One group of road users not looking forward to the new tolls on Route K and the Tauranga Eastern Link are motorcyclists, who will be asked to pay the same toll fees as cars.

While they will be paying $2 per trip on the TEL when it opens to traffic next month, the Route K toll of $1.80 comes after years of free rides.

Local motorcyclists are unhappy at the new toll fees. Photo: Cameron Avery.

Under Tauranga City Council ownership, moped motorcycles and car trailers were free. But motorcycles will pay the same as cars when the NZTA takes over ownership on July 30.

'It's like charging everybody in a car the same amount as trucks,” says motorcyclist Ryan Carmichael.

'In a car, you can take four or five people. But for 90 per cent of bikes its one person, or two. It's a lot less weight, so that's what a lot of people are kicking up a fuss about.

'They have gone and made cycle tracks for cyclists. There is a lot of council dollars tied into that and nobody on a push bike has to pay for the usage of those tracks, which have to constantly be maintained and upheld.”

The tolls on local riders come after a massive drop in ACC levies on car registrations, which does not apply to motorcycles, which is adding to the motorcyclists' displeasure.

Motorbikes over 601cc are paying more than $500 a year in registration, and as most motorbike riders also run a car, the registration fees soon mount up.

'I would hate to think how many bikes out there have no rego or have rego on hold simply because of the $500 a year to do the rego on a motorbike,” says Ryan, who is also an administrator on the Tauranga Riders' Facebook page.

He says the single vehicle crash figures that ACC bases the accident levies upon are artificially inflated, with the inclusion of off-road dirt bike accidents.

However, ACC says this is not the case.

The levies motorcyclists pay cover accidents that involve motorcycles on public roads. They do not pay for off-road motorcycles. Motorcyclists injuries cost $104 million per year, with $44 million of that being single vehicle accidents, and $60 million involving other vehicles.

Motorcyclists are actually cross-subsidised by other users. ACC says if the true cost of motorcycle injuries was reflected in motorcycle levies, then owning a motorcycle may become prohibitively expensive.

For example, the 2015/16 levy for a motorcycle (over 600cc) is $427. If the licence fee is based on actual past claims experience, then the 2015/16 levy would be $1881.

Although motorcycles only make up less than three per cent of the total number of motor vehicles on the road, crash statistics from the Ministry of Transport show that motorcyclists are 22 times more likely to be killed or severely injured in a crash than a person driving a car.

Motorcyclists account for 20 per cent of the Motor Vehicle Account's severe injuries.

A statement from the New Zealand Transport Agency says the level of toll is primarily based on the value of the time saved by using the road. The reason NZTA charges more for heavy vehicles is because the value of time saved is greater for commercial vehicles.

'Motorcyclists get the same benefits as other road users who are required to pay for their journeys on toll roads,” says a spokesperson. 'We believe it is fair that they are charged.”

'Like other roads users, motorcyclists also have the choice of using free alternative routes if they do not want to pay a toll.

'Tolling allows roads such as Route K and the Tauranga Eastern Link to be built several years earlier than planned and the tolls are used to repay the debt incurred for that construction.”

The ongoing costs of operating and maintaining the road are not met by tolls. Motorcycles' lesser degree of wear and tear, congestion and environmental impact do not contribute to the calculation of tolls or who should pay.