Check out www.bcpl8s.ca for more info and photos.

I'm a trucker since 1984. All these motorists and truckers crying about cyclists not paying insurance, registration, and license fees should go pound salt...No cyclist is going to do any kind of damage their 4000lb -80,000lb vehicles cause. They're all just mad because they lost a little of their road space, and are too dumb to realize that bicycles are actually easing the congestion they create. Which is also the main reason why they're crying so much about bicycles to begin with.

I tend to find that the only people advocating for cycle registration are car drivers annoyed at not being able to break the rules of the road and get away with it.

They want me to get a license to walk across the street next?

I remember these plates in Iowa in the late 50's. Soon abandoned. Once I was stopped by cops for riding on a sort of busy road and told to get on the sidewalk. Minutes later I was stopped again and told to ride on the road. I saw a very high tech machine in the Netherlands that engraved numbers on the round bike frames. Bike theft is a big problem there and elsewhere. Number plates would be of no use. My former friends in Iowa criticised me for riding on the roads that 'they paid for'. We talked a bit, and it turned out that they all used far more tax money than me. Example, my county taxes paid for their kids schools and they paid nothing.

I will get a license plate if it means cars will respect the rules of the road more. But they won't.

Don't forget that many people have more than one bike, way a city/winter beater, a road bike and a mountain bike. Perhaps even a cargo bike or sometimes a bike trailer. What an administrative nightmare.

the town I grew up in had a registration for kid's bikes. It was just a form to be kept at the police station and a sticker with a serial number to put on your bike. It was just to get back stolen bicycles.

Shining video, as always! I find it really funny that car drivers are disgruntled for just about anything a cyclist does. Ride on the road because it's the law? "Get off the road, impeding traffic, get a license plate, etc". But ride off the road and on the sidewalk? "Cyclists always break laws, use the road it's the law, dismount-and-walk every single intersection, etc." Licensing is no different. I like to give the benefit of the doubt so I am now hunting for license plate(s) to put on my bike. ICBC (road insurance) doesn't have that option no matter how much tantrum I throw on the brokers, so I am now looking for courier plates (business license, how unnecessary for a simple bike commuter!). But I am very positively definitely sure that obeying road laws and getting a license plate will not earn road respect among drivers, so why am I even trying to please them and give the benefit of the doubt? And then of course here's the kicker--why fuss about with cyclist stigma and bike plates if I can just get car plates instead and deal with less/no stigma? This is what the short-sighted car drivers often miss: The more hoops/obstacles we put on cyclists, the more car-traffic congestion we all get.

If licence plates would actually keep car drivers obeying the rules… But in reality, they break the rules at the same or even a higher rate.

We even had it in the netherlands, a long time ago Bicycle tax: BICYCLE PLATES The bicycle tag was introduced in the Netherlands on August 1, 1924. The end of the bicycle tag came on May 1, 1941, to the joy of everyone, although it was a muted joy because it was a German measure.

Oh yes, please cover more about insurance in Tokyo. I'd definitely be interested in bringing my bike to Tokyo one day and riding around the Island. Congrats on the "should we tax cyclists" video's explosion! I would definitely hound the comment sections if they brought back license plates for bikes. "What a waste of city resources with a system that will never recover its implementation and enforcement costs."

It's pretty simple to see why bikes aren't registered and directly taxed, if you think about it. Governments tax, regulate, and legislate everything. They'd tax the air you breathe if it were practical to do it. Licensing and registration of bicycles, even if we paid exactly what drivers do, wouldn't even cover the bureaucratic costs of licensing riders and registering bikes, just like drivers' registration and licensing fees don't even cover the bureaucratic costs of licensing drivers and registering cars. If any government thought they could make a single penny of profit off registering bikes, they'd be doing it. The _only_ reason cars are registered and drivers licensed is because it seems _somewhat prudent_ to regulate just what two-tonne lumps of metal we allow on the roads and just who we let move them at 100 km/h. If drivers "paid their fair share", and paid for the roads just like they do in their fantasies, they'd be paying easily ten times more than they are.

In Switzerland we had for like 20 years stickers instead of plates. It was mostly a liability insurance. Because it was expensive to manage and most people have one which covers bicycle accidents anyway, they abolished it in 2012

I feel like it should be optional, but heavily encouraged, but first the benefits HAVE to massively outweight the costs. Because: - If I "have" to get a license just to bike, then I don't see myself cycling. - If I "have" to take a test to get a license, then I don't see myself cycling. - If it costs more than just commuting, then I don't see myself cycling. Sadly, if it's optional like I suggested, then less people will get a license, ending in bigger fees. Now, (optional) bike insurance I think should be encouraged.

My city has a nonprofit bike collective where people donate bikes and bike parts, and people not looking to spend a lot of money go by buy whole bikes, bike parts, or to build their own bikes from the ground up. How would licensing even work in this case?

They KNOW it'll discourage riding, and that's what they want, which is why they bring it up as a solution.

FREEDOM! is what I feel while riding a bike.

this video has no business being so high quality

You made a great point about the strain such a system would have on police resources. Police technically already have the authority to go out issuing tickets to bicyclists who violate traffic laws, as most if not all jurisdictions require cyclists to follow the same traffic rules as drivers. They don't need a driver's license to issue a ticket. They just need your I.D. or the information that would be on a government issued I.D. (name, address, DOB). They don't because their time is better spent enforcing traffic laws for more dangerous automobiles and fighting actual crime.

I fail to see how someone "fleeing the scene of an accident" is going to be IDed by a tiny little plate number anyway. For that matter, when a bike is in an accident, it's normally buggered up to a degree, so no one is leaving in a hurry.

My midwest USA city still has a bicycle registration law on the books, with a $5 fee, but I've seen one bicycle ever with the sticker, and even the bike shop owners don't know about the law. I'd be willing to bet that the police don't know either.

We need license plates for walkers to pay for my sidewalk.

Great video! I just discovered you through your tax video. I started cycling this year and before then I never realized how much I hate driving. I will walk or cycle because I enjoy it. I feel shackled to my car in the winter.

I have a few of these. I have 3 from here in Red Deer, where I've always lived. My Dad used to try to be the first guy in line at the registry on the morning you renewed. I have only one Red Deer #1, 1980. It is one of my most valuable possessions. I also have a plate on an old CCM from the late 40s. The plate is for Calgary Alberta, 1951. This is the most excited I've been for a KZfaq vid in a while. Thanks.

To be fair, the VIN system only requires bikes sold in Denmark to have a manufacturer-issued frame number. If you privately import a bike then you're free to not have a VIN (although you can get one assigned by the police and pay for stamping it on the frame in a bike shop), but the only difference it makes is for bike insurance, not street legality. It is not a particularly successful system though, as stolen bikes are rarely resold in Denmark and other countries don't care about the Danish frame numbers.

We here in Germany kinda have registrations for bicycles. But only on the Island Helgoland, since the Island is car free, remote and very small. You’ll get a permit for having a bike and therefore a license plate if you’re under the age of 14 to learn it. They are allowed to ride between October and March. In the summer only police, first responders and handymen are permitted to ride and have to have a plate on their bike. Otherwise no bikes and cars, except a police car, a fire truck and some vehicles for the harbor. Most of them electric. The Island is small enough, that you can walk just about anywhere in a couple of minutes. You can get a scooter though, they’re built like a bike but without pedals and a seat, so you have to push them by foot. Other than that we have the opportunity to get our bikes coded by the police, similar to Denmark, but voluntarily. The code is a mix between the frame number and the owners name contact data and you have to proof ownership of the bike. Then they engrave it into the frame and put a transparent sticker on it, that often says „Hands off, this bike is registered“ Forgot to add: S-Pedelecs are registered as a small motorcycle and get treated the same as the

So interesting! Thanks for this in-depth look! Also, loved the animation 😂

Between the 1st August of 1924 and the 1st May of 1941 we had a similar system in the Netherlands, the "fietsplaatje", basically a licence plate for your bike to prove that you had payed "roadtax" for them.If your bike did not have one, you could be fined! Fun fact: during the Great Depresion in the 1930s, the unemployed got the "fietsplaatje" for free! After all, they had to cycle in search of another job! But the authorities punched a hole in the licence plates for unemployed people! This shaming of unemployed people led to mass protest from the Dutch!

I live in Poland, and we also have something like the Danish VIN code on the frame of our bikes. It isn't required, but some time ago, when I was riding with my friend, the policeman stopped us and checked them. They're just checking if the bike is reported as stolen.

Great job! Very well put together video. Keep up the great work!

License plate does absolutely nothing to stop much more dangerous vehicles from driving in an unsafe or outright illegal way, why would anybody think it would change how a cyclist handles their vehicle? The majority of people I encounter in vehicles will follow the intent of the law providing it benefits them... as they encounter situations where the law conflicts with what they would prefer to do it, they make up rules... such as follow the speed of traffic, something which will never work as an argument while trying to avoid paying for a speeding ticket.

The truth is that the only people who want bicycle licensing, registration, and insurance are car drivers who are angry that they have to pay for all of these things while bicyclists do not. They simply want to inflict their suffering on everyone else, because they see cars as necessities, and bicycles as luxuries. They get particularly incensed when they see a cyclist refusing to obey laws intended for motir vehicles. They believe roads and streets are for cars only, and that bicyclists are inferior users who are obligated to make way for them because their car is the faster vehicle.

Nice work Nic. Definitely see it in lost of comments, didn't know it's been tried before!

If we were required to pass a road exam to bike I'd argue car drivers need to redo theirs. Theyre much worse for breaking rules even if identifiable.

Why aren't we demanding people carry a license to use public sidewalks? This lawless reign of freeloading pedestrians must end! 😤

In the 70s my brother and I would get up early annually on the day that bike lincenses were issued for the next year. Our goal was to get #1. We never did, I think the lowest I ever got was #7. This was in Berkeley, CA, USA. I can't remember if there was a cost, but if there was it wasn't much (my family didn't have much money). There were adults in line too, so it wasn't just for kids.

Use of cars and other motorized vehicles is a privilege, managed by the licensing process. To apply this to cyclists is to fundamentally change from having the right to access the roads to that of a privilege, the same as that of cars. Theoretically, if we are licensed, then we can have that access removed in the same way. To me, this is the single biggest issue. Freedom of individuals to travel by means of their own physical effort, be it cycling or walking is a right that should be protected.

Bicycles are actually licensed by the four county governments in Hawaii, not by the state. Metal tags / plates were issued for bicycles by the territory (before Hawaii became a state) from at least 1910 up to 1923. After that, each county issued its own, but these ended in the 1970s and were replaced by stickers. These were annual for years but eventually became permanent.

We had those in Quebec too.

Bike theft is a big problem which I and many people I know have been the victim of. The VIN system seems to be worth having .

I ride an ebike almost daily to work I have insurance for my protection it's past time to start enforcing traffic laws on cars

Kim Jong Un applauds all supporters of bicycle registration

Bicycle License Plates? Such nonsense can actually only come from Germany...but they don't, I know ^^

They got rid of them because they were a stupid idea.

They want to do this in New York now-it’s ridiculous. All of these failures should indicate that this idea is simply silly.

I just laugh at Americans saying to get a registration when their rego is TINY compared to other countries. LOL

Chihuahua, Mexico issued reflective decal license plates as a theft deturent

Can you cover the topic of e-bikes with higher speed limits and licensing for those, like s-pedelec e-bikes abroad? My e-bike is speed unlocked and I'm technically not allowed to do that, but it's extremely important for me that I don't have the 32 km/h limit because it doesn't make sense for where I am in a rural place. I would like it if it was more accessible for other people to not have a speed limit on their e-bike.

In my country I think licenses were mandatory until the 80s because in the eyes of the law a bicycle was compared to a motorcycle and they were probably a more popular mode of transportation but then bicycles were compared to peons so no need for it, the government would like another tax revenue😂,bicycles have a serial number already although bicycles and scooters users increased is still a small percentage, so maybe the police just enforce more the rules but both for cyclists and motorists a lot of people don’t know how to drive a car, in my city cars aren’t hostile to bicycles , they need to give 1,5 m from a ciclist while overpassing them, the more problematic are the lycra boys even then most aren’t a problem

And a license to take a shit

The point you have about regulation dissuading people from biking is true. This is why I did not get into drones.

i like your videos nick! vancouver FTW keep it up go canucks

The use of the bike license plate wasn't so totally removed from more recent decades as this seems to say. When I was kid in the 1970s in Northern California, our fairly new city had the police department issuing them. I don't remember if they were mandatory or not. They'd come with an adhesive back and you'd stick it on your bike frame. As long as they're optional, and the fee is low, and it's a one time thing, they aren't a bad idea with the registration component. Not every thief is going to think about taking that sticker off or have cigarette lighter fluid to do it with. For me personally, it added a little customization to the bike.

I find any argument for licensing bicycles to be laughable in the extreme when I see drivers breaking the law on a daily basis. Hell, I have a friend that uploads dashcam footage of other drivers breaking the law on a near daily basis, and have stopped bothering to report them because the police doesn't have the resources to pursue the cases if nobody got seriously hurt despite the concrete evidence of the law being broken. I even remember reading about a particular speed camera that is actually only turned on for something like 4 hours a day outside of rush hour because if they kept it on any more than that, the backlog of speeding violators from that one camera alone would exceed the department's ability to issue tickets. Apparently it was on a street where a dozen or so people get killed a year specifically because of speeding there as well.

We should give number plates to pedestrians 🤣 Why? (preferred answer:) Because we can (or could rather). 🤣

Wait, you see how it's firstnameLastname(4digits)? Wonder if these are bots.

This is being suggested because of suron (like) bikers who don't want to limit their stupid fast speeds and go where they are not allowed...

Bicycle Toll Roads/paths, if governments don't want to make better infrastructure what about private funding. If there's money to be made I'm sure there would be an effort to be made.

If we only just used for anti-theft & return purposes w/ addresses is it still too much cost to bare? Correct me if I'm wrong you seem to be conflating the flaws of impractical other purposes & administrations w/ the only practical anti-theft & return purpose.

Not aero 😂

Bluetooth tags would be nice.

I am a bit unsure about the price of bureaucracy. While bureaucracy is always more expensive than it seems, surely in the age of computers it should not cost hundreds of dollars to register a bike? I mean, we get this done for cars and motorbikes, so the infrastructure is basically already there.

Denmark in 1942. I wonder if the occupying Germans demanded that.

I think it should only be done with electric bikes and scooters.

i find that untrained cyclist behave like pedestrians while out on the road, and thats A BIG PROBLEM, car drivers are(supposed to be) learned that they need different decisions than a pedestrian so, why cant peddle-files also. Like the video said, over half of them failed a 'road worthiness' test, to me it shows.

Sounds like you don't take information about the DPRK with a grain of salt.

Bike registration like in Denmark deters theft because it makes it harder to re-sell bikes after they're reported stolen. This seems like a no-brainer. Your arguments against it are weak.

I'll pay bike registration when cagers all stop speeding. Deal?

So interesting! Thanks for this in-depth look! Also, loved the animation 😂

So interesting! Thanks for this in-depth look! Also, loved the animation 😂