US

Training wheels to license plates? New Jersey may soon require teens and adults to register bikes or face fines

Jeff Winkler Contributor
Font Size:

New Jersey residents older than 15 may soon be required to register their bicycles — and attach license plates to prove compliance — if a recently proposed law passes the state assembly.

On Jan. 6, assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker of Newark introduced Bill A3657, requiring registration of all bicycles ridden on public roads. The bill proposes that all bicyclists pay a bi-annual $10 registration fee with a $100 fine imposed on anyone who does not register and “authorizes the chief administrator to suspend or revoke a bicycle registration for any violation of the laws, rules, or regulations regarding their operation,” according to the proposed legislation.

The bill would also make New Jersey the first state to require bicycles to display a physical license plate.

A national advocacy group for bicyclists said that while bike registration programs are “an effective tool to recover stolen bicycles and hopefully deter theft,” the funds gathered by such programs should only be used to maintain bicycle databases or go toward improvements of facilities directly benefiting cyclists.

“We support effective bicycle registration programs that don’t impose a significant financial burden or [disincentives to bicycling],” said Meghan Cahill of the League of American Bicyclists. “Registration fees should be dedicated to the cost of establishing and maintaining a registration program.”

Cahill noted problems with requiring bikes to have license plates.

“You also have to consider how to effectively register a bicycle with a decal or sticker,” said Cahill. “There’s not an affixed place on every bicycle to put a license plate where say cars come with a place for a license plate. You have to be careful, because there are very few places on a bike … to put something like that on there.”

Much like an automobile, any person selling a bike would be required to sign over their registration to the new owner and the Department of Motor Vehicles would be in charge of the state’s registration.

Out-of-state bicyclists pedaling in New Jersey won’t be required to register their wheels but they must be in compliance of their own state’s requirements.

It’s unclear whether the proposed law would apply to unicycles or tricycles and whether tandem bikes face different registration and fee requirements.

Assembly woman Tucker could not be reached for comment at this time.

E-mail Jeff Winkler and follow him on The Twitter.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel