GCC Friends,
At the GCC picnic today, I got some great questions about “that bike tax thing.”
For background, because some are unfamiliar with the history of the issue, here is a link to a Gainesville Sun article regarding Commissioner Yvonne Hinson-Rawls wanting bicycles and cyclists to be licensed: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140408/ARTICLES/140409657
I have attached the memo from City Staff (Teresa Scott, P.E.) to Commissioner Yvonne Hinson-Rawls, regarding implementing a bicycle registration program. The 16-page PDF file is a collection of real-world examples of bicycle registration (taxation) programs as proposed or implemented in various communities in the US, Canada, and the UK, along with reasons why they largely failed. (To be clear, some cities do still have mandatory bicycle registration, but revenues are not used to fund road repairs, but for, for example, bicycle education and bicycle-pedestrian coordinator salaries). At the end of the memo is a Power Point presentation by City of Gainesville Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator Dekova Batey wherein he suggests that, rather than taxing cyclists we consider providing better infrastructure and bicycle safety training.
1) Bicycle registration discourages cycling. The best way to reduce wear-and-tear on roads is to encourage people to get around by means (such as cycling, walking, or using public transit) that cause little or no damage to our roads. It is therefore counterproductive to tax, and thereby discourage, cycling.
2) Bicycle registration fees raise very modest amounts of income that are nowhere near enough to pay for roads or cycling infrastructure. The amount of money that could potentially be raised by registering every bicycle in Gainesville would be far less than the amount needed to build or maintain even a single bike lane.
3) Registering bicycles does not decrease bicycle theft. Every bicycle already has a unique serial number by which it can be identified in case of loss or theft. Adding another registration number, in the form of a decal or tag that can easily be removed, does not make a bicycle any less likely to be stolen. The vast majority (over 90%) of bicycles that are stolen are never returned to their owners. Registration decals have not been shown to improve this statistic.
4) If safety is being cited as a reason why we need licensure/registration (since Commission Hinson-Rawls has stated that she feels that many cyclists ride in an unsafe manner), where is there any documented evidence that registering bikes or licensing cyclists results in fewer accidents, injuries, or fatalities?
Commissioner Hinson-Rawls will be present at the meeting on Monday. If you are able to attend, the meeting will be a good opportunity to speak with her face-to-face. A good approach might be to emphasize how a bike tax would unfairly burden the poorest in our community, including the homeless, those in work release programs, day laborers, the indigent (including many in our Veteran population), students, and others who rely on a bike because they can’t afford a car.
Let Commissioner Hinson-Rawls know how diverse our cycling community is, how you personally benefit from cycling, and how others might also benefit from a more bicycle-friendly Gainesville (less obesity, cleaner air, less traffic congestion, money not spent on gas, etc). Make it personal: give examples of how cycling impacts your life, and why it is important to you. If you cycle-commute to work, bike your kids to and from school, cycle to the grocery store, ride your bike downtown to eat at a restaurant, see a movie or play, while avoiding the hassle of parking a car downtown, tell her that. Tell her, also, what would make it more desirable for even more people to ride bikes, with the end results of fewer cars tearing up the roads.
Finally, I plan to suggest in my email that, rather than taxing a clean, low-impact form of transportation, Commissioner Hinson-Rawls might want to consider working to develop cycle and eco-tourism that would bring jobs to our area. The increased tax revenue from eco- and cycle tourism, or perhaps even the implementation of a new eco-tourism tax, could fund future cycling infrastructure, and pay the salaries of additional bicycle-pedestrian coordinators on City and County staff.
Thanks again to all who have sent an email to the Commission, to those who plan to do so, and to those who will be attending the meeting on Monday. Please email the Commission ASAP, and no later than tomorrow, because the meeting will take place on Monday, Aug. 28th at 3:00 p.m at City Hall, in Room 16.
If you plan to attend the Public Safety Committee meeting, please let me know!
-Ally