Put your money where your pedals are?

Oregon pols
propose bike tax,
part one

Embedded video from CNN Video

Wayne Krieger and three other colleagues in the Oregon House of Representatives are sponsoring House Bill 3008 to require all riders to register their bikes and purchase licenses. BikePortland covers the details paraphrased here:

The $54 licenses must be renewed every two years at the same price. Other fees include; $1 for transferring a license between bikes owned by the same person, $2 if you want a duplicate license, and $5 to transfer the license from one rider to another. Failure to register would carry a maximum $25 fine. Altering bike serial numbers or licenses would be Class D Traffic Violations with a maximum $90 fine. The resulting revenues will go into a Bicycle Transportation Improvement Fund that would then be used to fund bicycle related transportation improvement projects.

Needless to say, Portland's bikers aren't buying it. Their primary fear is that the license fee will discourage new bikers. Others feel that Oregon bikers already support the state's transportation system through their state and local taxes. They also point out that bike traffic doesn't even come close to grinding down the pavement the way cager traffic does. Still others have concluded that the bill is a not so subtle attempt to keep tabs on the presumably more politically confrontational vélotariat.

My thoughts
later...