Yes I both cycle and drive.
And I didn't mention road-tax. I refer to all the associated costs of owning a private vehicle.
The cycling is free of any kind of charge and I use a ATB cycle so mainly use off-road lanes. The only money I pay for cycling was the initial purchase cost of equipment.
Were it not for the government building the roads and cycle lanes in the first place they would not be there for me to use, and the money had to come from somewhere.
My point was not to 'knock' cycling and cyclists, being one myself, but to point out the irony of the increase in pollution (and greater cost) etc for me to use the roads as a car driver too, roads that are being decreased in size leading to traffic jams etc as per the title of this thread.
My sub-question in reaction to your comment though is this.......once all the private motorists have been forced off the roads, and other forms of transport are electrified, where is the revenue going to be generated from to maintain the roads and cycle paths?
It will no longer come from Vehicle Excise Duty, or Fuel Duty, or MOT payments, or vehicle sale tax, or the VAT on all the other purchases (insurance, servicing, repairs, tyres, cleaning, etc etc) that a private motorist has to make.
The assertion that us cyclists pay the same amount as drivers do in taxes to support the transport infrastructure is totally incorrect once those additional costs are factored in.
I would hate to see how maintaining the transport infrastructure could be funded to the same level if private vehicle ownership was replaced by cycling alone.