Why Cyclists Should Pay For Rego

image from Yukon White Light on flickr

I just uploaded an blog post to Fairfax newspapers presenting an alternative argument on why cyclists should pay rego.  It all has to do with insurance.  The more people I know who get in serious cycling accidents the more I realize the importance of having good insurance.  If you have a race license and you’ve ever looked into Cycling Australia’s insurance policy,  you’ll realize that it’s far from being adequate in the event of a catastrophic injury (e.g. brain or spinal injury) while out training.

I was told something interesting about the pre-race briefing before one of the stages in the Tour of Coleraine a couple weeks ago.  The police announced to everyone at the start line that there had been violations with riders crossing the white line in the previous stage.  From my understanding, the police threatened that if any rider were to cross the white line, everyone in the bunch would receive 3 demerit points on their driver’s license (I’m happy for anyone to correct the details on this if I’m wrong).  The practicalities of this would be ridiculous and I have no idea if they could actually do this, but the point is this:  As cyclists we are bound to all the same road rules as motor vehicles, however we are not treated the same when it comes the no-fault insurance (i.e. TAC) that vehicle registration pays for.

If you’ve ever met Michael Forbes he’ll give you a compelling reason why all cyclists should have the option to pay for rego, and thus being covered by TAC.

Go over to Fairfax (The Age, SMH, Brisbane Times and WAtoday) and read my blog post to make sense of this all.

Consider watching Michael Forbe’s video below (note 5:20 when he speaks about insurance):