Bike Licensing Debate Pops Up Again ...

An interesting article on the bike licensing phoenix that rises every so often in Toronto.

Well, despite years of debate, and many reports recommending against it, the bike licensing phoenix has arisen in Toronto again.

Here’s the link if you are so inclined: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1254613--star-exclusive-poll-shows-growing-support-for-bike-licensing

And a snippet from the article:

“A poll of 834 Toronto residents by Forum Research also shows that more than half of respondents believe that licensing bikes would be a fair trade-off for Toronto investing in European-style bike infrastructure.
Overall, 65 per cent of respondents approved of licensing bikes to improve traffic law enforcement. The broadest support — 71 per cent — came from Scarborough residents. But even among poll respondents in downtown and East York, 67 per cent agreed with licensing cyclists.”

This time the argument has been slightly nuanced to focus on licensing’s ability to help enforce traffic laws (given that bicycles are already covered under the Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act and city by-laws, I am not sure how this argument really fosters greater adherence to traffic law, but hey, I’m only an armchair lawyer.)  Check out my post on Ottawa's foray into velo-licensing here: http://talesfromthe613.blogspot.ca/2011/07/licensing-bicycles-in-ottawa.html