One City's Experience with Bike Licensing Requirements

"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.