Number Plates News

US Bike Laws Obsolete

08 July 2011

The authorities in Casper, Wyoming, USA have abolished a 20-year-old law which required pedal cyclists to display number plates and have their vehicles registered with the local council.

The rules also sought to compel bike owners to report any sale or transfer of ownership of a vehicle. Elsewhere in the legislation lay provisions that anyone in charge of an un-registered bike would be forced to present it to the chief of police so the case could be investigated and a serial number assigned to it.

A registration tag costs and should be obtained from the city clerk's office or from a city fire station.The replacement fee for a lost tag was also set at $1.

In practice, it seems that not only do the good citizens of Casper have a healthy disregard for all this nonsense, but also that the custodians of the scheme appear to have little time for it either. Councilman Maury Daubin once tried to get a bike registration."I inquired about 15 years ago," he said "Everybody laughed!"

Councilwoman Stefanie Boster maintains, however, that the regulations were essentially sound because a voluntary scheme had helped to reduce bicycle theft in her previous residence in Missoula, home of the University of Montana.

The decision is just one of a number of repeals the council has made this year. It was a close thing though and and members actually voted against the relaxation of statutes prohibiting the keeping of chickens in residential areas.