On Tuesday, February 6th, Councilmember Tommy Wells introduced legislation calling for an increase in bicycle parking options at District government buildings, recreation centers, public schools, libraries – and in particular, the Council offices at the John A. Wilson Building. “Within two weeks of taking office in early January I had several visitors at my Council office that rode their bikes, but complained they had no place to park. Even today, with temperatures hovering in the teens and twenties, the few bicycle parking spaces are taken and there are bikes chained up to sign posts along the road. There’s clearly a demand for more parking at this building, and we should see if the story is the same across the District,” commented Mr. Wells.

The legislation calls for an increase in bicycle parking spaces at the John A. Wilson Building, requires the Mayor to conduct a study of bicycle parking options at District buildings (including government office buildings, the new baseball stadium, recreation centers, public schools and libraries), and adds a requirement that new residential and condominium buildings must include bicycle parking with their car parking.

Councilmember Wells introduced additional legislation on Tuesday to change the way residents must register their bicycles. Currently, the District has a little used but mandatory program that requires registration of every bicycle in the District with MPD. Estimates range as low as 20 percent of DC bicycles are actually registered. A 2005 Police Complaints Board report cited the mandatory requirement as a tool used in police harassment and recommended it be repealed.  The D.C. Bicycle Advisory Council has also agreed that mandatory registration should be eliminated. “Unfortunately, the current system isn’t working the way it was intended – to protect against theft. The current requirements don’t make it easy to register your bike and even when you do, your bicycle doesn’t become a part of the National Bike Registry,” Mr. Wells concluded.

Under Mr. Wells’ proposal, bicycle registration would become voluntary and residents would no longer need to visit a police station to register their bikes, using instead an online application or by mailing a registration card.

“If we move quickly on these reforms, we might even have some of the additional bike racks in place by Bike to Work Day this May 18th,” said Mr. Wells.

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