Bicycle Registration on Tourist Visa

Boy, is my face red. I retract much of what I said above.

I just did a bit of internet research and found that my own town, Anchorage, has a noise ordinance of its own. And I'm not supposed to mow my lawn from 10:00 pm to 7:00 am. I should have known this, but I've never heard of it being enforced. Some bunch of government do-gooders in the past must have enacted the law when most people weren't looking.

The reason I tend to oppose this kind of thing is that government can't solve all problems and shouldn't try. Government can't fix a bad neighbor. What are you going to do, call the cops every time he makes a noise past 10:00 pm? Cops are limited resources; shouldn't we spend them on serious crimes?

That's what I get for living in the big city. My brother out in the bush could mow his lawn whenever he wants. . . if he had a lawn, that is.

Back more towards the original topic, cops obviously can't prevent bike thefts either. The idea of being stopped and having to prove the bike you're riding isn't stolen doesn't set well with me.

RolandtheHeadless said:

I just did a bit of internet research and found that my own town, Anchorage, has a noise ordinance of its own. And I'm not supposed to mow my lawn from 10:00 pm to 7:00 am. I should have known this, but I've never heard of it being enforced.

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That's not even a theoretical question in Anchorage considering that you don't have sunset until midnight midsummer! I'd continue responding but the role of government is off topic from the original question. Maybe it will come up again in another thread.

Actually, they probably enacted it when people were looking, and likely in response to a community need.

Yes, if my neighbors are making tons of noise late at night calling the police is exactly what I'd do if they didn't respond to a polite request. The alternatives are living in bad conditions or taking matters into my own hands, neither of which are appropriate.

This is the purpose of the police, to enforce the social contract.

I'm still wondering how you can be so outraged by bicycle registration and yet not about moped or car registration. Stolen vehicles of all types have dismally low rates of recovery.

Personally, I'm horrified by asset seizure, warrantless searches, no-knock warrants, militarization of police forces, and a whole host of things which go on in the USA. Bicycle registration doesn't even register on my radar of concerns.

Yes, I'm horrified by most of those things too, but the topic here is bicycle registration, and we have probably already wandered far enough afield by discussing noise ordinances.

I was going to say more about the social contract you want government to enforce, but deleted myself.

RolandtheHeadless said:

Yes, I'm horrified by most of those things too, but the topic here is bicycle registration, and we have probably already wandered far enough afield by discussing noise ordinances.

I was going to say more about the social contract you want government to enforce, but deleted myself.

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I find it convenient that you now find it too far afield after pointing the thread in that direction and piloting it most of the way.

Yet since you appear to be uninterested in answering any questions about the difference between bicycle registration and moped registration, I'll go ahead and leave it.

Oh, I didn't mean to ignore a question.

I'm not altogether sure what a moped is, but if it's a motorized vehicle, then I can accept registration of it. Partly because I grew up with a system of registering motor vehicles. And also because I see a distinction between human-powered and motorized transportation. For the same reason, we fought registration of canoes and kayaks along with motor-boats, preventing the state from imposing that requirement.

I'm not afraid to debate you on your social contract issue, but am not sure where that ought to be done.

RolandtheHeadless said:

Oh, I didn't mean to ignore a question.

I'm not altogether sure what a moped is, but if it's a motorized vehicle, then I can accept registration of it. Partly because I grew up with a system of registering motor vehicles. And also because I see a distinction between human-powered and motorized transportation. For the same reason, we fought registration of canoes and kayaks along with motor-boats, preventing the state from imposing that requirement.

I'm not afraid to debate you on your social contract issue, but am not sure where that ought to be done.

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So liberty is appropriately limited if there's a motor?

So you support electric bicycle registration?

A simple Google search will reveal what a moped is, if you're unsure.

Edit: You've ignored most of the questions asked of you in this thread.

How about starting a new thread in the serious discussions or chit-chat forum?

Bike thieves! commence fist-shaking.

We have free, voluntary bike registration with the local police department where I live in California, mainly for helping return stolen bikes to their owners. I'm not sure how effective it is, and I hope I never have to find out.

Last year, I registered the bike I used to go around Shikoku at the bike shop I bought it from. It was relatively painless and it felt good to have the bike registered in my name, to minimize the hassle in case I got stopped (which never happened).

In Nagoya, a friend of mine has had his bike (just a little old fold-up, nothing special) stolen from in front of their office a few times; once it was found near the train station and the other time the cops caught a kid riding it. In this case, having the bike registered is what got it back to him. Not sure if the kid experienced any consequences...

A friend living in Ehime was telling me that it was almost expected for your mama-chari to be snagged by some kid or drunk salaryman and either end up abandoned somewhere or at the bottom of one of the rivers after a joyride. It's a crime of convenience, and the country is choked with cheap abandoned bicycles because of it. Mandatory registration doesn't deter any of this behavior, it seems.

Back in 2007 in Tokyo, another friend was riding with me on the bikes left by prior tenants at the temple he was living when we got stopped (my precious story about how I got racially profiled). The bike he was riding was still registered to the previous owner, who no longer lived in the country. They almost forced him into signing a confession that he was in possession of stolen property, for a bike left behind (with the key) by a former student that forgot to transfer registration to the temple. The priestess had to get involved and the cops ended up keeping the bike. So in this case, the registration actually facilitated the authorities stealing the bike.

So... bike registration has some benefits, and also some drawbacks at times

nice gaijin said:

In this case, having the bike registered is what got it back to him.

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Oddly, return rates now are roughly the same as the return rates for unregistered bicycles in the last year prior to registration becoming mandatory. The return rate for registered bicycles dropped considerably after the change.

The number of bicycles reported stolen also went way up for some years after the change and are now back down to about what they were before.

Mandatory registration did absolutely nothing to deter bicycle theft and has resulted in fewer stolen bicycles being recovered.

This really is just a government sanctioned scam to funnel money to some connected people, the same as the racket they had semi-forcibly selling those traffic safety booklets to people going to renew their drivers license. The fees for bicycle are not collected into tax revenue; they go to local independent bodies with zero transparency or accountability. Taking the figures from the Wikipedia article, in 2004 they registered 7.8 million bicycles and generated 3,900,000,000. Roughly four million dollars for some stickers, a few web pages, and a few posters. I want to see who is on their boards, how they got the gig, what they get paid, and what...if anything,,, they actually do for it.