Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Bike Licensing Debate Taking Place in Portland

More on the ever entertaining bike licensing debate!

http://grist.org/cities/the-bicycle-menace-in-portland-one-driver-bites-back/

Jim Meyer's Grist.org article highlights a recent initiative aimed at licensing cyclists in Portland Oregon.  This satirical response is cleverly crafted and provides humorous fodder for the argument for, and against licensing cyclists.

For instance:
"If Huckaby’s (the gentleman proposing the new licensing law) law goes through, it will present a lot of problems. If you own several bikes — say a road bike, a mountain bike, a fancy two-wheeled-unicycle, and one for your pet chimp — that’s a lot of licenses and a lot of cash. And what about kids? Can your 9-year-old pass the rider’s test? If not, should he be tazed by the authorities? And tourists? Lots of people head to Oregon on vacation (mostly Germans) to bicycle (because Germans don’t know what fun is). What about them? What about the Germans?"

And:
"In 2011, the city of Long Beach, Calif., ended its short-lived bicycle licensing program because, despite hefty fines of up to $400 for riding an unregistered bike, the city was hemorrhaging money on law enforcement and prosecution. With Oregon’s projected fines in the neighborhood of $25, it is unlikely to do any better. A Medford, Ore., bicycle registration law was repealed in 2010. “We just think this is an unnecessary ordinance and is really unenforceable. It really doesn’t work in the best interest of our community,” said the city’s then-Chief of Police Randy Schoen."

Lastly:
"In the meantime, if we’re going to throw out impractical, divisive, and infuriating solutions, I suggest we get a bit more creative. We could require a bicyclists-only chunnel below every street in America. Or how about we alternate days? Mondays and Wednesdays for cars, Tuesdays and Thursdays for bicycles, Fridays for rollerbladers, pogo-sticks, and silly-walkers, and the weekends belong to racing toilets (it seems like that’s the way it’s going in my neighborhood anyway)."

A great article and a very funny man.  Enjoy.

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