writes:

On Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 9:03:22 AM UTC-7, Radey Shouman wrote:
Frank Krygowski writes:

On 9/6/2018 2:35 AM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 12:54:44 AM UTC-4, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Wed, 5 Sep 2018 12:41:29 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

Where I am there's virtually no talk about MANDATORY helmet laws.
However many motorists and BICYCLISTS would like to see bicyclists
licensed so t hat they can fined or charged whenever they hit someone
or do something stupid and illegal that causes or nearly causes a
vehicular accident involving a motor vehicle or other bicyclist. The

Bicyclists can already be charged for violating the law in all 50 states
in the US. No licensing necessary. Bicyclists (and others) may not be
charged for stupidity, on the other hand, because being stupid is not
against the law- unless said stupidity leads to breaking the law.

Also, many here want to see electric scooters/pedal bikes licensed too
since so many people using them totally disregard rules of the road
and city bylawas as to where such things can be ridden.

And yet a plurality if not majority of motor vehicle operators that I
see every day violate some law or other while I am watching- speeding,
changing lanes without signaling, driving while distracted, driving out
of the designated lane, speeding, failing to stop for stop signs and
traffic signals, speeding, nonfunctioning head/taillights, speeding,
etc., etc., etc. Licensing clearly does not result in compliance with
the law and, at least in my state, no actual competence to operate a
motor vehicle in traffic is required to get a license. All licensing
seems to do is create a false notion of accountability. Take people's
licenses away and they just drive without one.

What people here want is a means to identify bicyclists/bicycle
who/that leave the scene. Thus the wish for bicycle licenses.

There are countless cases of motorists leaving the scene of an
accident, usually followed by reports like "The driver was in a black
SUV. It may have some front end damage. Anyone with information should
call the local police..." There's almost never mention of a license
plate number, probably because they're so difficult to read quickly
and not easy to remember.

Now extrapolate to a license plate on a bicycle. How easily would it
be seen? How often would it make a difference?

We live in a brave new world, in which cameras that can read and
recognize license plates are sprinkled all over the landscape. This
allows governments to keep track of our movements in way that would have
been impossible not even a few years ago. Bicycle license plates would
allow the same benevolent oversight for cyclists as it does for
motorists.

Once facial recognition software is ready for prime time
pedestrians will enjoy the same benefits.

License plate readers are both rare and not very effective. There is
virtually NO WAY that facial recognition would work. This is the real
world and not NCIS.

Not too long ago I drove across a few bridges in NYC, there were no toll
booths, only cameras. They sent me a bill, based on my license plate
number. In my state (Massachusetts), they recently eliminated toll
booths, and explicitly tied the electronic toll dongles to a particular
car. The only way to enforce that is by using license plate readers.

Down on near the southern border all of the border patrol checkpoints
now have cameras with license plate readers. I'm fairly sure they work,
and that they're ubiquitous.

Facial recognition is a lot dodgier, but I wouldn't be surprised if it
eventually worked quite well, in the sense of doing what its users want.

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