BicycleSPACE via Facebook
This spring, the Alexandria City Council will consider whether the Northern Virginia community should begin applying a law that—while on the books for years—has gone unenforced to the benefit of countless scofflaws.
WAMU reports that city councilors plan to debate whether Alexandria’s bike registration law should actually go into effect. Though it has been part of the city code for years, officials have not actually gone about collecting the 25-cent fee for bike ownership, which has been the law for half a century:
As it turns out, nobody registers their bicycle because nobody knows
about the provision, which dates back to 1963. Wilson says city officials are now looking at the existing policy to determine what kind of changes might be needed to enforce the measure.
During a recent public hearing, Old Town resident Kathryn Papp said mandatory registration would be a good idea.
“Cars are registered and charged a fee. Motorcycles are registered and charged a fee,” Papp says. “Almost every vehicle on the roadway is registered and charged a fee.”Well, isn’t that just like Northern Virginia to make sure the cyclists are in compliance with the drivers. In the District, cyclists stopped having to register their bicycles with the city in June 2008, though the Metropolitan Police Department and District Department of Transportation advise that listing one’s ride with the National Bike Registry is a good strategy in the event one’s bicycle is stolen. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association says it is not taking a position on mandated bike registry.
