Glad to see the Star Phoenix picking up on this story so quickly, with an article in today’s edition.

While I speculated on Monday that the real reason Councillor Heidt was asking for information on bike licenses was mainly aimed at going after cyclists (and not trying to help them) – He confirmed that with his quotes in today’s article. A sampling (my responses are in bold/italic font):

[...]

“Cyclists, basically, can do what they want and how do you ID these people?” said Coun. Myles Heidt.

“You’re walking down the sidewalk and all of a sudden a bike goes by you. And, really, there’s no licence to report these people.”

[...]

I believe Tom Wolf (in the same article) put it best: “If he wants to get bikes off the sidewalks, he should make it safer to ride on the road,”

[...]

A renewed program — which Heidt said should only apply to adult bikes — could take advantage of better technology to stay more up to date and enlist bike shops to sell the licence at the time of purchase, Heidt said.

“I think we can do it now. It’s not that complicated,” he said. “I think there’s a distribution network out there and now that it’s mechanized and computerized, I don’t see it being such a big task.”

[...]

So how will you pay for this? What are the administration costs? What are the enforcement costs? Will you be proposing that we pull police officers from traffic or crime units to patrol cyclists? Why wouldn’t you include teenagers in the program? What the heck do you mean by “mechanized and computerized” distribution network?

[...]

Heidt said he’s had many calls from people worried about sidewalk safety and how little recourse they have when they are bumped or run into on a sidewalk by a cyclist. A bike license would allow more enforcement of cyclists who break the rules, he said.

“They’re breaking laws,” Heidt said.

“If a cyclist goes by you on a sidewalk and knocks you over, you should be able to do something.”

[...]

We also license drivers and their cars – if I witness some reckless driver and I call the police, what are the chances they are going to send out a unit to track-down that person? How would this be any different for cyclists?

As I demonstrated yesterday, licensing cyclists is rarely undertaken anywhere in North America these days. When it is done, the program is primarily aimed at assisting bike owners recover lost or stolen property – not as an enforcement mechanism. In this cyclists humble opinion, our City Council and City Administration should be spending their time helping to improve our cycling network (more bike lanes, pathways, bike racks, lane clearing, etc…), educating drivers and cyclists alike, and encouraging Saskatoon residents to get out a cycle. They should not be looking at creating more bureaucracy or making more laws that are hard to enforce.