Our neighbors over in New Jersey are talking about a proposed law that NYC's virulent anti-bike crowd is sure to fall head-over-handlebars in love with. Democratic Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker wants to require all cyclists—from tots with training wheels to weekend warriors on Cannondales—to register their bikes and attach license plates to the back. Could it happen here? A spokesman for NYC's bike-friendly DOT told us to go ask the DMV. But over in the Garden State, Tucker says senior citizens are terrified of reckless bicycle riders with no accountability.
"They had been knocked down, knocked over and they had no way to register a complaint. They couldn’t identify the person," Tucker tells the Star-Ledger. Her bill would apply to all bicycles ridden on public roads or land. Registration would cost $10 per bike, and require the bike owner to provide to the DMV: The year of manufacture, make, model, color, and unladen weight of the bicycle; the serial number; the name, street address, and age of the owner of the bicycle; the amount of New Jersey sales tax paid when the bicycle was purchased; the month, day and year of purchase; and any other information required by the chief administrator.
Aja Hazelhoff, a bicycle advocate at Transportation Alternatives, tells us the group is "adamantly opposed to any legislation that would require licensing or registration of bicycles. Not only would this be fiscally and operationally impossible to implement, but the deterrent effect it would have on cycling would be enormous. We already have every law we need to make cycling safe in NYC, and what's needed is simply better, more targeted enforcement of these pre-existing laws."
No other lawmakers have signed onto Tucker's bill, and the Assemblywoman may already be walking back her proposal. In a marvelously mealymouthed statement, she says, "It was sort of something to try to do something to protect our seniors. It’s just a draft at this point and it hasn’t gone to committee or anything." In other words, another useless piece of draft legislation for her to blab about at election time. Democracy in action!
