing 71mph when the inner lane is empty beggars belief. Of course many others are guilty of this too but BMW drivers are overwhelmingly guilty of this. Off topic I know, but something that drove me worse than loopy over Christmas!
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Jan 4 2007, 03:57 PM
Oh well, I may as well hand my licence in now - if they track my speed I won't last a week without losing it!
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Speed kills, and you deserve to lose your license if you repeatedly break speed limits (regardless of whether you agree with them or not).
 
Originally posted by Bar the Bull+Jan 4 2007, 04:12 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Bar the Bull @ Jan 4 2007, 04:12 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Shadow Leader@Jan 4 2007, 03:57 PM
Oh well, I may as well hand my licence in now - if they track my speed I won't last a week without losing it!
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Speed kills, and you deserve to lose your license if you repeatedly break speed limits (regardless of whether you agree with them or not). [/b][/quote]
That is wrong. Until recently i had 12 points on my licence, six of which were getting caught by a camera at 5.30AM on my way to work, who the fcuk am i gonna kill at that time in the morning?
 
If the speed limits were more realistic then people might be inclined to stick to them. I sometimes feel like battering the morons who drive down my road at 60 mph, but having 40 mile an hour speed limits on three lane highways is absolutely ridiculous. The last couple of miles of the M4 London bound is a good example.
 
I'm all for measures aimed at preserving or even improving the environment but stand firmly against the increasing introduction of control by cost. What these type of measures do is hit the poorer paid whilst being just an inconvenience to the better off.Follow this line and you have the rich having better air and cleaner water than the oi poloi.

By what right should assets paid for by by general taxation be effectively rationed by cost to the wealthy! Should the poor be forced on to ever more crowded and expensive trains or just not travel? Just because people don't have the funds are they expected to wait around for irregular and inefficient bus services and face a far higher risk of being mugged than someone who can afford to drive everywhere?
One of the benefits of a mobile society is the ability to travel further in order to secure a better job. These and other similar proposals make that more difficult for those with lower incomes, perhaps resulting in more absentee parents and thus more delinquent kids.

It is all too easy to state that one would willingly pay it, you can. What about those that can't? Unfortunately it is also easy to believe that there is neither the wit nor will among the politicians and their advisers to find a means of achieving laudable goals without unduly hitting the less fortunate.

To the barricades!!
 
Originally posted by Bar the Bull+Jan 4 2007, 06:12 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Bar the Bull @ Jan 4 2007, 06:12 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Shadow Leader@Jan 4 2007, 03:57 PM
Oh well, I may as well hand my licence in now - if they track my speed I won't last a week without losing it!
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Speed kills, and you deserve to lose your license if you repeatedly break speed limits (regardless of whether you agree with them or not). [/b][/quote]
With respect Bar, that's crap. It's irresponsible or bad driving that kills - not speed. I'm not endangering the lives of everyone near me if I'm trapping at 80mph (or even more) on the M4 - particularly at the sort of times I end up driving - eg 2am on my way back from the airport, not a car in sight.
 
It sounds to me that there are a lot of complacent speeders on the forum.

Shadow Leader, 2am is just about the peak time for road accidents in this country. Other drivers (and pedestrians) may be drunk or tired and may do something unexpected in front of you. Driving below the speed limit ensures you have enough reaction time.

I reckon people driving over the speed limit are just too bored to drive slower, and justify their breaking the law and endagering the lives of other with their belief that speed limits are too low.
 
Sorry I can't figure out how to use the quote facility, but Shadow Leader is right, it's not speed that kills , it's people who don't know how to drive properly; who think the middle lane on a motorway is for sitting in with disregard to the speed they are travelling; it is morons who tailgate cars at 70/75/80/85/90 miles an hour on motorways; it is morons who think they have the right to go through red lights, several at a time near where I live on my way to work every morning; the morons who do U-turns on a dual carriageway when the sign says U-turns are prohibited; morons who don't leave a resaonable distance between them and the cars in front; morons who drive with no lights on in dense fog; morons who drive with no lights on in dense fog at 90 miles an hour when visibility is down to 50 yards; morons who don't give way to the right on roundabouts 'cos they don't see why they should; morons who drive a car when they are drunk/or and have been taking drugs, or haven't taken the drugs they should have been taking. I think it is ridiculous that you can take a test at 17 and never NEVER again have to prove you are capable, or know what you are doing, or have to re learn the Highway Code which has changes in it from time to time. In some American States drivers have to re-apply every 10 years by taking a test. I don't know how practical that would be here, but I do think there should be some means of making people have to earn their licence more than once in a possible 50 plus year driving career. I also think 17 is too young to give free rein to some potential idiots in potentially lethal weapons.
 
That is wrong. Until recently i had 12 points on my licence, six of which were getting caught by a camera at 5.30AM on my way to work, who the fcuk am i gonna kill at that time in the morning?
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A FOX or two and then your in trouble EURO.......... ;) :lol:

........................................
Boy racers use a road just outside Pontypridd, to really boot it on on most evenings and on week end evenings most of all... after several major complaints from residents... the Police put up mobile cameras.......................wait for it??????????

At 8 am in the mornings ...and who do they catch?? someone late for work going to earn a living to keep the Police employed... Its a very strange world we live in??? :rolleyes:

P.S. EURO Helen as always beaten me hands down for her use of smiles it was only because of her recent absence that you never noticed before........ :P
 
Bar, out of interest do you drive? That's not meant to be facetious at all, I just find your views hard to reconcile with those of a young driver, particularly on Britain's roads as driving in the UK is a lot more of a chore than driving in a lot of other countries.

With regards to your points about driving at 2am, it really depends on where you're driving - I can see plenty of accidents happening in towns with possibly drunk drivers/pedestrians aplenty but realistically, at 2am, driving on the M4 with barely any cars about at 90mph isn't going to be high in the life-risking stakes. Neither is driving along deserted country lanes late at night at over 30mph likely to be highly endangering people, both situations in which I am commonly driving. I have every confidence that I am a good and safe driver (SHUT UP some of you at the back!!!! :lol:) even though I do tend to drive fast. I certainly wouldn't put myself in the category of a reckless driver which is where the problems tend to start.
 
There goes a nomination for most sanctimonious comment on here in a long while!!!! I take it you can say, hand on heart, you have never, ever broken a speed limit? I wouldn't believe you for a second if you said it was true either!

To be quite honest, I really don't care who judges me for admitting to driving over the limit at times - I'd bet my last penny that those denying they ever break the limit are lying through their teeth as well. I know you haven't denied breaking the limit Bar but you'll look pretty dumb if you continue with the holier-than-thou crap otherwise.
 
I think a lot of our speed limits are ridiculously slow when they don't need to be, but it's difficult to argue against the speed limits on a day when just a few miles from me, a coach has overturned, killing two people and seriously injuring many others. An accident almost certainly caused by excessive speed.
 
Fair enough Bar - good fer you!

Don't get me wrong, I don't set out to break speed limits everywhere I go but I won't worry about driving fast on the motorway, and yes, I would get damned bored pootling along at 70mph on one.

I'm sure no-one would admit to being a bad or dangerous driver either Colin - we've all had our moments when we could've done something better, but who hasn't. I tend to think my record speaks for itself.
 
Bar - I was brought up in the sticks, and as such spend a lot of time driving on deserted (and not-so-deserted!) country roads - it's going to happen if you want to leave the village from time to time!!!
 
Originally posted by Bar the Bull@Jan 4 2007, 06:08 PM
Of course I have driven over the speed limit. But only by a few kmph, and I then go back below as soon as I realise.
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Probably the gayest post i`ve ever read on here. And considering the competition that`s some feat.

Also, what is a kmph?
 
I always find it amusing that those who are most 'pro' increasing the tax on mileage are those who live in areas where the green alternative - ie public transport - is much easier to access.

I now drive far fewer miles than I used to and I freely admit to driving a double cab truck but is is a 'proper' farm vehicle and certainly not a chelsea tractor and I fail to see why justified usage of this kind of vehicle should be penalised.

I am more than happy to pay the cost of higher fuel taxes and try to make every journey an absolute necessity in order to Save The Planet but I really am totally against any form of 'tracking'.
 
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