Advocacy & Safety - This really pissed me off.

Hi I am a new member I was reading old posts to get caught up. In doing so I was reminded of an inncident (sp) where I was riding on a very buisy road, but it had a very nice bike path :D . The problem is that the local police station felt it was a good place to place their trailer sign that told you how fast you were going, this caused you to have to swerve out into incredibly buisy traffic. I was woundering if stuff happened other places to or if its just Mequons finest at their very best.
-Matt-

Ahh, the urban bike path, a possible substitute for the army obstacle course. It's not just the police that get involved in this little bit of fun. Around here on one of those things you can expect to see overhanging branches, broken glass bottles, parked cars and about a zillion other things I'm too lazy to think of right now.

My strategy is to ride on the road at all times in all circumstances. My commute once had a six-lane highway with high speed traffic and no shoulder, and I still felt safer there than on the nearby path. Luckily I discovered some backroads that cut a lot of that out later on.

What do I do when planning a route? Hit whereis.com.au to find some back roads. If that doesn't work, I just grit my teeth and think about vegemite!

I always try to break the speed limit on those things just to be a show off. (This only works on 25 mph speed limits.)

Hey Oscar,

You too? I love riding toward those things. I always look to see how fast I can get up to than looking to see if the speed shown correlates with the speed on my cyclocomputer.

I did that once and the cop pulled me over for speeding! Yeah, he was a friend of mine and was bored. He saw me coming and knew I'd try to blow past, he he! I made it upto 32 mph in a 25 zone!

In other states I've lived in, it is against the law to even be in the bike lane unless you are on a bike. I've seen people getting ticketed for using the bike lane for changing flat tires on their cars. :D

Why not remind the police of the law -- if parking their radar setup there is against the law. Can't hurt.

Originally posted by a2psyklnut
I did that once and the cop pulled me over for speeding! Yeah, he was a friend of mine and was bored. He saw me coming and knew I'd try to blow past, he he! I made it upto 32 mph in a 25 zone!

How much was the fine?:D

I have a major gripe with road construction signs sitting in bike lanes or road shoulders. In fact, some of the greatest bicycling hazards I have encountered are attributable to road construction barriers, signs, cuts, etc.

My two gripes are stopped trucks loading on the bike late, and cars lining up for the car wash in the bike lane. There for bikes, folks, buy whaddayagointado?

My office fronts on a 4-lane, 45-mph street with a Class II bikelane and parking prohibitions on each side. I frequently yell, "Nice place to park!" at motorists who violate this, and, at my request, the City of San Diego has conducted parking enforcement sweeps in the area at strategic times.

You're making a real difference there, John. Glad to hear it. The only thing I did today was to expectorate on one violating mini van. Of course, it did no one any good, and I supposed I demeaned my own self, but I felt ok by it at the time.

stridercc,
At the risk of stating the obvious, if the local police or local government is doing something that you find objectionable, raise a complaint. To them. Police departments have non-emergency numbers where general concerns can be raised.

Some people are used to the idea that you only call the police when you have a crime to report. But there's often a desk officer assigned to fielding general calls from the public.