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1. Because car tax is between 300 and 1800 euros a year, with a few exceptions (some "green" cars are exempt). 2. Because new (and imported 2nd hand) cars have
by radicalbyte 13y ago
1. Because car tax is between 300 and 1800 euros a year, with a few exceptions (some "green" cars are exempt).
2. Because new (and imported 2nd hand) cars have an extra sales tax applied, which can be up to 40% of the price.
Coming from the UK, the price of driving was the biggest culture shock.
- weego 13y agoIt definitely also helps that a lot of cycle route paths are actually well considered and planned out giving a decent network of coverage for making journeys, rather than being a badly indicated part at the side of the road as in the UK so you are either still at the mercy of traffic for safety or end up (as I suffer from) having to use the roads and being screwed by one way systems making it no easier while being more dangerous than by car.
- rmc 13y agoIreland also has a high car tax (of about the same rate as you mention for NL), but has similar driving/cycling culture as the UK.
- dcc1 13y agoHaving cycled for years here, I would rather pay for a car than continue to put my life at risk, neither are many Irish towns as flat as Netherlands
- silvestrov 13y agoIn Denmark (which is tied for 1st place with Netherlands) the car tax is 180% Cycling is popular in Denmark for pretty much the same reasons. There are seperate bike paths everywhere.
- tty 13y ago>1. Because car tax is between 300 and 1800 euros a year, with a few exceptions (some "green" cars are exempt). It's worth noting that the use of motor vehicles in Netherlands isn't _low_, Netherlands is still a _heavily_ motorized country. Also, the tax that you've mentioned is even higher in some post-communist countries of Central/Eastern Europe.