unterhausen

it's legal to use a cellphone while driving in Pennsylvania. In fact, the most recent law outlawed texting but prohibited municipalities from outlawing cellphone use

-=(8)=-

Sad.
Spay and neuter your human.
Im very familiar with that stretch of road, and I agree, this individual needs to reassess his arrogance in this matter. Not smart at all.
Almost as sad, I lived in PA long enough to remember when 896 was a rural, very sparsely traveled road. We moved away from PA
due to the unrestrained ****/development of those areas

Zorba

Only in America...

Metal Man

Call the police and let them know that on a daily basis you see cars passing bikes illegally on this stretch of road and you would like to see some enforcement of the law there.

bluegoatwoods

Sorry OP, but you're preaching to the wrong choir.

We are a group whose lives really are threatened regularly by drivers who are too selfish to simply avoid doing so.

You're going to find sympathy here for the bicyclist, as opposed to the motor traffic, in a ratio of about 10 to 1.

I-Like-To-Bike

Thanks for the clarification of PA law on cell phone use.

I think it is important to make the distinction between talking on a phone, and mucking around with the apps, texting or other functions requiring staring at the screen of the phone.

dynodonn 

Locally, if one is operating a vehicle on a public roadway, legally one cannot have a cell phone in their hand, period.

CB HI

I bet the statistics show a fair # of child deaths in motor vehicles on route 896. Motoring creates the real child endangerment.

Essex

I would report the cyclist. Child endangerment. From the description there seems to be no true reason why the kid should be on the cycle? There are laws to protect children from acts of stupidity. If there is clear and present danger related to the child's safety the law can step in and through legal processes do something to abate dangerous behavior on the part of the parent.

That said - it will take time because it becomes a legal matter.

Sometimes you wonder how children make it to their teen years when you have a parent(s) unable to make simple choices related to their health & safety.

fritz1255

True in the Delaware section, not in PA.

elcruxio

Now I have to wonder, what if the cyclist doesn't own a car?

prathmann

Maybe to take the child to daycare/school while the parent continues on to their work location? Not familiar with the road in question, but it doesn't sound all that different from parts of my daily commute to work years ago when our daughter was little. (And the parts of the road I spot-checked in PA looked fine for riding.)

Commodus

Well, obviously the father of said child believes there is a good enough reason to be there. Now while it's possible he's some strung-out crackhead cycling desperately to his next 'fix', it's also possible that he is regular guy, perhaps a bit 'down on his luck', and significantly more familiar with his situation than the posters here. Perhaps he is also more familiar with the actual dangers of his conduct, as opposed to the op who is clearly seeing it through the eyes of a motorist.

Perhaps some local could instruct us as to whether there is a viable alternate route.

wsbob

The OP's story raises some good points. In many road situations, vulnerable road users are obliged to rely on people driving motor vehicles, not to collide with them. Riders themselves can evaluate the degree of risk, and make the choice based on the relative danger considered, to ride in a given situation, or not. A child being transported on a bike ridden by another person, or in a trailer behind a bike, most likely wouldn't have such a choice.

Vulnerable road users, such as a person riding a bike, don't have complete control over people driving. Riders can wear visibility gear, use lights to aid visibility of their presence to other road users, clearly signal directional intention on the road, but ultimately, riders have no control whatsoever, over the person driving a motor vehicle, that for whatever reason, happens to veer from the main lane into a person on the shoulder of a road, or fail to stop for them in many situations in the main lanes of roads as well, resulting in a collision with a vulnerable road user. People riding can create greater distance between them and motor vehicles on the road, such as that's possible, but that's about it. People directly responsible for the care and protection of a child, have to keep the child's safety, the first priority.

howsteepisit

So at what point does riding with a child in a trailer or carrier become endangerment? Its pretty well documented that some drivers do not notice cyclists at any location, so you could argue that there is no place excepting bike and multi-use paths is safe to carry a child on a bike or trailer. I am not willing to go there, so I must conclude that there is no endangerment occurring in the case of the OP. If there is an actionable endangerment, then I submit that all car free parents are endangering their children and should have their parental rights terminated.

prathmann

Nor do any other road users. Unfortunately car drivers and their passengers die with some regularity on our roads and many of them were driving completely legally at the time. Most of the statistics that I've seen place the risk of bicycling somewhere between that of driving and that of walking in a city/town. Since the latter activities with a young child aren't considered excessively dangerous then normal bicycling shouldn't be either.

Ferrous Bueller

^^Might be easier to simply outlaw cars.
Kids who are passengers in them constitute the largest number of accidental deaths in this country.

Essex

Possibly. However, in the US you are not allowed to:

Have your kid beg in the street for money
Put the child in peril (safety)
Not have a helmet for a kid under the age of 12

The objective facts are: it's a small kid, in a roadway where cars are moving swiftly. Maybe, if this individual is reported maybe it triggers the process of social services -that's if he is so destitute that he has to resort to this mode of transportation? Or maybe he's just like some of the dumb ____ I see from time to time in Central Park with their 5 year old kid on the handlebar, no helmet having a ride with their uber-cool dad, wearing Persol shades while taxi cabs whiz by?

wphamilton

Or maybe there's no particular danger, and your judgment based on inadequate facts is lacking. In that case reporting him to CPS would represent the worst side of our nanny-society, disrupting their lives for no particularly good reason. Just maybe, this guy knows better than you do about his situation and his transportation choices. Live and let live.

Essex

I have a very different perspective on this. Given the context - I have liability associated with not being vigilant / direct about situations which may pose risk to individuals under the age of 18. I would rather be conservative and sleep at night knowing I did the right thing.

I give you an example - I see kids (middle school) playing between subway cars on the elevated line here in NYC. The rest of the passengers riding the subway car make like it isn't happening. I step in and stop the kids from _______between the moving subway cars. Should the kids have been crushed I would not be able to sleep at night, and to a certain level could be held mildly liable. This has happened countless number of times in my experience where someone who could have done something - did nothing. It is not as simple as Live and Let live so please - lay off the simplified explanation of what you deem correct.

wphamilton

It's a grown man with his own kid, not children playing somewhere dangerously. Most likely anyway. You have no liability in that situation, absent abuse or neglect. You could be right and it may be true that he's putting his kid in danger, but you could also be doing more harm than good.

Essex

Like I said - in certain situations I have liability. Your last premise borders on the same line of convoluted reasoning as all the dullards I see stand by and do nothing while kids try and kill each other, play between moving subway cars, observe teen perverts lift women's skirts with their umbrellas etc. By doing, or saying something I at least take an active role in correcting actions which endanger children, or other people.

And I sleep at night.

wphamilton

You really don't see the difference? Well, keep a lawyer on retainer then ...

achoo

REPORTED?

Reported for WHAT?

Riding a bicycle?

You know, there are dangerous truck drivers out there, too. Putting kids in a car puts them in danger of getting hit by an 18-wheeler driven by an inattentive truck driver!

OMG! THE WORLD IS DANGEROUS!!!!

HIDE!! HIDE!!! NEVER GET OUT OF BED!!!

AND REPORT PARENTS WHO PUT A KID ON A BICYCLE!!!!

achoo

OMG!!!!

DID YOU SEE THAT YOUNG KID ON NATIONAL TV PLAYING BASKETBALL?!?!?!

DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS LEG!!!!

WHY DO WE LET OUR KIDS PLAY BASKETBALL!!!

IT'S DANGEROUS!!!

BAN BASKETBALL!!!!

Dullards?

What have you done to stop the evils of basketball?

I know - they could put 2' of foam on the floor, and then wrap the players in another layer of foam to protect them.

Wait? You don't think that's reasonable? IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!! What are you? Some sort of, err, dullard?