IT’S an example of foolishly wanting to ride back to the future. A discouraging number of people appear ready to support licensing cyclists — a messy regulatory system that Toronto dropped in 1957....

According to a recent poll of 834 city residents, conducted by Forum Research, 65 per cent of respondents expressed support for licensing bikes as a means of improving traffic law enforcement. And 52 per cent thought licensing would be a fair trade-off in order to get more bike infrastructure.

They’re wrong on both counts. Police already have all the tools they need to deal with cyclists breaking the law....The problem is that the law is usually ignored when it comes to cyclists, except for the occasional safety blitz or when there’s an accident.

Simply requiring licences won’t change that.

The idea that licensing would be a good way to build more cycling infrastructure, presumably by generating money for trails and bike lanes, is equally short-sighted. Keeping an up-to-date database on all cyclists in the city, and processing licences, would be a huge and costly administrative challenge.

...Today, with cycling more popular than ever, licensing would be a nightmare. By one estimate, setting a fee just at the bureaucratic break-even point could make a licence more expensive than the bike itself for many Torontonians. There’s no money to be had here for infrastructure....

In fact, cycling should be encouraged. It provides healthy exercise...And commuters leaving their car at home and biking to work help ease the gridlock choking Toronto’s streets. Licensing would needlessly repress cycling precisely when we need more of it. — (Sept 14)