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2009/08: Should cyclists have to be licensed and pay registration fees?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right: An ABC Stateline report on Melbourne's continuing love affair with the bicycle.
If you cannot see this clip, it will be because YouTube is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows YouTube clips.
What they said...
'Put a registration fee on every bike or a one-off tax on the sale of bikes with the dollars going directly to maintaining and providing facilities they use. There are well over one million bikes sold each year so it would not be hard to raise serious money'
3AW radio host, Neil Mitchell
'By introducing a financial and administrative burden, registration would discourage people from cycling. Families would particularly suffer: riding a bike might become an unaffordable luxury for many kids'
Bicycle Victoria
The issue at a glance
Proposals that bicycles be registered and cyclists be licensed have been made for some years.
In February 2008 the federal Opposition sports spokesperson, Mr Pat Farmer, suggested that bicycles should be registered as a means of raising money toward supplying the facilities and infrastructure cyclists need.
A year later, in February 2009, 3AW radio host, Neil Mitchell proposed that bicyclists in Victoria should have to register their bikes.
A month later, in March, 2009, an online survey, by insurance company Budget Direct, revealed that 60 per cent of of the Queensland drivers surveyed believed that bike riders should be licensed.
Bike rider associations in Victoria and Queensland have spoken against these proposals. The issue has become more heated as governments around Australia spend more money on infrastructure for cyclists and in a number of jurisdictions, cyclists are increasingly involved in road accidents.
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