Motobikes pay same toll as cars? How's that work?

[Tigadee]

I had to pay $2.20 on my motorbike, and it's $2.20 for a car too. Why is that? In other countries, motorbikes pay less or even not at all!

Do our two-wheeled vehicles wear out the roads as much as the four-wheeled variety? Do we influence traffic congestion as other vehicles do? We pollute less (carbon-wise, maybe not so audio-wise ), take up less space on the road, already pay high ACC fees/rego...

Very unfair, I feel...

[Drew]

I don't believe that motorcycles have a smaller carbon footprint. But that's got fuck all to do with the tolls I'd think.

[Tigadee]

Burn less = less carbon, no?

[paturoa]

AA lobbied tptb that it was un-fair that bikes were free.

So tptb went out and spent a shed load of money to add new cameras to take photos from behind. They then had to spend another bunch of money to change and upgrade the number plate recognition and charging software to handle photos from both directions. Other costs included signage, web sites, media notifications etc etc etc.

I've just tried to find a media article that stated that the expectation was that it would NEVER break even, ie the NET additional revenue would never cover the costs (edit: I couldn't find it)

So well done AA you yet again have met my expectations. And to tptb, you are a bunch of retards!

[Drew]

Burn less = less carbon, no?

Per person/engine capacity litre, lots of bikes use much much more fuel than cars. Depending on how the engine is used. Tyres is another biggie, bikes use more than cars, and the environmental impact of tyres is enormous.

I'm happy to be wrong, but all things considered, bikes are far from 'green' as far as I can see.

[Bald Eagle]

The same wonderful AA that have a seat on Motonz spending our $30 levy fund : tui ad anyone

[ellipsis]

Very unfair, I feel...

...if you dwell on the fair/ unfair parts to life...you are wasting what could be quality time...

[Akzle]

don't come north. =P

OR, go waiwera or 16. fuck the corporate world, and all that...

[Little Miss Trouble]

Fyi when the toll road was first introduced (and free for bikes) we did a experiment, one bike via Waiwera one via the toll road. Both arrived at the lights in Orewa at the same time, so going over the hill adds bigger all time and is much more interesting

[arcane12]

Yeah, no, motorbikes are not so good pollution wise. http://www.latimes.com/news/la-hy-th...,6054455.story
Also covered on Mythbusters, and we all trust the science that they do right?


However what does that have to do with tolls? Any enviromental damage a vehicle would do should be covered by feul taxes and licencing fees. That vehicle will be doing that on any road, more in fact if they take the free route as it would take longer, emit more gases, do more damage to the roads.

So the money is a convenience tax. And to recover some of the losses. Since you can get more people into a car, and it seems more often a car will have more than one person, should not cars pay more based on that fact?

[Tigadee]

...if you dwell on the fair/ unfair parts to life...you are wasting what could be quality time...

Fair enough!

Well, it only took me two minutes to start this post...

Fyi when the toll road was first introduced (and free for bikes) we did a experiment, one bike via Waiwera one via the toll road. Both arrived at the lights in Orewa at the same time, so going over the hill adds bigger all time and is much more interesting

True of course, but I didn't have a choice as I had to follow my daughter's school bus and I didn't know the way to the destination. That'll learn me!

So the money is a convenience tax. And to recover some of the losses. Since you can get more people into a car, and it seems more often a car will have more than one person, should not cars pay more based on that fact?

Nek minit, TPTB raises the car toll to $4.40! Cagers say "Thanks a lot, Arcane12 and Tigadee! "

[Gremlin]

Fyi when the toll road was first introduced (and free for bikes) we did a experiment, one bike via Waiwera one via the toll road. Both arrived at the lights in Orewa at the same time, so going over the hill adds bigger all time and is much more interesting

Guess it depends if you're going to Orewa or down the motorway. I guesstimated that for a motorway trip, Orewa added 3 minutes to a motorway trip (very unscientific). Depends if you get caught over the hills by a dawdling car as it's all yellow lined...

[Little Miss Trouble]

Guess it depends if you're going to Orewa or down the motorway. I guesstimated that for a motorway trip, Orewa added 3 minutes to a motorway trip (very unscientific). Depends if you get caught over the hills by a dawdling car as it's all yellow lined...

I don't remember there being yellow lines, are they new or have I been selectively colour blind?
Back when I rode around that area a lot I was living in the bays area and preferred East Coast Rd over the motorway anyway so it made sense to go that way

[BigAl]

Go to Tauranga instead, the toll road is free for motorcycles and push bikes.

[rastuscat]

Sometimes tolls are about cost recovery, sometimes they are about revenue streams.

Bikes don't wear the road out as much as cars, but get charged the same toll. In this case it's obvious that it's about the income stream.

Make the most of the old road, it's far nicer now that most cars take the new one. After all, isn't it what bikes are about?