When I was 14 and working on my Cycling merit badge, one of the requirements was that the bicycle meet all legal requirements. Being in Boy Scout Troop 212 of Long Beach, that meant getting my bike licensed. I remember the Saturday morning that my father gave me a dollar and sent me down to the local fire station to get my license. I paid my dollar, filled out a form and signed a yellow piece of paper. I was legal. The end.
Since then I can count no-less-than 23 bicycles that I have had licensed. I currently have 4 bicycles, all of which are licensed pursuant LBMC 10.50.020 – within the past 2 years.
Or so I thought.
I’ve made some calls recently trying to get to the bottom of this bicycle license program. Major cities across the country are disbanding their programs, and I have personally witnessed the racial/class profiling that Long Beach’s license program is used for. I can’t get any straight answers as to what the real purpose of the program is supposed to be.
Myth #1 – for cyclists to pay their way.
Myth #2 – to stop theft
When you take your bicycle to a Fire Station on Saturday between 9am-Noon, the firefighter does not check the serial number of the bike against the database. According to April Tomecko at LBFD, the firefighters that do the licensing do not even have access to the database. Â
The form is filled out and at some point sent to headquarters, who then sends it to the Police Department, who are then supposed to enter the information in to a database for State and local agencies to access. Not until the final step would a theft be noticed – and then it is up to a detective to take up the case and track down the bike and individual.
When I spoke to Dorothy Nulk at the Long Beach Police Department – Child Protective Services (the department within the PD that handles bike licensing administration), I had to talk her through the process of getting a bicycle licensed. She said that she had access to the database and offered to run my name. Sounds fun, lets do it.
No record found.
How can that be? I have four bikes that are current, and they don’t pop up. Not only are the bikes missing, but so is any record of my name. Not one bike I have ever licensed has gotten in to the database. I have my yellow copies of the 4-sheet carbon transfer registration slip – I have them laminated – they don’t expire until December 31, 2009 – they don’t exist in the system.
California Vehicle Code 39005.
Cities and counties having a bicycle licensing ordinance or resolution shall maintain records of each bicycle registered. Such records shall include, but not be limited to, the license number, the serial number of the bicycle, the make and type, of the bicycle, and the name and address of the licensee.
Records shall be maintained by the licensing agency during the period of validity of the license or until notification that the bicycle is no longer to be operated.
Amended Ch. 947, Stats. 1973. Effective January 1, 1974.
Long Beach does not HAVE TO require bikes to be licensed, but since they do, the State requires them to keep a record of the above mentioned information. In my case, the City is not keeping up its end of the bargain. Can I write the City a ticket?
Thanks to Dr. Brent Hugh at StLRBF for tax data.
Thank you for your comment! We are working really hard to get all of you good information.
-Bernadette
Bicycle Licensing is a money loser for Cities, and has been for some time. The nominal fee paid for a license, which was set decades ago has not been updated, so it comes as no surpise that there is no well defined process, or personnel in LB who are responsible for keeping the database current.
Bicycle licensing at best is an annoyance and money loser for cities, at worst is is used as a tool by local police to harass city residents, since bicycle licenses are only valid in the city of issuance and only then for residents per CVC 39002(a):
CVC 39002(a) A city or county, which adopts a bicycle licensing ordinance or resolution, may provide in the ordinance or resolution that no resident shall operate any bicycle, as specified in the ordinance, on any street, road, highway, or other public property within the jurisdiction of the city or county, as the case may be, unless the bicycle is licensed in accordance with this division.
This means that a resident of Signal Hill or Seal Beach who may do most of their riding in Long Beach is not required to have a license in Long Beach! This is idiotic to say the least. There should either be uniform and properly funded statewide licensing, or none at all. Feudal city licensing as specified in the CVC 39000 series laws is a form of pre-industrial age thinking.