Bicycle Registration in Massachusetts?
 

Chapter 85, Section 11A.
Bicycles; registration
No resident of any city which accepts this section by vote of its city council, or of any town which accepts this section by vote of the town, shall operate a bicycle within the limits thereof, unless such bicycle is registered under this section in such city or town and unless the registration plate or decal issued therefor is attached to such bicycle.

http://www.massbike.org/bikelaw/mass.htm#CONTENT

Does this mean I have to register in every town that I commute through? Meaning home town, destination tow, and all towns I travel through?

It does say "no resident", so I guess you only have to register in your home town. I haven't heard of any towns that implement this though. Actually, I haven't seen any evidence that traffic laws are enforced against bicycles at all in MA, except for the one day a year that the Cambridge PD sends out bike cops to write warnings for trivial offenses (which was yesterday, apparently).

It's definitely a weird law, though. I noticed that the fine is only $1, so maybe it's an old law that they never bothered to take off the books?

It's so the cops can shake down bicyclists for coffee-and-donut money. Clearly it hasn't been updated recently, even crappy Dunkin Donuts are almost a buck.

BTW guys - if you ride in Cambridge - Cambridge has it's own set of bike laws. Most deal with how bikes interact with pedestrians. Check it out - quite lengthy.

The reason I've been looking into this is because there has been some erratic car behavior around me during my commutes and lately the local cops have been "eye-balling". As if to check on me and see if I'm behaving illegally. Of course I'm not, and they always see me on the right side of the road and even signaling. I've been tempted to call the cops and report some of the cars behaviors.

Yesterday was particularly disturbing. Not dangerous to me but definitely against the law and putting themselves and others lives at risk. We all know that some drivers give us waaaay too much courtesy room, some even drive with all 4 wheels over the double yellow line into oncoming traffic. This is so dangerous because someone else coming from a side street or driveway have no idea and are not looking in this direction, they are looking where they would expect to see traffic coming from.

Anyway yesterday, as I was approaching a pedestrian crosswalk - the kind with a big plastic sign in the middle of the road that reads: "yield to pedestrians, it's the law" this moron instead of just driving by me, and there was enough room, or slowing down to wait for me to pass by the crosswalk, and then pass with 2 wheels over the line (which is fine) he actually drives completely into oncoming traffic (none at the time) around the sign. I was amazed. I hope he was saying to himself - "gee, this doesn't feel right and I definitely won't do this again".

BTW: this road is straight with good visibility, good shoulder for me and I was right on the white line. The shoulder is only about 5 inches wide though, so I was doing all I could. I also had a nice section of flat grass just to the right of the shoulder, so I could bail easily if necessary.

But if someone was pulling out of a driveway and looking back toward where oncoming traffic is expected, they never would have seen this idiot!

This form might come in handy:

http://www.billericapolice.com/forms/mvcomplaint.pdf

If I understand correctly, it's not used for active enforcement (i.e., cops can't use it to issue a citation), but violators get a nastygram and, I believe, it's associated with their license and can be used against the violator (showing history, maybe?) in the future. But don't quote me.

David

At the mass bike site they outline the changes in bike laws that were passed in January, and this town by town registration has been repealed:

Other Changes
12. Bicycle Registration Repealed : The bicycle registration law permitted any city or town to require residents to register their bicycles, to require bicycle rental businesses to register their bicycle fleets, and to require bicycle shops to file reports identifying the purchaser of every bicycle. The registration law was not being used or enforced anywhere in the state.

Welcome to Massachusetts. I have seen those license plates. Yes, I really have seen those plates. It is a real oddity.

I think that Hingham actually voted it in.

You would have to research every the minutes of ever single town meeting to see is this has been adopted.

You would be okay into another town with the wrong plate. You really can't get into trouble for this.

LOL

The plates may exist, but they are now obsolete, as the new bike law has removed that section.

See the link in the previous post by aharris.

Too many crazy drivers in Mass for me! Nice place to visit ......

I saw a few Mass Bike plates in the 70's. Collectors items as I remember.
The plates were shaped length wise to fit the standard size bike fender.

Mass is a great place to ride a bike, but suit yourself, we're doing fine without you.

I agree with the "crazy drivers" assessment, although they'll have to kill me before they scare me away from riding.