The price of oil has risen worldwide, and as a result so has the price of petrol in Australia. The grumbling that started when prices crept over $1 a litre have quietened now, but I still hear them from time to time and so we should.
At the start, people argued that the Australian government should give us all some relief by reducing the petrol excise. I don't know what it's set at, but the argument that the government should reduce it to take the petrol price back down below a dollar sounded convincing.
I'm all for reducing the petrol excise, even though I don't yet drive. Reducing it means that almost everything can go down in price, from airplane tickets through to bread. Whether it would or not, I'm not certain.
Officially the fuel excise and registration costs go largely into funding new roads and maintenance. Realistically the government doesn't have a "road fund", and will spend what it thinks it can get away with on roads. This might be more than it receives from road users, or it might be less. It might average out, or it might not. It doesn't really matter.
What gets to me is the attitude some drivers display over the whole matter. Bicyclists don't buy petrol and don't pay registration. Thus, cyclists don't fund roads. Since cyclists are getting the roads for free, this makes them second class (or worse) road users. And these drivers want them to know about it.
These might not be the drivers who cut cyclists off because they assume that the cyclist isn't travelling that fast. They might not be the drivers who don't even look for cyclists before pulling out into the traffic. But they are the drivers who take every opportunity to argue about the whole issue on any forum where they get half the opportunity.
It's frustrating because the argument is so stupid. If every cyclist got into a car instead, and paid these extra taxes, everyone would be worse off, not better.
I'm more than aware that there are stupid cyclists out there. Every driver I've ever spoken to can tell me about this one time where a cyclist did this really stupid thing which nearly resulted in a collision. Most drivers can tell me about a few such incidents. What they don't seem to realise is that there are a lot of stupid drivers out there too.
I have stories of dangerous/stupid driving that has put me at risk, for probably one in every three trips I've ever done. I've been in multiple collisions, because I've been travelling at 20km/hour in a nice straight line and the driver who just passed me, turned straight in front of me without pausing. If it were at night, or in other bad conditions, this might be a little excusable. But when it's bright day, and I'm wearing a fluro yellow jacket, and I'm cycling in a sign-posted bicycle lane, it's ridiculous.
I understand that every time I take my bicycle onto a road; I'm taking my life into my hands. I know the same isn't true for some drivers. If it were, the TAC (Traffic Accident Commission) wouldn't spend so much money reminding people that cars are excellent killing devices when you speed, or drive under impairment, or just don't look out for other road users.
Our biggest crime (other than not paying for the use of the road) appears to be our speed. When we tear down the alley of death (between slow moving traffic and parked cars) we're accused of going too fast, or of endangering property (oh no, the car got a scratch!) or of being too hard to see. If we travel in the middle of a lane, then we're too slow, or obstructionary.
I used to think that all drivers should be forced to commute on bike a couple of times a year, just so they understood. Now I agree with a motor-cyclist friend of mine. Maybe cars should be issued with giant spikes on the steering wheels, not airbags. :) I think it'd make drivers pay more attention.
