anti bicyclist bill in NYC

[martygreene]

If you are in or around NYC, please go to http://www.transalt.org/press/askta/041116bikebill.html and send off a fax form to this dipshit council woman who wants to force bike riders in NYC register their bicycles with the NY Transit Authority. Failure to BUY your right to ride and give them convenient tracking devices of citizens who choose ecologically responsible transportation will be followed by huge fines, jail time and/or confiscation of your bike. This is NOT okay. I hope this bill doesn't make it through the first hurdle and that it's introducer is met with swift U Lock justice.

Comments

[jkrissw.livejournal.com]

New York's never had bicycle permits before? I grew up in Honolulu and San Diego County, and both areas had them, as far as I recall.

[eolh.livejournal.com]

Ok, so explain to me how this proposed bill is "anti-bicyclist". That page claims that the bill will "reduce the number of people who bike by as much as 50%", but it completely fails to explain how or why it would do this, or how they came up with that number. So you've gone out and bought a bike, bought a helmet, etc., and now you're going to stop riding because you need a license? Come on . . . If that's all the more dedicated to riding your bike you are, then you probably weren't going to keep riding it for very long anyway. "Criminalize biking"? Not if you register. "More incentives to drive"? How so, exactly? These people are good at sounding angry, sure would be nice if they had some facts and information to back their angry statements up.

Think of it this way . . . As soon as you take your bicycle out on the road, it is a vehicle on the road. You are required to follow all of the same traffic rules that other vehicles on the road must follow. The problem is that, as it stands right now, a lot of bicyclists are either completely ignorant of this or they don't care/figure they won't get caught. Having lived and driven in a town with a high percentage of bicyclists (State College), I can tell you this for a fact -- many bicyclists don't bother to stop for stop signs or red lights, they don't bother to signal when they're turning, they don't worry about having the proper safety gear (such as a light when they're riding at night). They just aren't safe about riding on the road at all (and before you get all high and mighty about how you don't do any of this, remember I said many). Having a visible, registered license on a bike would make it easier for police to enforce traffic laws with bicyclists, and force bicyclists to be more conscious of the laws. Sounds like a good idea to me, and bicyclists that can't be bothered to follow the laws without it have only themselves to blame.

I'll agree insofar as those penalties sound awfully severe, but then again I wonder what the penalties are for driving around in an unlicensed car.

[jackspade.livejournal.com]

Yeah! Eff the man! He can't keep us down! Or some sort of similar words to that effect.

Wo ist das Kind?

Das Kind ist in dem Flughafen. As well you know.

[martygreene.livejournal.com]

Oooohhh... ye be such a dog of the seas.