WA House Bill 1975 - Bicycle registration fee

Hello all,

In Washington state (US) the State House Transportation Commitee has a new bill that proposes
bicycles register as vehicles (including license plate & registration form). Please see the link
below for the bill wording:

http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/2003-04/House/1975-1999/1975_02182003.txt

It is intended to create a single source of revenue for all future bike lanes in the state of
Washington.

I am curious if anyone else has experience with this (bike registration fee) in their state/country
(please provide details on cost, rules, etc).

If you are a resident of Washington please write/email/phone your representative w/ your feelings
regarding this bill (see link below to help find your rep):

http://dfind.leg.wa.gov/

And contact all the members of the Legislative Transportation Committee:

http://ltc.leg.wa.gov/LTCRoster2003.htm

-roger a die-hard bike commuter

 

On 5 Mar 2003 13:22:15 -0800 in rec.bicycles.soc, [email protected] (roger beniot) wrote:

> If you are a resident of Washington please write/email/phone your representative w/ your feelings
> regarding this bill (see link below to help find your rep):
>
> http://dfind.leg.wa.gov/
>
> And contact all the members of the Legislative Transportation Committee:
>
> http://ltc.leg.wa.gov/LTCRoster2003.htm
>
hell, if you're NOT a resident of washington send them an email and remind them how important
tourism is to the washington economy, and how a bill like this would drive tourists away.

maybe we could sic that idiot tim eyman on *this* bill instead of trying to stop transit in seattle?

 

roger beniot wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> In Washington state (US) the State House Transportation Commitee has a new bill that proposes
> bicycles register as vehicles (including license plate & registration form). Please see the link
> below for the bill wording:
>
> http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/2003-04/House/1975-1999/1975_02182003.txt
>
> It is intended to create a single source of revenue for all future bike lanes in the state of
> Washington.

Can you imagine what would happen if they proposed a law to tax all African-Americans, with the
proceeds to be used to construct separate drinking fountains? Do they really expect cyclists to put
up with being taxed for the construction of bike ghettos?

 

Thus said [email protected] (Dennis P. Harris):
>hell, if you're NOT a resident of washington send them an email and remind them how important
>tourism is to the washington economy, and how a bill like this would drive tourists away.

It could discourage some tourism. In practice, I suspect it wouldn't do much at all. Police
generally ignore minor traffic infractions by bicyclists, so most cyclists probably wouldn't
register and few would be cited for anything. It would give police a way to harass any cyclist, of
course, and discourage cycling by those people who know and care about the law.

This bill seems ridiculously disproportionate in its penalties and scope. I don't seem to find any
exceptions for non-residents of Washington, or for that matter six year olds. If you give Billy a
bicycle for Christmas, and he rides it without first getting it registered and carrying his
registration on his person, he may be fined at least $330.

>maybe we could sic that idiot tim eyman on *this* bill instead of trying to stop transit
>in seattle?

Tim Eyman would probably support this bill.

 

[email protected] (Dennis P. Harris) wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> On 5 Mar 2003 13:22:15 -0800 in rec.bicycles.soc, [email protected] (roger beniot) wrote:
>
>> If you are a resident of Washington please write/email/phone your representative w/ your feelings
>> regarding this bill (see link below to help find your rep):
>>
>> http://dfind.leg.wa.gov/
>>
>> And contact all the members of the Legislative Transportation Committee:
>>
>> http://ltc.leg.wa.gov/LTCRoster2003.htm
>>
> hell, if you're NOT a resident of washington send them an email and remind them how important
> tourism is to the washington economy, and how a bill like this would drive tourists away.
>
> maybe we could sic that idiot tim eyman on *this* bill instead of trying to stop transit in
> seattle?
>
>
>
Wow this one really does deserve to go down in flames. The four sponsors are from Vancouver,
Edmonds, Spokane, and Opportunity. Not exactly bike friendly communities to begin with.

Happily, the Republicans are their own worst enemies...

Did anyone happen to see that newsclip a few days ago where Eyman is in Sen Pam Roach's (R-Kent)
office? Adam Kline (sp?) is in his face asking Eyman "Where's the fat in the state budget that needs
to be cut Tim?" Tim wasn't answering. I hope someone makes a nice attack ad from that footage this
September.

Also recently, two republican legislators walked out during the opening prayer, which was being
delivered by a Muslim cleric that day. One couldn't be bothered to stay, and the other felt that
Muslims hadn't protested terrorist violence strongly enough. Both are backing and filling
vigorously.