Resgistration plates for bicycles

Alec made me listen to Alan Howath’s idea for registering bikes and giving them number plates. It is just so bonkers that it is hardly worth answering, but lets just think it through (See Fridays Today in parliament from the BBC .http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/radio4/tip_fri.ram).

1. Consider the costs? There are about 30,000,000 bikes in Britain. Say it costs £10 to administer the registration. That would be £300M straight away. This is just so the police may be able to catch a cyclist jumping lights, something it is surprisingly easy to do now if they wanted to.

2. Consider the effectiveness. Number plates on cars don’t stop them jumping lights or speeding so there is no reason to think this measure would be effective for cyclists.

3. Consider the size of a number plate. It has to be unique to cope with the 30 million bikes so seven digits. Seven digits on the back of a push bike. Pretty big then or not readable. If it is big that will make most bikes, like the ones I ride to work on illegal as there is no room for a number plate once you have lights, reflectors etc. All “racing” bikes would be illegal and most mountain bikes.

4. Consider the effect on cycling. Where as registering motor vehicles does not deter motoring you can be sure that registering bicycles would deter cycling. If the cyclist is bearing the cost of registration then that will decrease the number of bikes out there, if they don’t then that £300 million will have to be found from taxation. It would seem unjust for the cost of registration to be greater than the cheapest car, which is £0. Then there is the cost of the physical plate.

   Given that currently the obesity is the biggest health problem the country faces and that is partly put down to a sedentary life style taking steps that would discourage one of the best ways to keep fit seems, bonkers.

The thing I find most scary is that the interviewer in this case was able to do the interview without pointing out how stupid the concept is or just laughing out loud.

Tags: topic:[cycling]