The Chainlink

Another brilliant Aldermanic proposal-- $25 license and mandatory safety course for all cyclists in Chicago

Got a call from a Trib journalist for a reaction.... 3rd ward alderwoman, no time to look up the name which I'm blocking on. Sometimes this job interferes with my internet usage...

Anyone got anything?

How many times have we been here before....

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Such an ordinance would be a bad thing for poor people and a trap for the unlicensed.  The license and the course (would that be free? I doubt it) would be more than many can pay.  This would make poor people who cannot afford the license and class outlaws. Police can stop an unlicensed bike just like they can stop a car with a broken tail light for no other reason. At this point the rider is open game to a search of their person and bicycle. Perhaps this rider is an undocumented person on her/her way to work. Perhaps this rider has some contraband on the bottom of their pannier. If we can afford the license and course we are now in a separate group from these poor riders. Now, a class division enters the cycling community. There are riders on bikes that don't make noise and have a license and there are riders on the clanging heaps without licenses stopped by the flashing blue lights. 

Hey, AlderPuppets- you want to make $10M magically appear in the city's coffers?

 How about getting CPD to start ticketing the motorists for reckless driving, blowing red lights, not signalling, cell phone use, passing us too closely,...

As others have noted, this smacks of pandering and will likely go nowhere.  Personally, I would gladly pay $25 a year to register a bike IF the money actually went to improving bicycle facilities in the city, which would never happen.  

+1: Gota' put on the "Big Boy (or Girl) Pants" with Dug on this one.  Y'know what paying for a license gets us? An unequivocal seat at the policy table. We've arrived bikey folks, we've arrived ... drivers and their ilk won't be able to keep asking (ad nauseam) how we contribute to infrastructure or bitch about the last time some hipster who blew the neighborhood stop sign (with impunity) ... but of course, we gotta' put on our "Big Boy (or Girl) Pants" before we can sidle up to that there policy table.

notoriousDUG said:

You don't pay for registration for your car?  Or a city sticker?

We've arrived? Seriously?
The only way you could possibly beleive that is if you only stick to a small patch of north side where there are enough people on bicycles to be noticeable. City-wide, have we even broken 2% mode-share?

We've arrived?

 

Nice work coming up with the most insulting and offensive possible way to frame your argument.  If I don't agree with you then I'm not wearing "big boy pants?"

WTF?



globalguy said:

+1: Gota' put on the "Big Boy (or Girl) Pants" with Dug on this one.  Y'know what paying for a license gets us? An unequivocal seat at the policy table. We've arrived bikey folks, we've arrived ... drivers and their ilk won't be able to keep asking (ad nauseam) how we contribute to infrastructure or bitch about the last time some hipster who blew the neighborhood stop sign (with impunity) ... but of course, we gotta' put on our "Big Boy (or Girl) Pants" before we can sidle up to that there policy table.

notoriousDUG said:

You don't pay for registration for your car?  Or a city sticker?

Driving is a privilege, not a right--rightly so, because of the extraordinary capacity to cause harm.

Riding a bike should not be a privilege. It is part of the general and universal right to use the public spaces of a city.

In places that have had mandatory bike registration or licensing, the brunt of enforcement has in practice fallen on poor people and people of color. It gives police an excuse to hassle any cyclist for any (or no) reason.

Most such places have eventually repealed these schemes. See http://blog.bicyclecoalition.org/2009/11/places-that-repealed-manda... for a partial list.

But most importantly it will shrink the number of cyclists on the road, and bring an abrupt end to the current bicycle rennaisance in this city. Anyone who's willing to accept that consequence because they fantasize that boasting that cyclists pay a licensing fee will win some kind of favor with motorists is not a friend of bicycling.

echo said:

But really... people can complain about how we don't pay our fair share all the want. They are WRONG. Cities gain a PROFIT when people bike instead of drive. If they don't know that, correct them. If they deny it, well... you can't fix stupid. And a bike registration fee sure isn't going to do it. In fact, it's going to positively reinforce stupid. 

Well, thanks for taking the bait, Hipster DB. All I was saying was that with a little cash-based cred (how else do Rahm's bikey minions have an impact) you could get out of your Edgewater tofu flop and actually attend a Mayors Bike Advisory Blah Blah Blah and rage "I paid the fee but they took the bike lanes out of Washington Square!" ... "WTF" my Brooks-saddled Butt ...


h' $550 said:

          WTF?

Sorry, should have been more clear. I meant to get a license. And there is a fee for a license, but every 4 years here and in other states even longer. Like NC was 10 years when I lived there ages ago.

notoriousDUG said:

You don't pay for registration for your car?  Or a city sticker?

Ava Ensign said:

This is proposed as a yearly fee. You don't even have to pay that to drive a car! I think it's ludicrous. Also, she states in the article that she wants it to replace the cable television tax hike. Yet again, I am disappointed to an extreme degree in the politicians of Chicago.

Paul Gnarlo said:

I would happily pay this fee to ride my bike in chicago if we had a full comprehensive dedicated/protected bike lane system throughout chicagoland just as cars do for roads. Because after all, bikes are just like cars right?

Finally had a chance to read it. My approval rating of Emmanuel went up a notch.

Duppie said:

Yea, because car owners are so powerful thanks to their city stickers. Give me a break.



globalguy said:

Well, thanks for taking the bait, Hipster DB. All I was saying was that with a little cash-based cred (how else do Rahm's bikey minions have an impact) you could get out of your Edgewater tofu flop and actually attend a Mayors Bike Advisory Blah Blah Blah and rage "I paid the fee but they took the bike lanes out of Washington Square!" ... "WTF" my Brooks-saddled Butt ...


h' $550 said:

          WTF?

Rahmbo needs to come out and unequivocally denounce this idea. Otherwise it's going to happen. Not as proposed of course. It'll start as an optional $5 registration with a pamphlet. Then a $5 requirement with a nicer pamphlet. Then a $30 requirement with a pamphlet for first-timers only. And finally a $65 requirement with no pamphlet.

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