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American lawmaker has said cycling is bad for environment. He also said cyclists should pay tax to ride their bikes on roads. Ed Orcutt, representative from Washington State, sent e-mail to owner of local bike shop to outline his thinking. He wrote: "A cyclist has increased heart rate and respiration. That means that act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from rider. Since CO2 is… greenhouse gas…cyclists are actually polluting when they ride." Mr Orcutt said: “You can’t just say that there’s no pollution as result of riding bicycle….You would be giving off more CO2 if you are riding bike than driving in car.”

Mr Orcutt also believes cyclists should be taxed to use roads. He said it was unfair that motorists have to pay all of costs of building and repairing roads. He wrote: "Currently motorists are paying to use their cars on roads…so if cars pay for roads they are using, it only makes sense that bicyclists would also be required to pay for roads they use when they are actually biking on them." Dale Carlson, owner of Tech Bike Shop said Mr Orcutt's ideas were wrong. He wrote: "People who choose to ride bicycle instead of driving car actively reduce congestion." He added: "They save wear and tear on our roads and bridges, and reduce [need for police] to patrol our highways."