JayDee
I am all for licensing my bike on the same relative basis as cars. Despite the environmental impact of cars (runoff and brake dust (a leading culprit in salmon fry die off) road salt, cement and asphalt bleeding caustic or cPAHs…) the loss of real estate for roads and freeways, and the maintenance said roads require) we pay a pittance for registering cars especially given the impact of past Eyman initiatives and the trivial gas tax (currently 10-14% per gallon of gas). The real costs to the taxpayer of car use and ownership are never recovered by taxes/fees of any sort. Not to mention the costs in terms of commute time, insurance, maintenance costs incurred by the owners, etc.
So figuring the car:bike scale issue, the fact that a bike not only does not pollute when I ride it, I figure I owe about $0.02 as a suitable fee. Seriously. I’d even support a scanner registering my use of real bike lanes (sharrows aren’t bike lanes) and charging me the equivalent mil of a cent to do so. Go for it.