Registration numbers for bikes? Never: it would cost too much to administer, would drastically reduce cycling levels, and wouldn't reduce the minor problem of yob cycling.
(The yobs would simply ignore the law, just as many yob drivers do - some estimate that 1 in 5 London drivers are uninsured.)
In some ways it's a shame, as it would be nice to have personalised bike registration plates: C7CLE, or B1KER, or (for Dutch fans) F1ETS, and so on. (It's amazing how the number plates of vehicles blocking cycle lanes that I photograph follow a pattern. It's almost like someone had Photoshopped them.... see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.)
Curiously, the number plate on the car in this photo, snapped last week (and parked legally, of course) is genuine. You couldn't make it up.
Last Monday I spotted a cyclist on Guilford Street who'd fitted a small number plate to the back mudguard. Unfortunately the circumstances were not propitious for me to whip out my camera and record this amazing sight.
ReplyDeleteA satirical gesture on the cyclist's part? I have no idea...
In homage to those notices on the back of bendy buses, I'm thinking of putting a yellow and orange sign on the back of my bike saying CAUTION. THIS VEHICLE IS 1.8m LONG.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that's an illegal plate, though - aren't they meant to be in a standard format in which, for instance, 12 cannot be mistaken for R ?
ReplyDeleteIf the government can seriously consider compulsory registration for dogs (with insurance, microchips etc), then they must be mad and control-freakish enough to think they can do it with bikes/cyclists too. Madness.
ReplyDelete