Seattle Time Editorialist, James Vesely, had a very good idea published over the weekend:
And it is an idea I will stand behind if any member of any of the city or county councils grows a pair and brings it up.
We have to license vehicles, motorcycles, trailers and even truck campers, all to pay for the roads.
We have to license boats and other personal watercraft to pay for maintenance of the rivers, lakes and saltwater waterways.
We have to license ATV’s, dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles to pay for maintenance of the ORV parks.
We license pets. Even cats who never go outside of the house except for a ride to the vet every now and then.
We even make people who want to exercise their Constitutional rights buy a license so that they can provide for their own self-defense outside of their homes.
Along with these licenses you are also given a list of extra rules to follow or run the risk of being monetarily penalized or jailed.
But who is paying for items, like bike paths and ramp parks, set aside especially for bicycles? Property tax payers.
And who is paying for the special lanes along the curbs set aside for only bicycles? Car tab payers.
They even made Washingtonians pay for a bike lane across the I-90 floating bridge.
Why aren’t the bikers paying for these special areas?
If you want to stop the overly aggressive cyclists who jump from the sidewalk to the street and then back to the sidewalk? Put a tag on their ride you can attach a fine to.
In all other circumstances I would be totally against a new licensing scheme, but cyclists have gotten far too self-righteous for their worth. They’ve also gotten for too much for free for far too long and gathered up a boatload of political clout that is undeserved.
You want to ride your bike naked through Ballard every year? Pay up.
The Critical Massers would have to pay up to get their chance to run over pedestrians or kick the mirrors off car doors.
$10 for a kid’s bike (15 and under) $25 for adults.
Hell, it’d probably give those who only ride occasionally a reason to get out and ride more.
Hit the link above and click on the comments link if you want to see some snippy pedal pushers.
License walkers, too. Let EVERYONE see the costs, monetary and moral, of licensing things that are natural law rights.
We need an orderly society, one in which everyone pays their fair share. But we don’t need an overly intrusive and meddlesome government which, by the way, always has its blood-stained hand out for more of our hard-earned money.
Spread the pain, let the liberal jackasses see what it is like to be licensed.
When I was a kid growing up in Palo Alto everybody had to get bicycle licenses, young and old – it was like $3 at the Fire Station for a sticker and a form you filled-out. I think the renewal was every four years. It helped to recover stolen bikes too, which seems to be an idea that has been abandoned.
Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever lived where bicycles weren’t licensed. And that’s included all of three states — Oregon, California and Maryland.
Why, Washington appears to be a paragon of liberty!
Next up, breathing taxes.
You can breathe in your own home without paying taxes but if you go out on the streets, you are using the community’s oxygen.
Wonder if they are going to give people with asthma a discount or charge them more for the “inefficient use” of a community resource.