yeah, there's a reason they don't pay, because they use about one tenths as much of the road as you do, and they put about 1/1000th of the wear on the road as you do.
Except that they hold up traffic, create dangerous situations by going through red lights and generally behaving like absolute dicks. Since there is no license involved and no way to track a cyclists there are nearly no repercussions to them for doing what they do. If cyclists want to have the same rights they should have the same responsibilities.
EDIT: on another note: why should aston martin drivers have to yield for your crappy A4, they pay much more road tax than you do? If they crash into you, you should pay for the repairs on their car. [/parody]
There is no separate road tax that I am aware off. Some states have luxury taxes on cars but AFAIK there is very little to no distinction between an AM or an A4. AM owners have to pay for gas same as I do, they have to go through inspections same as I do, they have to at minimum have a driver's license same as I do. The only thing separating me and an AM owner is the amount of money paid for the car.
Oh and another thing I have something called insurance (that I am required to have by law). If I get into an accident with an AM he will not have to pay something like up to 100K (don't remember what my limits are) out of his pocket. What about a cyclist? He/she has no insurance, any damage to my car will have to come out of my insurance, if I have collision, which is optional or out of my own pocket.
Here is a scenario for you, I'm driving down the road minding my own business and some dude in a crappy Golf (that's for calling my car crappy) decides to switch lanes and merges right into me. He is at fault, I get money to fix my car, our insurance goes up all is well. Same situation, cept instead of a Golf a dude on a cycle runs into me. Lets also say it was on an empty road to boot. The guy was wearing a helmet and had reflectors on his bike. I am absolutely screwed, I will be in a criminal trial and if I am lucky I will just get my license suspended. If not and he is hurt badly enough I could lose my license completely, if he dies I can go to prison for vehicular man slaughter (well its unlikely I would hurt someone that much unless it's a 50mph road). You get the picture now? They have absolutely no responsibilities and all the rights.
On a side note I always give way to cars like AM's, I respect them too much.
