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(Photo: Andreas Winter)
Bike Snob

Our Woefully Outdated Licensing Laws Kill Cyclists

An unlicensed truck driver killed a 13 year-old cyclist in Brooklyn. It鈥檚 time to take motor vehicle licensing and registration into the 21st century.

Published: 
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(Photo: Andreas Winter)

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Bicycles annoy certain types of people. For this reason, scarcely a day goes by where some ornery fusspot somewhere doesn't call for the licensing and registration of cyclists. Various legislators from Oregon to New York have proposed聽such schemes over the years (just this week New York City Council Member Karen Koslowitz ), and demands for the licensing of bicyclists are a staple at community board meetings and town halls.

But we鈥檙e not here to debate bicycle licensing and registration. Indeed there is no debate. Bicycle licensing is inherently stupid for any number of reasons, including but not limited to:

  • ;
  • ;
  • Cyclists are already registered鈥攊t鈥檚 called a birth certificate.

Worst of all, the stubborn specter of bicycle registration is a distraction from the real issue, which is that our current motor vehicle licensing and registration system is woefully ineffectual and does little to keep dangerous drivers off the streets.

Bicycles may annoy the cane-waving NIMBY set, but cars and trucks (or, more accurately, their drivers) maim and kill consistently. Furthermore, too many of these killer drivers should not legally have been behind the wheel in the first place. Consider for example that on January 26, 28-year-old Philip Monfoletto was driving a Mack oil truck in Brooklyn with a suspended license when he killed 13-year-old cyclist Kevin Flores. This was Monfoletto鈥檚 ninth suspension and a point of pride for him鈥攈e even bragged about it on Facebook last year.

鈥淐atch me if you can,鈥 .听

Monfoletto is currently , because for that to happen in New York, your license needs to have been suspended ten times.

Unlicensed drivers killing cyclists and pedestrians in New York City and elsewhere is nothing new, but in the wake of this latest tragedy, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called for new legislation to punish them and the companies that allow them to drive.

While certainly important, this doesn鈥檛 even begin to address the nationwide problem of an approach to motor vehicle regulation that's about a century out of date. In 1902, after an electric Baker Motor Machine Company racecar (what, you thought Elon Musk invented the electric sports car?) swerved into the crowd on Staten Island and killed two people, the Board of Governors of the Automobile Club of America met to discuss whether drivers鈥攃hauffeurs primarily鈥攕hould be subject to ability-based licensing at a time when vehicle registration was the only requirement. r:

In this country licensing should be made an inter-State, a Federal matter. A local State licensing scheme would not do. Our roads are, like our rivers, a subject of National interest and importance, and should, I think, be the subject of National legislation.

Instead, states gradually introduced their own licensing schemes. As late as 1935, few actually required driver testing. (The last state to require testing was South Dakota in 1954.) Our roads may indeed be like our rivers, but by 1969 the Cuyahoga was on fire and we were seeing over 50,000 motor vehicle deaths a year.

While all states now administer testing and issue various classes of license depending on the vehicle, things still aren鈥檛 that much different. For example, there is no licensing distinction between driving, say, a Smart Fortwo and a 700-horsepower Dodge Challenger equipped with a 鈥淗ellCat V8.鈥 Sure, drivers of such cars are subject to higher insurance premiums, but apart from that anyone, with a license can legally operate one, regardless of whether they鈥檙e a hormone-addled teen or a doddering nonagenarian.

Moreover, once hormone-addled teens pass their licensing exam, that鈥檚 it鈥攖hey鈥檙e done forever! Think about it: there are people driving today who haven鈥檛 had to prove their driving proficiency since FDR was president. (In fact, depending on where and when they got their license, they may never have been tested at all.) Consider all the changes motor vehicles and the streetscape have undergone over the years, then consider that the way we鈥檙e expected to keep pace with it all is through our own solitary windshield perspective. Is it any wonder there are drivers who hate bike lanes and think cyclists 鈥渁ppear out of nowhere鈥? Our set-it-and-forget-it approach to driver training ensures we receive no ongoing guidance on how to interact with other road users, even as the number and type of these road users evolve.听

Most distressingly, despite the licensing requirement, we鈥檙e basically operating on the honor system. All anyone really needs in order to take to the streets in a potentially deadly weapon is the ignition key. I can鈥檛 stream 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥 without regularly furnishing FXNOW with an activation code so they can make sure I鈥檝e paid my cable bill, and I can鈥檛 download Charmin鈥檚 SitOrSquat restroom finder app without first giving Apple my fingerprint. I can, however, fire up the Wagon Queen Family Truckster anytime regardless of my licensing status鈥攏o pesky two-factor identification or access code聽necessary. And while my phone can guess where I鈥檓 headed when I hop in and tell me how to avoid the traffic, it won鈥檛 warn me when I鈥檓 speeding or alert me to a school zone.

Americans tend to think of driving as an inalienable right, and indeed, thanks to years of autocentric planning, it鈥檚 become a necessity for many. However, the truth is that operating your car on a public roadway isn鈥檛 so much a right or even a privilege as it is an account that the user must keep in good standing. And while we鈥檝e proven shitty enough to suspend people鈥檚 driving accounts for unrelated 鈥渙ffenses鈥 such as struggling to keep up with聽student loans or , we remain far less creative when it comes to keeping them from driving because they鈥檙e actually dangerous.

Maybe if we took a 21st century approach and put the same sort of safeguards on cars and trucks as we do on Gmail accounts and Hulu content then nine-time loser Philip Monfoletto wouldn鈥檛 have been able to start his oil truck and Kevin Flores would be riding to school on Monday.

The Cuyahoga River Fire inspired the Clean Water Act.

Now it鈥檚 time to clean up the roads.

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