Bike registry

[citation needed] At many schools and universities, all bikes brought onto campus are routinely required to be registered by their owners and to display prominently their annual school-provided registration decal.

Building on existing law, California has passed a bill in 2014 that will allow cities, counties or regional park districts to impose an annual vehicle registration surcharge of up to $5 to pay for local bike lanes and trails, valid until Jan. 1, 2025.

[5] Several commercial and peer based bike registries exist for the purpose of theft deterrence and to improve the probability of recovery in the event of loss.

Decals at academic institutions may have their color/design changed on an annual basis and can be fairly large such that they can be easily seen at a distance.

Tamper-resistant decals are made from specialty adhesives and/or construction so that they will be difficult to remove from the bike in the event of a theft and will be able to assist in the recovery and return effort.

There is a trend by some registrars to use RFID, in conjunction with decal identification, as a means of rapidly determining bike ownership by law enforcement agencies.

/*Bicycle DNA*/ is a free registration program that is offered by protechDNA, there are over 8,000 active law enforcement agencies that utilize this technology.

The program includes a bicycle marking template where the owner should apply the DNA adhesive so law enforcement can locate it.

Access to school, university and municipality registry databases is typically limited to the law enforcement agency in charge of the registration program; commercial registrars make their registration information available to law enforcement agencies upon request; and peer-to-peer registries make their stolen bike information publicly available via the Internet.