Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fran Kondorf on October 23, 2013 at 10:45am

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,...

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Permalink Reply by ad on October 23, 2013 at 10:49am

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.  

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Permalink Reply by globalguy on October 23, 2013 at 11:28am

+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?

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Permalink Reply by Eli on October 23, 2013 at 11:42am

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Most such places have eventually repealed these schemes. See http://blog.bicyclecoalition.org/2009/11/places-that-repealed-manda...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

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Permalink Reply by globalguy on October 23, 2013 at 12:06pm

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?

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Permalink Reply by Webs on October 23, 2013 at 12:45pm

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?

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Permalink Reply by Tom Dworzanski on October 23, 2013 at 2:08pm

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?

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Permalink Reply by Tom Dworzanski on October 23, 2013 at 2:18pm

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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Permalink Reply by Jeff Blumenthal on October 23, 2013 at 2:47pm

I'm all in favor of contributing for bicycle improvements. It would possibly reduce the animosity between motorists and the bicycling contingent about who pays. Don't like the $25/year compared to my car and motorcycle. It would cost more to enforce the law than it generates in dollars so ultimately it's a voluntary contribution.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on October 23, 2013 at 3:10pm

Good luck with that.

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on October 23, 2013 at 3:41pm

He already did. See the Trib article

Tom Dworzanski said:

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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Permalink Reply by Tom Dworzanski on October 23, 2013 at 3:43pm

Yea, I saw. After I posted. He's a good mayor. I like him a lot.

Duppie said:

He already did. See the Trib article

Tom Dworzanski said:

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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