New NY Law Would Require Bicyclists to Have a License

Are you a Roadie? Do you ride your bicycle on the streets and compete with cars for space? How many times have you almost been taken out by a car? Too many to count probably.

There is a NYS Senator from NYC who wants to make it so every bike that shares the road with cars is licensed. Well, there is a little more to it than that. I will explain what I understand about this.

First, it looks like this would apply to bikers, cyclists, e-scooter, scooters, etc.

• It would require that the bike (just using that word to cover all of the above-mentioned items) have a license plate, just like a car.
• Operators would have to wear a helmet, take a safety course, and have a license plate for their bike.
• At this point, this potential law would only be for New York City and the surrounding boroughs.

What do you think? Is this something that should be here in the Hudson Valley? Are there too many bikers on the road? Should this be implemented on all paved roads and highways? I ask this as I came across a group of cyclists that were cruising on Route 9. They were about 8 or 9 of them and I could tell that they were a traveling group. I remembered hearing about a co-worker accidentally cutting a bicyclist off and almost causing an accident. Remembering this, I got to thinking, should we have some sort of requirement for bikers to take at least a safety class? Is making everyone get a two-wheel license the answer? Or should we make motor vehicle drivers take more training to avoid bicyclists?