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Detroit Bicycle Registration Fines Needed in New York Too

Detroit announced that on August 7th it will begin ticketing bicyclists who have not registered their bicycles. The tickets will carry a $55 fine and are being enacted to enforce an ordinance on the books since 1964.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, I think this is a little bit ridiculous. We’re talking about pulling police to enforce bike registrations when Detroit was listed as the “Most Dangerous City” in America based on FBI statistics in 2007.

Is this really the way we need to spend our tax dollars?

On the other hand, I feel that this is a big step in the right direction. I’m sure many pro-bicycle groups will disagree, but let’s examine what Detroit’s law requires.

The dollar-a-year licenses are good for five years.

“This will assist with the identification of stolen bicycles,” Detroit Police spokesman Officer Leon Rahmaan said.

A Detroit Police press release issued Wednesday said: “Increased enforcement of the ordinance will … take place citywide in order to ensure that any stolen property is returned to its proper owner. Enforcement will remain relaxed until Aug. 7, 2008, to allow bicycle owners an opportunity to register their bikes without penalty.”

From an objective standpoint, this seems pretty fair to me. They’re giving people over a month to register their bicycles – try driving your car for that long without a registration and see how far you get, you’ll have five tickets before you can make it home today.

Detroit is also charging $1 per year for a service that will help return stolen property to owners.
This is eminently fair on two counts:

First, vehicle registration for a typical Michigan vehicle costs $58 per year for essentially the same service – you title and register a vehicle so the state can track, and return them if necessary. Though $58 is the typical fees for cars, the fees can actually range as high as $211.

When a car is stolen, this registration information helps police to track the car down and return it if possible. Tracking a stolen bicycle requires all the same, if not more resources. I don’t think that it’s unfair to ask bicyclists to pay $1 to receive their share of this service.

Second, stolen property is a huge problem for bicyclists. Detroit had the 5th highest property crime rate in the US in 2006, and had a larceny rate of 2406 per 100,000 population.

As more people switch to bicycles in lieu of high gas prices, bicycle theft rates will only continue to rise. Bicyclists need protection from this threat, and this protection requires resources that are expensive. Bicyclists should contribute funding toward the services they use, and registration of bicycles will make it easier to track and return stolen bicycles. A $1 per year registration fees is much less expensive than having to buy a new bicycle, which could easily cost more in one shot than 100 years of registration fees.

Regardless of how we view the situation in Detroit, bicycle theft is a common problem in other cities as well – particularly New York. New York wants to encourage bicycle use, but they have a difficult time providing necessary services to bicyclists.

Bicyclists need serious safety regulations that are enforced. They need better parking, and they need to register bicycles so that we can take steps to protect them from crime. All of these services cost money, and it is only fair to ask bicyclists to pay for them.

Bicyclists in this country have a very active and vocal lobby that has been demanding “bicycle rights” since the 1970’s. If these people want to be treated seriously, and have the same rights, facilities and protections as other vehicles, it’s time for them to start paying for services that are expensive, and benefit them almost exclusively. Detroit has a law on the books that is a step in the right direction. Enforcement obviously needs to be tempered by realism about the most important priorities – the crime rate in Detroit’s case. But cities like New York that bill themselves as leaders in the bicycle movement could stand to take a cue from Detroit’s law.

New York’s crime rate has been falling for years and was the lowest it had been in four decades last year. It’s time to start focusing on some of the other things that can menace citizens. With bicycle theft a serious problem in the city, and a growing population of bicyclists, it’s time to put something like this on the books and start addressing this problem.