Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff
Are the bike lanes on Broadway new? I used to work downtown, about 3 years ago, and I seem to remember mostly riding along in the traffic lanes until I got up toward PSU.
FWIW, when I talk about bike lanes, my frame of reference are the ones along arterial streets in the suburbs. Bike lanes in dense downtown areas with one way grids (such as Broadway) don't make much sense given the parking situation and the congestion. In fact, during rush hour, I seem to remember that there is lots of double parking in front of the hotels and traffic is nearly at a standstill. That said, I haven't commuted down there for a while.
BTW, congrats Randya, for the mention on BikePortland.org (I assume you are the "Randy" mentioned). It's a great site and the guy who runs it is a pretty balanced and respectable fellow from what I read and hear.
So, is the crackdown over? I understand the tickets for fixed gear without brakes, but what other citations were given and in what numbers? If only 23 citations were given (out of the 10,000 or so cyclists daily who cross the bridges in Portland), how many were for fixed gear, bike lane violations, and other violations?
As for the breakdown of cyclists/pedestrian/motorists ticket giving, the spread isn't that bad. Yea, traffic is 95% cars, but I'd bet that there is a larger percentage of drivers who follow the laws than there is for cyclists. The fact that they were enforcing all modes of traffic, and gave out tickets in reasonable proportions, says to me that they were not cracking down on cyclists in particular. In fact, take out the tickets given for fixies, and perhaps the numbers are pretty even. I am actually surprised at the number of tickets given to pedestrians.
If this is a crackdown, it should have its own name "The Portland Crackdown." 23 tickets is not a lot considering the number of cyclists on Portland streets. I stand by my earlier statement that I think this will be a good thing in the long run. It will act to define the rules and give something for advocate centers such as the BTA and Shift something to push against. If there were lots of bike lane violations given for the Broadway section, then it will focus attention on what might be a bad design; perhaps even resulting in the bad design being changed. If the bike lane violations were given out in error, then it will be an educational experience for law enforcement. They don't always know the rules either, and complicating that is the fact that the rule have recently changed.
Bike lanes on SW B'way - Installed three to five years ago, I think.
Crackdown over? - Who knows. They have been occurring on Wednesdays at different locations one or more times a month.
Ticket spread - IMO, motorists are more clued in to behaving better when they see an official police vehicle, and many of the cyclists were ticketed for doing things they believed were legal, like riding to the left on a one-way or leaving the bike lane to avoid hazards or in preparation for a left turn. Furthermore, there's no way to tell if the numbers reported by the police are accurate. Three of my coworkers were ticketed on bicycles, which leads me to believe more tickets were issued to bicyclists than the police reported.