From time to time, members of the NY City Council need to make a stink so their constituents think they are doing something. Often, they will pick some powerless segment of society to attack; the poor, tenants in rent regulated apartments, and of course bicyclists.

It's that time of year again. A new proposal is going to be brought to the City Council by Councilmember Eric Ulrich. This insane proposal would require all bicycles to have license plates.

The logic is painfully disconnected with reality. Let's ignore for now how silly it would be to create a new bureaucracy to oversee and administer this policy and look at what problems they hope to solve with this. The advocates for this plan say that it will make the streets safer by making enforcement of bicycling laws possible. Recent history shows clearly that the police have no problems writing tickets to cyclists -- this law would not change that at all. If you are one of the few unfortunate people to get hit by a bicycle, the license plates will be so small that there's little chance of being able to see it and write it down.

However, this will make it harder for people to take up cycling, it will prevent people with limited funds from using free transportation, and will instantly create a huge new class of criminals and provide new excuses for various violations of rights.

Nothing good can come from this.

Go to http://transalt.org/takeaction/actioncenter/5059?v=4 and send an email to Councilmember Ulrich letting him know how misdirected his plan is.

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Today's photos:

Not sure how the crate ended up balancing on this angle
 
 

Big metal box
 
 

nice arrangement of assorted trash