Saturday, April 04, 2009

Registration for bicycles? Debate in the USA

A bicycle registration debate has just just erupted in the USA too. San Francisco Streetsblog tackles the issue.

Of course, bicycles used to be registered in Singapore and the idea has been suggested again recently. The main trigger here seems to be concern about bad behaviour by bicycle users on pedestrian pavements.

The American debate involves some different issues from Singapore's but there also some parallels which might be of interest.

4 comments:

kobinata said...

Unfortunately, the debate here is really about the same issues. Nobody will admit it, but cyclists are seen as free riders, and literally are.
If a small fee can upgrade cycling from a recreational activity tolerated on Sunday mornings on delimited lanes in parks to an alternative low-impact transportation mode on short distances, why not?
I guess the health argument is also of zero concern to transportation authorities.

Now, how much does the registration fee for pedestrians will need to be to get traffic lights that turn green for pedestrians more often and long enough to cross without running and pedestrian crossings frequent enough? At least, we could claim that pedestrians have a claim to the road as an extension of their bus or parking fee.

Ah Chow said...

If we register our bikes, does that mean we have to send it for yearly inspection too?? Then the relevant authority will tag the bicycle like those weekend cars? I guess it's going to be a complicated task as like back in the old days, you only buy bicycles from bike shops. Nowadays, anybody can buy any bikes thru many means, eg. net, self import...etc. Kinda diff to monitor, right?

Anonymous said...

i dont might paying a little to register my bicyle provided they can give me a better cycling lanes!

fair voice said...

I don't see the benefits registeration brings. For sure this will mean adminstrative paperworks for existing and would be cylists. Thought the gov is encouraging cycling ???