City Council Unanimously Votes to Remove Bicycle License Requirement

This past Tuesday, City Council made another small step in demonstrating its bicycle friendliness: Council voted unanimously to remove the unenforced and unenforceable bicycle registration requirement. The motion to remove the requirement came from District 5’s Councilmember Mark Kersey and was seconded by District 2’s Councilmember, Kevin Faulconer.

This originally came up in the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee meeting last October and the issue finally made its way to the full City Council for a unanimous vote. In passing this vote, the city loses approximately $260 in revenue, annually.

Thank you to everyone who supported this effort and helped ensure its removal.

Edit: Removal of this requirement doesn’t preclude reporting of second-hand bike sales to the police department. This ensures that bike thieves don’t have a easy way of getting rid of stolen bicycles.

Edit 2: Special thanks to BikeSD member and supporter Geoff Stilz who was instrumental in articulating the reasons on why the bicycle license requirement needed to be removed. Stilz researched the issue and bolstered our own efforts by making an excellent case on why San Diego needed to eliminate the requirement. Thank you, Geoff!