It’s an example of foolishly wanting to ride back to the future. A discouraging number of people appear ready to support licensing cyclists — a messy regulatory system that Toronto dropped in 1957.

Although gone for 55 years, and for good reason, licensing still occasionally surfaces as a policy option. According to a recent poll of 834 city residents, conducted by Forum Research, 65 per cent of respondents expressed support for licensing bikes as a means of improving traffic law enforcement. And 52 per cent thought licensing would be a fair trade-off in order to get more bike infrastructure.

They’re wrong on both counts. Police already have all the tools they need to deal with cyclists breaking the law. When enforcing the Highway Traffic Act, an officer can require cyclists to stop and identify themselves, and police can arrest anyone who doesn’t comply. The problem is that the law is usually ignored when it comes to cyclists, except for the occasional safety blitz or when there’s an accident. Simply requiring licences won’t change that.

The idea that licensing would be a good way to build more cycling infrastructure, presumably by generating money for trails and bike lanes, is equally short sighted. Keeping an up-to-date database on all cyclists in the city, and processing licences, would be a huge and costly administrative challenge.

The system was unwieldy back in the 1950s, when mainly kids rode bikes. (Indeed, one reason for killing the licence requirement was that it produced scofflaws “at a very tender age” and created “poor public relations between police officers and children,” according to the city’s website.) Today, with cycling more popular than ever, licensing would be a nightmare. By one estimate, setting a fee just at the bureaucratic break-even point could make a licence more expensive than the bike itself for many Torontonians. There’s no money to be had here for infrastructure.

Still, the concept appears to have some traction, especially among supporters of Mayor Rob Ford. The poll showed 72 per cent of them back bike licensing. Some, no doubt, see this as a good way to punish the city’s bike-riding “pinkos.”

In fact, cycling should be encouraged. It provides healthy exercise for young and old. And commuters leaving their car at home and biking to work help ease the gridlock choking Toronto’s streets. Licensing would needlessly repress cycling precisely when we need more of it.