Every once in a while - as in our Mailbag a couple of weeks ago - somebody makes the sensible suggestion that the state collect a small annual fee from bicycle owners and apply the proceeds to the construction or designation of painted lanes or dedicated bikeways.

At present, bikeways are paid for out of road funds collected in the form of fuel taxes. Occasionally motorists wonder why cyclists get facilities - such as they are - for free.

The standard reply from cycling interests is that bicyclists are car owners too and therefore also pay road taxes. And anyway, if we started charging everybody for road usage, how do we collect from pedestrians who wear down sidewalks with their incessant tramping about?

This argument, though, seems lame even to those who make it.

Yes, bike owners also pay road taxes, but only when they drive their cars. When they're on their bikes, sometimes the very idea is to avoid burning gas, which also means escaping the taxation for roads.

A small annual fee, say $10 or $12, for bikes owned and ridden by adults would overcome the occasional complaints by motorists. It would also have other benefits.

It would make more money available for public bikeways and trails or lanes. The fee would not have to be large because bicycles cause no large amounts damage - or even wear and tear - on the pavement on which they roll.

The other benefit of a routine fee is that it would bolster the standing of bicycle users as contributors to and participants in our regular traffic system. They next time someone yells at them to get out of the road, they could yell something back. Regardless of what they actually said, the message would be something like: "Why should I? I'm paying for this road the same as you." (hh)