Our old State Bike Advisory Committee did a bit of research on bike registrations at the behest of the motoring community who used that old and discredited argument that cyclists don't pay to use the roads. On a space pro-rata basis (ie, bikes take up such a fraction of space compared with motor vehicles), the revenue would fall far short of the admin costs. And what would you do with the revenue? I think some would say spend it on bike paths... which sort of defeats the purpose of a road registration system for bikes. Anyway, our car owners pay something like a AUD$45-a-year motor vehicle tax, plus another AUD$50 for registration. That doesn't buy much road space in my book.

However, I have spoken to Swiss people who visit, and some seem to like the idea of the rego system they have back home. You get a sticker to go on the bike's chainstay. I don't know what the motivation for the scheme is, though.

If following up after theft is an issue, then really, the owner should have the registration numbers of his/her bikes recorded anyway to pass on to the authorities. If you don't know your bike has been stolen there might be a problem somewhere...

R