Indeed, he goes on to say that he supports a bicycle tax only so far as it goes towards actually helping expand bicycle infrastructure, and that he made this suggestions after it was brought to him by the bicycling community.
Indeed. And property taxes. And spending from general funds. Etc, etc.
40% of spending on roads comes from funds completely unrelated to gas or vehicle taxes. This amounts to about $180 per person per year in funds unrelated to taxing automobiles or gas. [1]
To contrast this, per capita spending on cycling infrastructure, while significantly improved in recent years, peaked at $3.95 per person per year. [2]
Quite simply, looking at the actual numbers, it is hard to support the argument that cyclists are being subsidized by drivers.
But that tax is not specific to bikes only. People who buy cars also pay sales taxes. But they pay other taxes in addition to the initial sales tax. They also pay fuel taxes, which is an indirect tax.
Not that I'm against those taxes. I would wish we'd tax fuel more (and in the future, the source of energy for transportation when cars start using more alternate energy sources) as a way to incentivize people toward more shared resources. But I'm not for trying to paint equivalence on the tax front. At the same time, I think this needs to be phased in. I think about the people in rural areas who need cars to get to civilization --keeping in mind the story of an acquaintance who said would sell pints of blood to buy fuel to get to and from work when money was low --ie getting to work before the next paycheck provided more money.)
That's a great hypothetical, but it falls flat in reality. The cost differential between bicycle infrastructure and car infrastructure is orders of magnitude.
This seems like much ado about nothing.