Yes, of course.

Well ... I was asking the author of the article :)

But thanks.

I would be OK with it as well but I think lots of people wouldn't. I think the only way to formalize such a system that treated all bad behavior equally in an automated fashion would result in the bikes having visible identification and I think that might be a non-starter for many.

Please don't confuse frequency of hearing a message with the frequency of belief in that message in a population. Sure, there are a tiny fraction of bike riders who don't care about rules and happily flaunt them and defend their 'rights' to do so, but they are far overrepresented in the dialog. Most people who ride bikes follow the rules pretty closely, and don't go home at night posting on city message boards about how it's their right to break the law.

>"Please don't confuse frequency of hearing a message with the frequency of belief in that message in a population."

To be clear we are talking about NYC here. If we were talking Coppenhagen or Berlin or Amsterdam yes that would be true.

I'm not confusing "frequency of message." I'm being informed by actual observation. The overwhelming majority of bicyclists in NYC do not stop at red lights or use hand signals. All you have to do is stand on the stand on the street to confirm this. And yes it's the law:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/biketips.shtml

And I'm speaking as a cyclist.

And I'm speaking as a cyclist who has ridden in Manhattan as my main form of transportation 8 months/year for 10 years, as an occasional driver, frequent uber/taxi user that I disagree with your assessment.

Cars usually don't stop at stop signs either, they slow down, check for oncoming traffic, then go if there is none.

If you read what I wrote I said "stop at red lights." Do cars "usually" blow through red lights?

Also why does bad behavior by car drivers makes bad behavior by bicyclists acceptable?

Everybody makes rolling stops at stop signs on empty roads every once in a while. Based on my own anecdota, I wouldn't say that they usually make rolling stops though. It's still a ticket, that many local police in the US are more than happy to hand out. Not that it matters either way- it doesn't mean that it's OK for anyone to ignore stop signs as a rule.

> Everybody makes rolling stops at stop signs on empty roads every once in a while.

I don't. Nobody in my family does (at least when I'm in the car with them).

Neither do I.

So, since they're breaking the law it's ok for you to break some too.

Don't have kids yet, eh?

> You stopped at every red light on your way to work today(...)?

Yes. I bike 6 miles but only hit 7 lights because I head over to the west side greenway.

> (...) and you witnessed nearly every other cyclist doing the same?

Your original claim was:

> The overwhelming majority of bicyclists in NYC do not stop at red lights or use hand signals.

Even if I saw, say, 40% of bicyclists blow red lights, it would still contradict your claim of an 'overwhelming majority'.

Also, I'm a bit confused now about your claims. Are you claiming that a majority of bicyclists every now and then goes through a red light? Or are you claiming that a majority of bicyclists constantly go through red lights? I disagree with the latter but could agree with the former.

That's an interesting idea! But I'm not sure such a system is feasible.

Judging by historical bike registration programs, the realistic implementation of such a system would be expensive, underachieving, and offer noteworthy levels of customer disservice. No one would accept the idea of a bike registration fee over ~$5, meaning the system would not be self-funded. Identification would probably be easily counterfeited. Bikes lacking identification would be ignored.

Technically speaking, what ID would be visible to traffic cameras? A giant QR code fairing over the front wheel? Bikes come in many shapes and sizes so it's not as simple as a license plate. About the only guarantee you have is that it has at least one wheel that is at least 10" in diameter. You could maybe go with a radio beacon or something invisible but enforcement of requiring ID becomes very difficult.

>"Judging by historical bike registration programs."

Well most bicycle licensing programs ended decades ago. I think it would be far more efficient and cheaper to implement such a system a now.

>"Technically speaking, what ID would be visible to traffic cameras?"

A small RFID transponder on the bike and an antenna mounted over the bike lane at an intersection. The antenna activates the transponder. This is similar to how the EZ-Pass toll system works in the US. Cars come in many shapes and sizes too and it works just fine .

RFID tags combined with cameras watching for and flagging untagged bikes.