City collected a 18 year old, $31 failure to register bicycle fine!!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

The really crazy part is I can absolutely guarantee that the gov't is losing money on each and every one of these overzealous pursuits. Factor in how much personnel time is put into digging up, processing and handling each one and it's got to be hundreds of dollars per incident.

Here's where perception deviates from reality:

The PERCEPTION they're trying to create is that "government is working hard to track down all the 'deadbeats' who owe it money and in so doing, save the taxpayers money, rah, rah, rah". They sell these initiatives to the (mostly gullible) public as a way of trying to be responsible, do the right thing and cut their operating costs and (mostly) the public laps it up or looks the other way.

The REALITY is that they'd be better off writing these off. A "zero" is better on the books than a negative, which is exactly what they're getting. I guarantee most of these sorts of claims/issues result in a loss of money. As such the most responsible thing to do in difficult economic times is write off bad debts that will be money losers in pursuing at the end of the day. However, this would also mean that lots of bean counters and collections grunts would be out of work and heaven knows we can't have THAT now, can we?

This is all a sham for these sorts of players in "the system" to justify their own existences. It's a shame you got caught in it. Make sure you make it cost them everything you possibly can - make phone calls, tie up peoples' time, etc. Make it as unprofitable as possible for them. Have fun with it.

[onewhippedpuppy]

NOBODY is safe from the long arm of the law. Criminal!

[Scuba Steve]

Originally Posted by speedracing944

Here is the 1993 - 1994 registration sticker.

Speedy

Wonder if your bike can help get you off the hook. Bring it in - clearly there has been a mistake somewhere! Unless they can prove their records show you bought the sticker after the ticket was written, but what are the odds they can actually do that? They're probably much better at tracking down old debts than 18-year old bike registration sticker sale dates.

[mattdavis11]

I can't wait until they require registration down here, and I hope they require all other essentials, like insurance, to go along with it. It's crazy, there are packs of Lance Armstrong's everywhere, even on certain freeways. I kid you not, 70MPH zone and there are bicycles on the road.

[Tobra]

i thnk Scuba Steve has the answer

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Honestly how the hell do you spend hundreds of millions for bicycle lanes?

It's paint.

Union Painters

[anotherblack944]

Around here it's with separate paved paths and bridges..

here's some examples:
Wingra Creek Corridor Path Madison TE $1,255,000

If it's just paint:
W. Beltline Hwy. Frontage Road Bike Lane Madison TE $29,000

[myamoto1]

Snipe - you'd be surprised at the "ingenuity" of the OR DOT. We're constantly losing driving lanes to special bike lanes. Heck, the bridge I take out of town everyday is losing a lane for a special wider bike/pedestrian lane. They lay down trolley tracks and bus only lanes over already congested roads on a regular basis.

However, my favorite is their on/off ramp combos. I'm convinced the head honcho's favorite toy as a kid was Criss Cross Crash. 90% of the off ramps, are shared with the on ramp for the road you're exiting onto. So here you are at 60 MPH, trying to slow down and move into the exit lane, while someone doing 30 is already in that lane, trying to accelerate to 60. And Portland drivers have been pre-programmed to not change their speed (hold your line) to allow for normal merging.

-rant off-

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by anotherblack944

Around here it's with separate paved paths and bridges..

here's some examples:
Wingra Creek Corridor Path Madison TE $1,255,000

If it's just paint:
W. Beltline Hwy. Frontage Road Bike Lane Madison TE $29,000

Insanity.

Here in Philly they're just painted lanes. I HATE them. All the roads that used to be 2 lane for cars are now 1 wide car lane and a bike lane.

And no one even uses the bike lanes.

I H8 them.

[TSNAPCRACKLEPOP]

in johnson county Kansas, they just agreed to let the busses use the shoulders as lanes to relieve congestion on the interstates during rush hour. this ought to be fun to watch from the tv jet newscopter cam

[svandamme]

18 years on a bike registration thingie?? WAahahah! statuatory limitations here allow you to come clean with million dollar fraud for less then 18 years.... that's ridicioulous...

They probably are trying, and anybody who pays up without protest... they laugh at...
That has to be a bonafide scam by the city...

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by myamoto1

Snipe - you'd be surprised at the "ingenuity" of the OR DOT. We're constantly losing driving lanes to special bike lanes. Heck, the bridge I take out of town everyday is losing a lane for a special wider bike/pedestrian lane. They lay down trolley tracks and bus only lanes over already congested roads on a regular basis.

However, my favorite is their on/off ramp combos. I'm convinced the head honcho's favorite toy as a kid was Criss Cross Crash. 90% of the off ramps, are shared with the on ramp for the road you're exiting onto. So here you are at 60 MPH, trying to slow down and move into the exit lane, while someone doing 30 is already in that lane, trying to accelerate to 60. And Portland drivers have been pre-programmed to not change their speed (hold your line) to allow for normal merging.

-rant off-

Pretty good description of why I avoid driving in the Portland area as much as possible...why I limited my car selection to cars that could be serviced near home. I HATED driving my 911S in Portland traffic.

Snipe, the political powers that be here hate the automobile. They are doing all they can to move we peons out of cars and onto bicycles or mass transit.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

NOBODY is safe from the long arm of the law. Criminal!

True story and the fish was THIS big, etc:

I renewed my drivers license in Maryland a year or so ago...six years between renewals. I have had no tickets or vehicular malfeasance in the the last two decades...I'm feeling sporty.

Clerk: We can't renew your license because you exceeded your drivers points in South Carolina in 1982 (true) and never settled the fine (also true). You need to pay them first.

Me: Ok. How much?

Clerk: $250.00.

Me: How do I pay?

She hands me a phone and I reach for the credit card.

It seems that my little transgressions in the Palmetto State, heretofore off the grid, were no longer the provenance of just SC and found their way, almost three decades later, into the Maryland system.

I'm not complaining, just surprised.

[m21sniper]

I hate socially engineering politicians worse than just about anything else, with the possible exception of crusaders. (no, not the Xtian knights)

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

True story and the fish was THIS big, etc:

I renewed my drivers license in Maryland a year or so ago...six years between renewals. I have had no tickets or vehicular malfeasance in the the last two decades...I'm feeling sporty.

Clerk: We can't renew your license because you exceeded your drivers points in South Carolina in 1982 (true) and never settled the fine (also true). You need to pay them first.

Me: Ok. How much?

Clerk: $250.00.

Me: How do I pay?

She hands me a phone and I reach for the credit card.

It seems that my little transgressions in the Palmetto State, heretofore off the grid, were no longer the provenance of just SC and found their way, almost three decades later, into the Maryland system.

I'm not complaining, just surprised.

The statue of limitations in most places for traffic tickets is 2 years.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

The statue of limitations in most places for traffic tickets is 2 years.

I exceeded my points in SC, then left for AOCS and got a Florida license...then a Virginia license when I went to VA-42 in Virginia before flight school. I spent four months in VA and then back to FL for flight school. I got yet another FL license and thought I had covered my tracks.

It was a points issue, not a traffic ticket issue.

I fought the law and the law won...27 years later.

[Sigurd]

I got unpaid speeding tickets from KS and CA from the mid 80's. I'll should be recieving a few phone calls soon. I hope they take the time difference to Norway in consideration!

[speedracing944]

I got a message from a old high school friend.

It goes;

"...i was arrested for not returning library books to the west bend library 10 years after they were due. It cost me almost $400 to pay the fines off and not go to jail. I agree, that's west bend for you."

So the hardened criminals are being picked up for unregistered bikes and unreturned books from the library. God help this country.

Speedy

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by Schrup

I would go to the local media with your story.

And tell them I was ready to accept responsibity for my actions..........

[p911dad]

Just an FYI - That bike lane thing is a result of the Fed Hwy Administration's attainment goals from the current fed hwy law for multimodal transportation(in other words, bikes, buses, trains, etc to help as alternatives to cars). If the states accept Federal transportation $(which makes up a large proportion of state hwy budgets) they have to do some of this stuff. In most cases it is painted bike lanes. My personal view is it gives cyclists a false sense of security while riding in those lanes.
There is only so much money, so if a state chooses to do totally separate lanes or paths instead of painted lanes, the Feds don't really care as long as you meet the minimum goal, the Fed Aid allocation is a zero sum game. If your state gets say $100 million of Fed Aid for transportation work(a small part is dedicated multimodal $) , that is all you get. If you spent your $ on special bike lanes or paths it simply means you have less $ for other stuff, like bridges and pavements. The Feds have bike goals, but your DOT has to allocate $ from other areas to do extra stuff. It is very unpopular with the engineers that have to keep the bridges from falling down, because there is never enough $ to keep what we have in good repair.