robin gets

You couldnt make it up.......

That's really unfair, bikes on average have much smaller engines and mass that vans and cars and take up much less road space, they should be rewarding bikers for that.
Looks like the UK government and London Council is every bit as stupid as the mob running Ireland.

I cant see this having legs myself.

This is just the thin end of the wedge and I can see action happening from MAG and others to prevent this - both on the streets at at parliamentary level. Mag have some quite influential persons on board these days.

It is absolute barking madness to tax 2 wheeled transport this way. What next? a similar tax for push-cyclists because they fart as they ride?

The problem is it's not about saving the planet its about shortfalls in taxation and how to recoup those losses in a back handed manner.

If any of you live or commute around London then you will know that there are many many more bike on the road nowadays and likely to be more and more in the future. There are so many people on scooters, bikes and bicycles now that its really difficult to drive around London easily.

So if their pushing cars off the street and replacing them with more "environmentally friendly" means of transport how are the going to get their tax top ups? Easy tax the hell out of those that are left, those that are able to get around and will be daft enough to pay for it.

I can't see MAG or any other group making any difference with any kind of action, they did the Wednesday morning rides to try and stop Westminster imposing parking fees for bike and that didn't work. Plus MAG are in meltdown currently with in fighting and other stuff happening.

It won't affect me too much but I doubt it will happen, we may be out of Europe by 2020 and not interested in following their diktats on climate etc.

Is this what people call the congestion charge or is this something that will be added on top of that again. Daz is right it's more a money making exercise than anything based on facts or actual benefits to the enviroment. Bikes should be seen as part of the solution for congestion and pollution problems but they are not, they get hammered all the time with ever increasingly complicated tests to discourage young riders and stupid charges like this, the joke is Transport for London bosses are probably swanning about central London in Chauffer driven limos.
The problem for bikers is we are too few to make an impact at election time so are easy pickings for politicians stupid ideas.
The decision not to charge cyclists, they would argue is based on the fact they cause no pollution, which is fair enough but means the system is based on how much pollution that each road user produces, which in turn should mean that vehicles which produce smaller amounts of pollution or contribute to lessening congestion should not be charged as much as those that contribute more to congestion and create more pollution. But then who said these decisions have to be based on logic.
Do commercial vehicles pay this as well, if so surely that must be a pain in the arse for people delivering goods to Central London.

Must be a nightmare living or working there and the trains and things are cheap either from what I understand, the truth is this will eventually be rolled out to most cities in the UK so it will affect us all eventually.