While walking through Bristo Square this morning I met a group of students who are running a "Cycle To Uni" campaign.
They'd like the Cycle To Work scheme to be extended to students.
There's a petition
and a facebook page.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Cycle To Uni campaign
(19 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Not sure that they can save income tax if they don't pay it.
Posted 12 years ago # -
That was what I wondered but their flyer says that it "would benefit over half of all students".
Posted 12 years ago # -
I sure paid tax when I was a student. Far more than elsewhere. In Canada you get your tax burden reduced based on amount of tuition paid and a certain percentage also based on how many months you were in education that tax year. I almost always ended up getting money back from the government. Then I came here and all my income was taxed - including scholarship. With no recognition that I was a student. Completely backwards.
Posted 12 years ago # -
How would it work? Couldn't they just join an employer's cycle to work scheme? If the problem is that they tend to work in occupations dominated by small businesses or employers that don't operate schemes like than then there's a more general issue of making these types of schemes available to workers in those sectors, not a student issue. That problem would stem from the fact that C2W schemes require the employer to do all sorts of admin and payroll fiddling that would be burdensome for a pub or restaurant.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I suppose it could operate as a direct subsidy or as an adjunct to student loans. Wouldn't be opposed to either of them. I've always thought it pretty outrageous waste of tax money to give people like me a discount on a bike. Needless to say, I thought that while I was pocketing the subsidy.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Better to spend the tax money building motorways?
Posted 12 years ago # -
No but there's surely better ways of spending it than giving it to me to buy (another) bicycle?
Posted 12 years ago # -
this is the answer from the facebook page as to how they see it working:
parents would pay for the bike through work, for the student. it would be at the discression of the parent/student whether or not the student pays their parents
so the discount is based upon the parents income
Posted 12 years ago # -
They've leafleted bikes in George Square. Not very effectively though. more litter than for POP or Bike Breakfast
Posted 12 years ago # -
It seems to me that the method they are suggesting is pretty flawed. Far better to approach the universities I would say. Though I am extremely ignorant as to whether this has been tried.
Posted 12 years ago # -
But the Universities aren't the employers.
Posted 12 years ago # -
That is where the CTW scheme fails since students are not employed by the university I know but it makes more sense to me for the Universities to own the bikes than the parents. And fits in with their active travel agendas And opens the 'scheme' up to more students who might not have parents who have access to the scheme.
EDIT: Or simply extend the CTW scheme so that parents can purchase bikes for their family members not just themselves. But again, the family members are not being employed.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I suspect the vast majority of students buy cheap used bikes
Posted 12 years ago # -
I've very little sympathy with this campaign. Lots of people in more difficult circumstances than most students could benefit from taxpayer subsidised transport. Also, the fact that it would require the student to have parent(s) who worked for an employer that participated in the scheme would presumably leave many unable to participate.
Perhaps better to point these people towards the Bike Station - for a decent quality second hand bike.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'm not in favour of complex schemes like C2W, that the government can change the rules on at a whim.
A simpler way to promote cycling is just to make all bikes VAT free. End of.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@morningsider you could just as easily point all who have benefitted from the CTW scheme to a second hand bike shop. £1000 for a bike to cycle to work??
Posted 12 years ago # -
Two Tired - I've no problem with that. I don't think the cost of a bike is really a barrier to cycling. I suspect most beneficiaries of the CTW scheme could have bought a bike without the aid of the scheme - although I don't blame them from taking advantage of it. I like edd1e_h's suggestion, although I suspect a cut in VAT on bikes rather than abolition would be more likely.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Aside from a spelling lesson, or explaining the difference between extent and extend, I think we deserve to learn what research and substantiation they have for some of the claimed benefits. How do they measure a society being greener or greenest? Please do not submit answers on a piece of paper as it involves cutting down trees and a very energy intensive process of pulping bleaching etc....
More seriously though, a University with an eye on the bottom line, of reducing the call on resources might find that provision of free bicycles to travel between widely spaced campus sites, might be a lot cheaper than sending a 7 figure sum (as one London University does) on free inter-site bus services, which offer a lower level of service than the immediacy of jumping on a bike and cycling. Likewise one Cambridge College simply closed a car park, and built on it (Edinburgh likewise?) as a more profitable use for the land.
Posted 12 years ago #
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