OT. Should cyclists be forced to pay an annual registration fee?

Here it goes again. Should U.S.A. bicyclists be forced to pay a registration fee or license fee?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canad...081408249.html

Cheers

On Sunday, January 5, 2014 9:40:01 PM UTC-5, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
Here it goes again. Should U.S.A. bicyclists be forced to pay a registration fee or license fee?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canad...081408249.html


It's been tried, of course. Usually it's been a tiny fee purportedly to enable recovery of stolen bikes. Almost always, it is ignored then abandoned because the costs of administration and enforcement greatly exceed the benefits.

Can you imagine the bureaucracy needed to register every bike every kid gets for Christmas?

- Frank Krygowski

On Sunday, January 5, 2014 11:49:37 PM UTC-5, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Sunday, January 5, 2014 9:40:01 PM UTC-5, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

Here it goes again. Should U.S.A. bicyclists be forced to pay a registration fee or license fee?



http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canad...081408249.html





It's been tried, of course. Usually it's been a tiny fee purportedly to enable recovery of stolen bikes. Almost always, it is ignored then abandoned because the costs of administration and enforcement greatly exceed the benefits.



Can you imagine the bureaucracy needed to register every bike every kid gets for Christmas?



- Frank Krygowski

The creation of another large bureaucracy hasn't stopped bureacrats from doing really stupid things in the past. In fact, I often think that the more illogical something is the more likely it is that bureaucrats will implement it.

Cheers

Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Sunday, January 5, 2014 11:49:37 PM UTC-5, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Sunday, January 5, 2014 9:40:01 PM UTC-5, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

Here it goes again. Should U.S.A. bicyclists be forced to pay a
registration fee or license fee?



http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canad...081408249.html





It's been tried, of course. Usually it's been a tiny fee purportedly to
enable recovery of stolen bikes. Almost always, it is ignored then
abandoned because the costs of administration and enforcement greatly exceed the benefits.



Can you imagine the bureaucracy needed to register every bike every kid
gets for Christmas?



- Frank Krygowski

The creation of another large bureaucracy hasn't stopped bureacrats from
doing really stupid things in the past. In fact, I often think that the
more illogical something is the more likely it is that bureaucrats will implement it.

Cheers

Agreed. When we first moved to the town we live in we were told that we
had to register our bikes. There was no fee but the town hall's opening
hours were between 11 and 11:15 on Tuesday that fell on odd number days
unless the sun was shining. We got the license tags but soon found we
were some of the only ones using them. I still have it in my basement
somewhere.

There are a lot of bikes here and the license is not a province wide thing.
You can't tell if the bike is from the local town or not. It would be
impossible to enforce. So no one bothers.

Anyway the idea that cyclists don't pay for roads is stupid. Here our
property tax pays for roads. We pay property tax to the local town and also
to Montreal. The provincial taxes we pay for our cars pay some of it as
well as the gas tax but that's mostly for maintenance or public
transportation.

And the main thing is that Quebec and Montreal in particular are trying to
encourage cycling to reduce cars and the costs that they cause. They won't
allow the towns to charge fees for cycling.

You still hear some motorists bitching that they should tax bikes. There
are rednecks everywhere. I don't think it will happen here though. More
people here have bikes than don't.
--
duane

while taxing children and poor commuters overloads the brain after claiming requiring the same to wear or flag with bright dayglo material, asking GROUP A for an entry fee( with sticker off course) for AREA A isnot beyond comprehension...no additional bureaucracy necessary.

On 1/6/2014 3:20 AM, Duane wrote:

You still hear some motorists bitching that they should tax bikes. There
are rednecks everywhere. I don't think it will happen here though. More
people here have bikes than don't.

If they taxed bicycles then they'd find something else to complain
about. And of course nearly every adult cyclists also owns a car.

Now in the U.S., at least in warmer states, is the issue of the
increasing number of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids that pay
little to no fuel taxes. Eventually they're going to have to change the
funding model for roads from fuel taxes to a fee based on miles driven.

In Hawaii they take bike registration seriously, but I don't know of any
other state where it's enforced. They just got rid of that law in
California recently, but no one paid attention to it anyway.

Per sms:
In Hawaii they take bike registration seriously, but I don't know of any
other state where it's enforced.

Is that something recent?

Back in the sixties they had mandatory bike license plates, but when I
went back there in 2000, I looked for bike tags, but could not see any.
--
Pete Cresswell