Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff
They must have been installed just after I stopped working downtown. Either that or I am blind and my memory is bad. I haven't ridden down Broadway for a while now.
Just out of curiosity, do you know what the various offenses were for cyclists? I cannot believe they are only handing out tickets for bike lane and equipment violations. As for riding on the left of one way streets, I think that is legal, unless perhaps, there is a bike lane.
I wonder if this is just to "compensate" in the eyes of the motoring public for what is percieved to be an overly friendly attitude towards bicyclists. The city has to play to all it's constituents, and they did say a few months ago that there would be a focus on traffic violations by cyclists in the future.
I guess I am having a hard time reading if these tickets are given properly or if they are just to harrass. If they are giving properly, I suppose we just suck it up and take it. Perhaps use this to refocus our legislative efforts along the way. If not, than this is something else entirely.
I have no issues with cyclists being cited for illegal behavior. If, on the other hand, it's harassment, I think that's something the cycling community should be complaining about. The things that would make this harassment in my eyes would be:
1) focusing enforcement efforts on cyclists instead of on traffic. Even if motorists were cited, cyclists *appear* to be the predominant target of the PPB. Maybe that means that although cyclists are a smaller percentage of the traffic, a larger percentage of cyclists are scofflaws in comparison to motorists. Or maybe it means that the PPB targeted cyclists to "compensate motorists" for the cycle-friendly policies of the city, and tagged a few motorists for political cover.
2) Citing cyclists for legal behavior. If the cyclists were riding illegally, and misunderstand that, then the PPB was correct in citing them. If the cyclists were riding legally, and the PPB misunderstands the law, then the PPB was not correct in citing them. If the cyclists were riding legally, and the PPB knows that and cited them anyway, then it's harassment.
At a minimum, the BTA needs to be talking with the PPB to get the PPB on record, and if it turns out later that the PPB does have a harassment campaign in operation, as opposed to an enforcement campaign, the BTA can then take steps to change that.