There has been a lot of talk lately about making bike helmets mandatory. It seems that most riders don’t want to wear helmets; they are more worried about having a safe place to ride.
I got to thinking. Money for infrastructure is always in short supply. How about we license bicycles, maybe $20 a year, and use that money to improve bicycle infrastructure. Riders would get a safer place to ride and take pride in knowing that they are contributing to safer bicycle riding.
Bill Bright
Atascadero
This article appears in Dec 5-15, 2019.
Fortunately this isn’t a new idea and we can look to other cities who have attempted to do this for guidance. Turns out it’s not worth it as the license cost would not cover the cost to run the bureaucracy to implement it. SLO already tried to license bicyclists in the past and it failed because not many people did it and it was not worthwhile to enforce. See https://www.citylab.com/transportation/201… for more info.
Might be appropriate to put a fee on each new bicycle sold. Say from $5 to $50 based on retail price. Funds to support specific projects for bicycle related infrastructure. Devil’s always in the details, but as a cyclist and former bicycle shop owner, it’s something I could support. I believe Oregon has something like this in place.