Raise the Hammer

Generally I agree with you. When I was forced to get a pleasure craft license I hated it. I think I have a right to travel on the water (it is not a privilege like on a roadway.) I think the police have no business asking for your id absent probable cause. (That applies in every situation that I can imagine - police are our employees there to serve us.)

But if we really want to ramp up cycling, and cars and bikes interact much more frequently, for self protection as much as anything carrying id is a must.

In a world absent cars, I am not sure that registering bikes would be all that important. In a world where bikes and cars did not interact I don't think it would be important either. But in a world where they interact a lot it makes sense to me.

On our roads, we have a first party no fault system. That means that if you are injured by a car as a cyclist or a pedestrian, unless you have your own insurance, you are subject to the insurance of the car you are involved with. That places all of the control in the hands of the car's insurer. I would much rather control that myself. I would like to set the terms of the contract for insurance that I carry and not rely on what, if any, insurance the car driver carries.

It is not about punishing cyclists. It's about being proactive in the world in which we are forced to live.

A responsible parent would never set out on the roadways, leaving children at home, without carrying identification and ensuring that if they are killed or maimed, whether through the driver's fault or not, that they were not properly covered.

One of my friends was killed last year leaving two young kids at home. The driver was not to blame for his death (for that matter it doesn't even matter if a car was involved.) I can't imagine what his kids would have gone through if he was not insured. Luckily a car was involved and so his auto policy responded. But if he had not had an auto policy, or if a car was not involved, it would have added greatly to the tragedy.

In addition, under most auto policies there is an unidentified/underinsured rider called the family endorsement. So if you are injured by a hit and run driver, or a driver carrying inadequate insurance, you are covered. When I was a teen one of my friends was killed riding home at night either by a driver who fled or did not know he knocked him down into a culvert. He had no coverage. If he had had dependents it would have been an even more obscene tragedy.

Comment edited by CharlesBall on 2015-07-07 16:58:48