Cycling in Ottawa | Watching bike and transportation issues in the National Capital

Sep/09

24

Why Licensing Cyclists is the Wrong Reaction

So, the other day I made a reasonably sarcastic post about an entirely meaningless web-poll that was up on the CTV Ottawa website.

Anyway, Marcus Gee over at the Globe takes the time to offer a more serious and detailed reason why bicycle licensing is a silly idea. The key part, emphasis mine:

That is the key objection to Mr. Walker’s proposal. There is no proof that licensing would persuade wayward cyclists to pay any more heed to the traffic laws. They already fall under the very same laws that motorists do and police can charge them accordingly. In one safe-cycling drive this summer, Toronto police handed out 1,373 tickets to cyclists for infractions from running red lights to failing to yield to pedestrians. Police can stop an unlicensed cyclist as easily as they could a licensed one.

Nor is there any proof that a testing regime would make cyclists more aware of the rules of the road. Many of them are motorists as well as cyclists and all of them are pedestrians when they’re not mounted up. They know what a red sign saying “stop” means. They just choose to ignore it. The best way to address that is through education, not licensing.

3 Comments for Why Licensing Cyclists is the Wrong Reaction

Ryan | September 25, 2009 at 6:32 am

In say a 30 minute commute via bike, I see at least 12 vehicles blow through red lights and stop signs daily. These people are licenced (or so we are to believe. So many people are driving with suspended licences now). That still doesn’t prevent them from doing the same thing. Where are these same people complaining about cyclists when it comes to bad drivers? As for speeding, it is getting worse. Living in the Niagara Region, we have to put up with the highest road fatality rates of anywhere else in Ontario. Three cyclists in a span of a week have been hit. Two killed and one still in serious condition. Who’s fault? The motorists.

People who are in favour is licencing bikes just want one thing. The complete elimination of all bikes. I just wonder if these people know which political party once pushed for the mass use to the automobile and for bikes to be pushed to the side…Lets just say they were based in Germany in the ’40’s.

Mike | September 25, 2009 at 12:21 pm

It’s unusual that the first comment to a thread Godwins it.

I don’t think that pushes for licences are as sinister as you imply; I think that they mistake that what makes licensing automobile drivers useful can easily or should be adapted for the purposes of cycling.

Julia | September 26, 2009 at 9:49 am

We teach kids in high school how to drive a car and abide by the rules and so we could to teach them how to do the same with bicycles. Surely this could be added to the curriculum in schools? Maybe add it to some part of Phys.Ed.? I can’t think it would be that difficult to find the space in the calendar and it would be easy enough to teach rules and then test students on them, just like we do for driving a car. In fact, I’ll bet someone is already doing this somewhere and we don’t even need to reinvent that wheel.

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