A great way to encourage cyclists - NOT!

One word for him:  Anarchy

I hope they're aero plates.\

Seems to me that 99% of the time when a cyclist breaks a rule of the road--the red light run when you can't track stand, don't want to clip out, and cars aren't coming, for example--you are only putting yourself at risk. Granted, if you get hit by a car for doing something stupid, you will ruin that driver's day but you won't kill them unlike if it were the other way around. I can think of scenarios where this isn't accurate, but for the most part the crimes are "victimless".

Then again, we are bound by the same rules of the road and we should be held accountable. I think a number plate isn't a necessary answer, though. Being stopped by cops when you are caught is enough.

Anyone out there get a speeding ticket on your bike??? I'd wear that like a badge of honor.

Although it bothers me to see cyclist running red lights and not stopping at stop signs, you are right that often they are only endangering themselves.

 
BUT... in larger cities, like San Francisco, some cyclists are, in my opinion, a real menace.  I'm all for cycling, but when a cyclist tears through an intersection, running a red light, and nearly knocking me over in the crosswalk, that really gets me steamed.  In the last several weeks, I have been very nearly knocked down at least 4 times.  Each and every time was by a cyclist who was breaking at least one rule of the road.

But I agree that numbered plates is rediculous.  How would that even work when so many bikes are stolen?
 

I totally forgot that my driver's mirror was clipped by a bike messenger in SF a couple of weeks ago. I was stopped at a red light and he screamed past me to turn left when I couldn't. Yes, those guys give cyclists a terrible name. Maybe those guys need a "how's my driving" patch on their Timbuktu bags...

I totally agree with this.  The only ones that are going to get hurt are the dumb cyclists and when they get knocked off and maybe killed I don't think a visit by the police will do much good!  I guess that in the end it comes down to politics, they want to reduce the number of cyclist deaths and this is an easy way of doing it.

I completely disagree. When a cyclist breaks a rule which puts her in harms way of a car, most cars will do anything, reflexively, to avoid that cyclist, not thinking at all about the law.... Including hit another car, slamming on the breaks and get rear ended, drive up on a sidewalk (where children could be playing, pedestrians walking...)  

I was riding with a small group of women on a weekly Trek Store ride, and thsi one woman kept riding WAY wide into the middle of the road. I kept asking her to get over. She would for a minute then pull way wide. An oncoming car came up a slight hill towards us, saw her, and swerved to miss her and ended up in a ditch. Not cool. She kept saying, I guess i am unnatural- I am not afraid of cars! In my head I was saying, (iin my best Napoleon voice,) FREAKIN IDIOT! you don;t need to fear cars when you know they would rather crash then hit you!

"Lycra louts" aside, London Mayor, Ken Livingstone's proposal of tagging bicycles with licence plates is not such a bad idea.  Obviously there is a grave issue with cyclists not following the rules of the road in London, which is causing disturbances in the flow of traffic in that city.  Cyclists are subject to the same rules of the road as any other vehicle drivers and, therefore, should be penalized when they do break these rules.  Some form of external identification would make the task of identifying culprits much easier. 

A couple of thoughts:

I have nothing against registering bikes, particularly if you're riding on public roads.

Rather than an actual plate, maybe a registration sticker or decal of some kind.  If nothing else, it would help to serve as another means of identification should the worst happen, or (along with the frame serial #) help provide means of identifying a stolen bike.

Where I grew up in Indiana, the city had a voluntary registration/license plate program for bikes, where you had to pass a simple written test on the rules of the road for bikes.  However you were required to register your bike if you rode to school. The safety patrol would check the bike racks at school:  no license = loss of bike privileges until you got one.  

Both my kids went to the University of Florida and it is very common for cyclists to get speeding or stop sign violation tickets on the Gainesville campus.  Just too many pedestrians and cyclists mixing not to have the rules enforced.

I hate it when I see riders blowing stop signs or otherwise blatantly violating traffic laws.  IMHO this creates animosity among drivers that they then take out on the rest of us.