One City's Experience with Bike Licensing Requirements

Looking for a case study of bike licensing programs, which are sometimes recommended as programs to reduce thefts and increase bike safety? The city of Regina in Canada is ready to ditch its license program.

1 minute read

April 12, 2015, 11:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


"The City of Regina is preparing to scrap its bicycle licensing program, saying it isn't working and hardly anybody is buying them, anyway," reports the CBC News. The city, located in Saskatchewan, Canada, had adopted a system under consideration in cities around North America that requires bike riders to buy licenses for their bikes and makes it illegal to ride a bike in public without a license.

The $5 licenses, however, have only sold at the rate of 150 or 200 a year. Moreover, "it is presumed the vast majority of bicycles on the road are unlicensed," according to a recent report going to a city committee cited in the article. Finally, Regina police have not issued a ticket for riding without a license in the past five years.

Thursday, April 9, 2015 in CBC News

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