Bike Registration Legislation Introduced in Oregon Legislature
 

By a few notoriously anti-bike Southern Oregon legislators.

http://www.leg.state.or.us/09reg/mea...008.intro.html
http://bikeportland.org/2009/03/06/m...uced-in-salem/
http://bikeportland.org/2009/03/06/a...stration-bill/
http://bikeportland.org/2009/03/10/b...stration-bill/
http://bikeportland.org/2009/03/12/o...hare-the-load/

I have heard of these . . . perhaps I shall look into it and see if there's anything a simple Oregon cyclist such as myself can do.

As David Bernstein pointed out: Cyclists often have a half dozen or more bikes and that would get very expensive each year. Something like this would also make it difficult to start riding for fun or utility since you'd have to pay two years of license before you step over that frame: Who wants to pay a $50 tax for something they're unsure about.

If they wanna tax they need to pick something to tax that you buy every so often. Cars have gasoline. For bikes I'd be tempted to recommend taxing tires or something like that.

The tax is also insanely high. We'll pay that premium for MUP's when they install sewers and storm drains on them.

Last time I checked, that is about the same amount Oregon charges for an automobile tab.

From what I remember about being a motorist, you may be right.

I've read up a bit and it looks like the BTA won't let this happen and it's not getting much support. A better alternative (I think I read it on BikePortland) would just be a small tax on the sale of each bike. But it's not like cyclists don't pay for the roads in other taxes, or that our activities require as much government-funded maintenance as car use does.

This is just another pro-car anti-human powered piece of trash legislation. Cars don't pay for the majority of the cost of building and repairing roads, so why should they be the only ones who use them? If cars paid their fair share, gas taxes would be about $10 a gallon. When you figure in the cost of air pollution, water pollution, wars to keep the oil flowing, cost of roads and maintenance, health care costs- both from crashes and the increase in disease because of lack of exercise, etc., then maybe bicyclists should be looked upon as patriots and be paid to ride, not taxed. Cars kill people in many different ways and they want to tax bicycles?

The amount proposed is about the same as a car pays now, but remember, the governor has asked for auto fees to be doubled. Also, I am not sure that if this bill were to make it to the governors desk that he might not just sign it. Governor Ted has not met a tax that he does not like. With that said, I don't think it will make it through as proposed. If there were to be some sort of registration, something similar to a motorcycle endorsement to a drivers license would make more sense (by the way, a motorcycle only pays $30 every two years). This topic has appeared several places on the forum, but just talking about it here is not going to help keeping this thing from getting on the books. What needs to happen is for those of us who live in Oregon is to contact our representatives and make sure this thing never sees the light of day.

The sponsoring congressman, Wayne Krieger, from Gold Beach, Oregon, also opposed a 'vulnerable road user' bill in the last legislative session and can be seen on film complaining about cyclists who leave the shoulder and use the extreme right hand portion of the travel lane to avoid road hazards in the movie 'Veer'.

Some one needs to read this guy the riot act... jeeze.

http://linux.stevens-tech.edu/kmh/spike.bike.all.txt

-Kurt

grin.

The quintuple negative has left me confused.

This isn't the same as cars pay. Few car owners have multiple cars to one driver. Many bike owners have 3 or more bikes.

Never mind that. I can conceivably keep 20 unused vehicles in a garage - not licensed for road use, of course - and not have to pay a cent for said registration.

The wording of this so-called "bill" pretty much forces you to register a bike regardless of whether it is used or not.

Heil Krieger.

-Kurt

It looks like this proposed bill will probably die in committee

http://bikeportland.org/2009/03/16/a...-move-forward/