The controversial issue of bike registration crept into the UK mainstream media last week, after ‘confusing’ statements from the country's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
The Daily Mail picked up on Mr Shapps' comments with a front page splash threatening the introduction of bike number plates.
Wednesday's Mail: Cyclists May Need Number Plates #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyMail #Mail pic.twitter.com/xwsJplT1sW
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) August 16, 2022
The quotes which provoked the registration scare were reported in the Guardian:
“Somewhere where cyclists are actually not breaking the law is when they speed, and that cannot be right, so I absolutely propose extending speed limit restrictions to cyclists.
“That obviously does then lead you into the question of ‘well, how are you going to recognise the cyclist, do you need registration plates and insurance and that sort of thing’. So I’m proposing there should be a review of insurance and how you actually track cyclists who do break the laws [via identifiable markings].”
Later that day Mr Shapps appeared to backpedal on his comments, telling The Times: “I'm not attracted to the bureaucracy of registration plates. That would go too far”. He then later told LBC News there were “no plans to introduce registration plates”.
Overall, it may be a case of the UK media making a mountain out of a molehill on an always reliable rabble-rousing bike issue. However, it is not uncommon for mainstream media to bring bike registration into the spotlight. On the local front, Channel 7 recently blew the dust off the issue as part of a recent story on a rider abusing a driver.
So what exactly are the arguments for and against bike registration? While there may be a few positive aspects, the overwhelming majority are negative.
Bike registration could be valuable for collecting state or national data on ownership and usage, which would be useful for understanding how we can shift from cars to bikes. There is also the potential for bike registration records to aid with theft recovery (although there are existing voluntary registration platforms).
However, the reasons against bike registration are plentiful. It’s expensive, the return on investment would be low, it would be (yet another) barrier to riding, its effect in supporting police would be minimal, and the burden would be on lower socio-economic groups. A previous article by The Sydney Morning Herald nicely details no less than 18 arguments against bike registration.
Simply put, while bike registration may hit the headlines every so often, there seems to be worldwide consensus that it is a bad idea.