To be honest I’m really not sure the car drivers here have necessarily thought things through.
For example, who is going to pay for the set up and running costs of that new computer system and administrative department to run the cycle and rider licensing scheme they all seem so keen on?
It will be part of the DVLA, funded by the DfT, so of course we’ll all end up paying for it through general taxation, and I fear this new system is not going to come cheap. We don’t exactly have a great history in the UK of the Public Sector successfully developing new software......remember the NHS National Program for IT?
We can’t just buy a system used elsewhere, as no other country seems stupid enough to have started one or, if they did, they soon realised it cost more to run than it raised in revenue. So, if no other country runs a bicycle and rider registration scheme we’ll be paying for it to be developed, tested and implemented ourselves. Which raises concerns about data security, since the details of every adult and child who has a bike will now be recorded on that database. As we’ve seen already with the DVLA and private car parks, this data soon gets sold, lost or hacked.
If that sounds like a lot of cost, what about the revenue?
Logically it would only be fair if the cycle fees are paid on a scale the same as for cars, as that would mean everyone sharing the same road space would pay in the same way. So a nice, equitable, emissions-based, tax. But that means that, just as cars that generate no emissions pay no VED, so bicycles would pay no VED. You can’t use the motorbike approach to charging either, as that’s based on engine capacity. So a flat fee then? So why not also charge for pedestrians, horses, e-scooters, etc. And what about all those bike hire schemes in big cities? Will all those need to licensed and the riders tested before using them?
So now the general public are likely getting no revenue and paying for a new department, a new computer system, their bike registration, their cycling training course, their insurance, their license plates, their children’s bike registration, their children’s cycling training course, their children’s bike insurance and their children’s license plates. Hardly a bargain.
And what about those license plates? How big are they going to be? Big enough for a car driver or pedestrian to read from a distance, presumably. So car license plate sized, and on the front and back of every bicycle, positioned so that they can be read. So cycle lanes will need to be bigger to allow for that extra space, or car drivers will suddenly find that overtaking a bicycle requires a lot more room, both of which will constrain car driving traffic even more.
In addition, and because all cyclists will now have to be professionally insured, this also means that there will suddenly be an army of expensive lawyers looking to prosecute car drivers for all manner of offences that currently get ignored. Perhaps cameras will become mandatory for cyclists, to reduce the cost of the premiums? Now that camera footage we see on Facebook will potentially become evidence in litigation. Every time a car passes too close to a cyclist, or strays into a cycle lane, or overtakes on a blind corner, or pulls out from a side road, it will be permanently recorded. Being delayed a few seconds will become the least of anyone’s worries.
As a result I imagine insurance premiums are going to suddenly become a lot more expensive, for those who obey the rules of the road just as much as those who ignore them.
Who will enforce such a scheme? Not the police, that’s for sure. Unless, that is, car drivers are somehow expecting all these new police officers to ignore their own traffic offences?
All this before even contemplating whether there’s a politician out there who is willing to stake their reputation on introducing this wonderful Bicycle Registration and Licensing Bill in Parliament....at a time when more and more people are taking up cycling having been encouraged to do so by those same politicians in order to reduce obesity, get fit, reduce the strain on the NHS and save the planet. Sounds entirely toxic. That’s certainly what Ken Livingstone found when he floated the idea of a registration scheme in London (
Registration plate scheme shelved).
So, despite the wishes of some on here, I don’t see such a scheme happening any time soon. As soon as you delve into any detail behind the headlines it soon becomes apparent how completely illogical it all is.
