I own and register both my motorbike and my car (I pay rego and stamp duties on the insurances etc etc). I also ride my push bike to work most days. Our children ride there bikes to school. Should they be made to wait untill there 16 or 17 and get a license and then pay rego to. Or should I buy a big 4WD (like the other mums and dads) and drive them to school to further block up the traffic. Come on people get a grip.

Valid points to a degree : example - a pedestrain is crossing a street, and is hit by a cyclist. The pedestrian has to have three months of work to recover from the injuries - who compenstaes the pedestrian for loss of earnings - not the cyclist : or any third party insurnace company! Something should be in place for such circumstances. Maybe for those who ride commercially should have a separeat individual private health insurance of sorts!

Read the first paragraph folks! this is not about accountability or safety it is about some wombat with a new business plan and a lobby group with grand desires of being more important than they should be, Harold Scruby anyone... As for the talk of insurance and responsibility, if this is truly an issue to you why do you not have income protection insurance already? if you have to cover your bike why not yourself? then it doesn't matter whether the rider is insured or not. We already have enough laws, just insufficient police to ensure they are obeyed, our ELECTED governments prefer the use of cameras to actual police officers. At this rate our kids will need a license to ride in the park.

**** off IRG and VECCI! Quote: 'If vehicles that do less environmental damage should pay less then the cost to riders should be minimal.' Our motorcycles do a helluva lot less enviro damage than Mr & Mrs Boofhead in their 4WDs that spend 95-100% time on the tar, but I don't see our rego costs reduced in parallel proportion to the less enviro damage we do, in fact in many ways we are still disciminated against. Perhaps my grandchild's toddler bike should have rego and comprehensive insurance in case he strays out of the driveway and stains boofhead's nice shiny bullbar with his blood. Ridiculous!

Either we put cyclists off the road altogether on a seperate pathway; or they should be registered and pay insurance.
I don't agree with the licencing proposal.
From my observations most bicyclists seem to think they don't need to obey road rules and place themselves and others at risk. In my opinion if you are on the road then you should have some knowledge and skill and some level of insurance cover.

How many times has this old chestnut arisen? I currently pay car and motorcycle rego and have 2 road bicycles and a mountain bike capable of being ridden on the road and my son has a bicycle as well so what's that an additional 4 rego's purely to the State coffers. I try to commute 3 times a week using a bike and the train to get a bit of exercise and save money, what are they trying to do stop this and force me to sell by bicycles? A load of rubbish (similar to the every KPH over is a killer campaign!) designed to raise revenues, that will not increase safety at all. What will though is my training my son to ride responsibly and not letting him out on the road alone until he has the ability to ride safely and until he knows the road rules. Will he need a licence as well before he can legally ride? I used to have some time for the IRG and Damien but he has lost me with this campaign. As for law enforcement for all law breaking cyclists with a licence stop them, fine them and ping their licence with a point and for those without stop them and fine them - this should not be too hard as I doubt if there are many cyclists out there who can outrun a police car.

Thomas Jefferson, no fan of big government, once opined:
'I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.' and further.. 'Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.'

It may seem a stretch to suggest that licencing or registering bicyclists amounts to government growth, but, despite the possible benefits of greater education and accountability, I am reticent to give any government more power over our lives as road users, citizens or individuals.

What absolute bullshit !! More revenue for the state is all that this is about. Surely they get enough already - there must be some unregulated freedom left in life.

Have you ever sat waiting at the lights to turn left and all of a sudden been surrounded by the "lycra louts" brigade riding in for their morning coffee clutch. Get too close and the might of numbers is right factor appears. 20 - 30 riders all dressed in many colors think they own the road and are not afraid to break laws. "It wasn't me, what was I wearing?". A flock of pigeons all look the same. If there were some way of identifying the "miscreants" so much the better. Wasn't someone, a pedestrian, killed by a bicyclist a while ago? They probably fined the pedestrian posthumously, as I never heard any more other than it was being investigated. At least a group of motorcyclists don't ride on footpaths and in shopping malls, often without helmets. When did it become legal to ride on the footpath? I thought it was legal only for posties. Better go before this turns into an article.

Don't know where you live Peter (18 April 2010) but up here in Qld it's legal to ride pushbikes on footpaths and by the way also to ride 2 abreast on the road. Appreciate the comment regarding the lycra brigade they're also too good to acknowledge other cyclists out there doing the same thing without wearing the lycra (much like Harley riders' attitudes to non-Harley riders!!!)

It's nothing more than another Brumby tax grab.
1. How in hell do they intend to control young kids riding to school.
2. How do they intend to control off rode users eg mountain biking
3. Whats the ruling going to be with respect to riding on bike trails eg the Warby rail trail and such?
These are just a few questions to be answered.
Its just another Brumby/Labor kneejerk reaction and a "Hello lets cash in on this".
I know that some bike riders are top clowns but then again so are a lot of motorcyclists/car drivers. But for gods sake pushies have been around for eons. So as a rider of both push and motor I say let things stand as I honestly believe that introducing rego on pushies is just the thin edge of the wedge for all of us a two wheel users.

The essential nonsense of this debate is that following the road rules keeps you safe. Any motorcyclist and cyclist who have survived for 5 years or more knows this well and will have their own tactics for avoiding doom. These are generally well accessoriesed with professional training and most motorcyclists and cyclists are generally much more aware road users. Of course the occasional idiot sparks controversy but since when has licencing stopped people being stupid? More carrots less stick I reckon because the more cyclists the less cars and the more people will appreciate the vunerable road users in this world.

How about we just pay a lifetime rego for all vehicles, pushies and off-road bikes included? Would have to help with theft and reduce admin costs for the RTA etc. Don't we pay enough tax in every other way to cover it.

There is inequity when cyclists are getting more of our WA roads but do not pay any rego or insurance. Helmet laws are not upheld either. If I rode my motorbikes with no helment the coppers would have a fit. Lets have serious look at this to find a fair way forward.

I ride motor and push bikes (road and mountain bike)and own 2 cars plus a trailer. I figure I only use one of these at a time and certainly pay enough in rego etc..however I would not have a problem with a small fee imposed on all new pushbikes at time of original purchase and this go towards Compulsory Third Party insurance. Registering all pushbikes would be a logistical nightmare let alone trying to enforce it, can you imagine the waste of resources trying to check all the schoolkids ! There are poor examples from all parties using our roads,thanks goodness they are in the minority.

I agree that they should be licenced and required to have 3rd party insurance. Bicycle riders not only need to understand and obey the same rules we do but their bikes should meet a level of safey equipment eg, a rear view mirror. We all share the road and to do that responsibly the rules should be the same for all.