Cars that use our roads have to pay a registration tax. On the other hand, bicycles do not pay for them. “Wouldn’t it be wise to charge part of the cycling facilities with a tax? I’m not once morest these amenities, but why motor vehicles pay and cyclists don’t?”, asks an alerter who appealed to us via the orange button Alert us.
When we hold out our microphone in the streets of Brussels, the question divides: “They are road users. The roads must be maintained. Bike paths too. For me they should pay something“, expresses the driver of a car which particularly targets electric bicycles.
No reason they don’t pay
For a cyclist, it is “non”, no tax for bicycle users. She develops: “So we should invest more in everything that is mobility for bicycles. ” At the wheel of his car, a man shares his opinion regarding cyclists : “They use the road like all of us. We have done a lot of work so that there can be bicycles. There is no reason why they do not pay”.
A tax existed in the past
In short, there are those who would like them to pay and those who do not want additional taxes. A few decades ago there was a plate for all bicycles in circulation and a tax was attached to it. The tax was introduced in 1890. Luc Vinois is a collector. He remembers a tax of around thirty Belgian francs per year, or less than one euro: “It is said in Belgium that it was the cyclists themselves who asked at one point to levy a tax to try to have roads which were in better condition.” A tax abolished in 1990. “This tax disappeared first because it did not bring in much. There were no more checks on the registration of bicycles. Then, the bicycle in the 90s, there weren’t many adults who rode bicycles, not like we know now. “
These plates reappeared in 2016 on certain bikes. The “speed pedelecs” which can reach 45 kilometers hours.
So might all bicycles be re-registered and therefore taxed? In Wallonia as in Brussels, this is out of the question. “For the moment, it is not under study”, informs Elke Van den Brandt, Brussels Minister for Mobility. “We really want to encourage people to use their feet or ride a bicycle. These are ways that make people themselves healthier. It also makes the city healthier because there is better air quality. Infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians is cheaper than for motorists. “
Last year, building 40 kilometers of cycle paths cost Brussels 7 million euros, or 1.5% of the mobility budget in the capital, which amounts to 473 million euros.
In the sector, a bicycle tax is clearly not an option. Imposing it might discourage cyclists for ultimately little profit. Filip Rylant is spokesperson for Traxio, the mobility federation. “The final balance sheet will not be very profitable. It will entail a lot of cost at the administrative and organizational level while such a tax might only amount to a few euros. Ultimately, it will be a lot of trouble, a lot of costs for very little income. “
The more so as the roads are financed in part by the general tax. All taxpayers finance the roads and therefore the cyclists too.
