Cycling community criticizes licensing idea
By David Hutton, The StarPhoenix
March 3, 2010 9:28 AM
A Saskatoon city councillor is calling for the return of mandatory bicycle licences to help track stolen bikes and more easily identify illegal riders on sidewalks.
"Cyclists, basically, can do what they want and how do you ID these people?" said Coun. Myles Heidt.
"You're walking down the sidewalk and all of a sudden a bike goes by you. And, really, there's no licence to report these people."
Several members of the cycling community sharply criticized the idea Tuesday, saying it is redundant if the intent is to track bikes and prevent theft because bikes already have serial numbers. They also said such a system would discourage cycling and be difficult and costly to enforce.
"Honestly, I don't see any real value in that at all," said Gerald Reshetnyk, manager of Bike Doctor, a local cycling shop.
"You're not going to get buy in. I ride a lot of high-end stuff and I'm not going to be hanging a giant licence plate on the back of my bike.
"I don't want to say 'tax grab,' but it sure sounds like it."
The city had a mandatory bike licence system in place from 1916 until 1993, when the program was disbanded because the database was out-of-date and was of little use for police to track stolen bikes, said city archivist Jeff O'Brien.
At that time, bike owners were required to pay $5 for a lifetime bike licence and mount a small metal licence plate on the bike. Prior to 1971, bike licences had to be renewed annually for a $1 fee. In 1916, the fee was 50 cents for the annual bike licence.
When it folded, the city's database had entries for 126,000 bikes in Saskatoon, 5,400 of which were registered in 1992, O'Brien said.
A renewed program -- which Heidt said should only apply to adult bikes -- could take advantage of better technology to stay more up to date and enlist bike shops to sell the licence at the time of purchase, Heidt said.
"I think we can do it now. It's not that complicated," he said. "I think there's a distribution network out there and now that it's mechanized and computerized, I don't see it being such a big task."
Tom Wolf, a member of the city' cycling advisory committee, said more should be invested in infrastructure such as dedicated bike lanes to make cycling safer rather than looking at taxing individual bikers.
"If he wants to get bikes off the sidewalks, he should make it safer to ride on the road," Wolf said.
The money from the program could go to education or to improve the city's cycling infrastructure, such as bike paths or city-run storage lockers, Heidt said.
"A dollar of each licence could go to infrastructure, bike sheds, manned storage facilities, things like that," he said.
"I think we could be leaders here."
Heidt said he's had many calls from people worried about sidewalk safety and how little recourse they have when they are bumped or run into on a sidewalk by a cyclist. A bike licence would allow more enforcement of cyclists who break the rules, he said.
"They're breaking laws," Heidt said.
"If a cyclist goes by you on a sidewalk and knocks you over, you should be able to do something."
Reshetnyk said part of the reason people cycle is because of "the flexibility it offers." He uses sidewalks when the street is congested by vehicles and there are few pedestrians around, he said.
"But if it's the guy doing the human slalom at Warp 7 on a busy Saturday afternoon, then that guy is out of line and that should be dealt with.
"I'd like to see if there's some way to put a sanction on those guys to use the sidewalk in a more respectable way.
"But I'm not sure we can legislate common sense."
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I already posted my comments:
I echo all the comments from fellow cyclists. If you want bikes off the sidewalk, make it safer for them on the street! I live on the east side in Wildwood. Local and collector roads aren't so bad for biking, but the arterial streets are freakin' scary to ride on! I'm afraid for my life when there are huge buses and speeding cars hurtling down the street beside me. There is no room at all between parked cars and traffic, so passing a parked car on a bike is nerve-wracking. That's to say nothing of the angry and impatient driver coming up from behind who feels that the bike is invading their "territory".
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HAH Are these people for real 
Uggghh, Sean Shaw was so close to defeating this dinosaur.
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