The National Post: Bicycles pollute too much

LIES! LIES!

Terence Corcoran, a columnist for the National Post, thinks cyclists are getting a free ride in Canada’s cities.  We don’t have to pay for a licence, we don’t have to get insurance, and we therefore don’t deserve to use the roads that motorists pay for and therefore own.  He’s not clear about taxing pedestrians for walking along side roads, and his sidesteps the issue of how best to collect taxes from 5-year-old Johnny, who just learned to ride, but I assume he’s thought this through.  I mean, at the very least cyclists should be punished because they are such heavy polluters.  According to Corcoran:

And then there’s the carbon footprint. When car drivers cruise Yonge Street on Saturday night, their metabolisms are more or less flat-lined. They just sit there, burning up little energy personally but paying for the cost of their automobile’s carbon footprint via taxes and fees. Bike riders grinding up the same route burn up a lot more carbohydrates, which their bodies convert into carbon dioxide and exhale, adding to their carbon footprint. The volumes are small, but it all adds up, and bicyclists don’t pay.

If we’re going to tax the pollution that comes out of our mouths, well, Corcoran is going to have problems.