I've not read the Petition but I've seen plenty along these lines before.
TBH, I don't see why the VED isn't applied straight to the fuel they burn. It's all linked to CO2 and therefore, emissions, MPG and usage. And the latter is the key thing. The person using a Hybrid to do 30,000miles a year is NOT cleaner than me doing 3,000miles on the bike. Yet I pay more based on my CO2 potential/lack of electric drive. That's a nonsense.
TANGENT:-
VED is not the Road Fund License - that was canned in 1936.
VED is not Road Tax either so the Petition is currently complaining about something that doesn't exist.
VED is literally what it says (Vehicle Excise Duty) a levy applied to the use of a vehicle on public roads.
Ok so what do we want here; The way VED is currently geared it's all about incentivising the use of "greener" power trains. Greener/cleaner = new engines Euro 6 compliant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_emission_standards
Lets be frank here - they want you to use newer cars not old ones. New cars stimulate the economy, old ones don't. So they use the green agenda to promote this. It's all about money not emissions.
/TANGENT
I'd personally scrap the VED for all.
Off the top of my head. Not thought through all the angles...
I'd replace the VED with a more exhaustive(pun) MOT, which includes an emissions test even on old cars. At the end of the MOT your car/bike is issued a license, with it's emissions/cc/mpg built into it. A simple chip or QR code on the CC sized license is then used at the petrol station to set the price of fuel to match the vehicle. With most petrol pumps being digital already this is just a software exercise. But most importantly you'd get taxed for what you used.
The MOT stations could in theory pull a fast one and emissions test the wrong exhaust pipe. But that's a different issue.
New cars would be issued a license that expired after 5 years. MOT's annually after that.
This wouldn't ban anything, but if your 1965 Aston Martin is to come out of the shed and run around then it's just going to be more expensive to run p/mile than the 2016 Prius. But maybe you'd still save money if it only clocked up a couple of tanks worth of miles a year. Company car drivers would be pushing more into the coffers...indirect taxing businesses is usually more effective than direct ones!
And all the VED chasing/processing costs are saved.
As for the Petition I see it as a little pointless and insular. We should be looking at a re-think of the whole thing as a function, not just one group.
/SOAPBOX /DAYDREAMING