Comments on: Philadelphia Council Considers Bike Registration

By: Aromatherapy Guy

Aromatherapy Guy — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:25:49 +0000

Are you kidding me? Bicycle registration? Is Philadelphia really that poor?

Tom has it right. This is what they are up to:

“What the bike license ordinance IS good for, though, is allowing cops to write tickets to cyclists. To my knowledge, the only cyclists ever ticketed for not having the sticker are messengers and Critical Mass riders during the occasional rash of harassment.”

Pretty soon they will want to check the tread on our sneakers for walking safety violations.

By: John Massey

John Massey — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:28:07 +0000

I hate bikers as I work as a cabbie, but I have to take their side in this case. Philly’s inept city council’s solution for everything is a fine or some form of taxation such as registration. The fact is that biking in Philly is dangerous and no level of enforcement or fines will reduce the danger because the streets are full of bad drivers and bad cyclists. Taxing the cyclists is just another way for the city to shake down the people. Why don’t they just throw cyclists under the bus and let the PPA regulate them like they did us. Nothing but a government shakedown. Philly sucks, I will be moving as soon as I figure it all out. I hope Frank Dicicco’s family dies in a car fire…

By: Elvis

Elvis — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:37:31 +0000

So every time there’s a car accident do they crack down on drivers?
I got knocked over by a foreign national with no American license, cops didn’t give her a ticket cause she “felt bad” Yeh so did i — missed months of work thanks to shoulder surgery and was stuck riding with my arm in a sling for a while. Where was the crackdown on Chevy drivers?

as to brakes let’s not get bogged down in semantics. A vehicle operator — that’s what we are — needs to be able to control his bike. If a person can ride a track bike with no handbrake fine, if they don’t have the skill or fitness to do so that’s their fault. A person who might be competant to drive a toyota might kill himself or another person trying to drive a Humvee. You have to know your equipment and your limitations. Trying to mandate registration of bikes or have stricter laws or whatever for equipment is especially absurd since so many regular riders work on their own bikes and are constantly upgrading or changing things. If I repaint a frame that’s getting scuzzy and it changes color do I need to reregister it? what government regulator is going to know the different types of brakes — caliper rim brakes, v brakes, cantilever brakes, disc brakes, cam brakes, coaster brakes, expanding drum brakes, the fixed gear hub of a track bike… and do you think nonbiker cops who don’t even know what basic actions on a bike are against the law or not are going to be able to evaluate all these different brakign mechanisms or even know what they are…?

If a cyclists deserves a ticket give him a ticket, but cracking down on cyclists or trying to regulate them is one of the most wasteful, misguided, and unjust ideas I’ve heard!

By: J.C.

J.C. — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:49:15 +0000

“bicycle registration, the first step towards communism like china.”

That is one of the dumbest statements I have ever read.

By: rodemyboke

rodemyboke — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:51:32 +0000

mikejgrant is right, little by little

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:45:49 +0000

Lyle — my point is that the requirements are unreasonably high.

A bike with only a coaster brake (or any other variation of only a rear brake) couldn’t possibly fit that requirement. So that rules out cruisers, children’s bikes entirely — not legal. I’ll bet even trucks aren’t required to be able to stop that fast (though most passenger cars can do so easily.)

And any standard upright bike capable of stopping at that rate is going to be very close to doing an endo when it does. It’s appropriate for a bike ridden by an experienced rider, but for a newbie … slightly weaker front brakes would be a good thing.

By: mikejgrant

mikejgrant — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:16:03 +0000

bicycle registration, the first step towards communism like china.

By: Philadelphia Cyclists Begin Response to Proposed Licensing and Fines at Urban Velo

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:50:46 +0000

[...] two weeks ago we reported on a few council proposals in Philadelphia to require bicycle licensing and increase the fines for various cycling offenses, brought about at [...]

By: Northern Liberity’s Variety Show « Betsy Von Awesome

Northern Liberity’s Variety Show « Betsy Von Awesome — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:20:14 +0000

[...] The Libertines, a dance trio reminiscent of gay Paree, provided entertainment between acts, in addition to a nod to Statler & Waldorf, all lead by an MC who explained the top 8 people on Philadelphia’s Shit List. (Mostly politicians and the obscene new bike rules and fines). [...]

By: Lyle

Lyle — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:47:56 +0000

Doug,
the law requires that the *equipment* be capable of such a stop, not that the rider have the actual skill. So if, in the hands of a skilled rider, your bike can stop at 0.5g, you’re fine. I agree that a rear-brake-only bike, or a no-brake fixie, would be hard pressed to meet that standard, but it just might be possible. Also note that if your 20-year-old Schwinn just came out of the basement with glazed brake blocks, it won’t meet the standard either. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

The question is, should the standard be set by an objective safety standard, or by the popular equipment? Federal standards for tractor-trailers were recently tightened, to a level that the popular equipment doesn’t reach. Things there will have to change. The new standard requires trucks to be able to decelerate at 0.5g. Is that too high a bar for bicycles?

That said, a $1000 fine? You could light a car on fire and drive it down the sidewalk for a lesser fine than that.