Seattle Forrest

On Saturday, at the Fremont Solstice Festival, a police officer yelled at me "You can't ride your bike without a helmet in Seattle! It's a $150 fine." As I got off to walk the bike half a block ( eg out of sight ) he started yelling at someone else. "Hey! Where's your helmet?" I'm glad I didn't get that question ... I don't think "At home, where I left it" would be a very diplomatic answer, but would have been the truth.

Later that day, I was yelled at or about three times for riding my bike with clothes on. One rider yelled "Hey! He's not naked!" I don't remember seeing a helmet on any of the 100+ nude cyclists at the parade.

MillCreek

Huh. The one time I did Fremont, they yelled at me to put some clothes on. But I was already wearing the helmet.

EChing

What is Mulkey doing with pedestrians?

wes kirkman

Jaywalking and crossing against the light. If you cross against the red in this area, make sure to look over your shoulder after checking for cars.

tomagotchi

I was recently pulled over on 8th and Pine at 8:30 in the morning. The previous morning I saw Officer Mulkey pulling over two commuters in the same spot around the same time. I saw him again patrolling 8th yesterday. He sits and hides on 7th and 8th in between Pike and Pine catching the morning commuters coming down Pine all morning long. The fine is much too high and we need to request that it be lowered to it's original amount and that Mulkey do something more constructive with his time besides pulling over TAX PAYING citizens on the way to work who pay these officer's salaries. Here's an idea...serve and protect your citizens instead of reducing them to dollar signs. More specifically he could park on 2nd and Pike where people are skipping school and have tried to mug/threaten/sell me drugs/aggressively panhandle me and others I know on many different occasions. Instead he chooses to waste our taxpayer money and time as a glorified meter maid. I think Mulkey needs to grow a pair and focus on criminal activity instead of civil infractions and bothering us!

CliftonGK1

So you're boiling it down to "Why don't you go fight real crime?" Sort of like all the people who whine about their texting and mobile phone tickets...

Nobody ever thinks they're the problem.

tomagotchi

Maybe you should read my post again...that's exactly what I think and it has nothing to do with phone use or texting while driving- that's why I'm posting on a website called bikeforum. And btw... not wearing a helmet is not a crime its a civil infraction.

Kneez

One way to solve this "problem" is to obey the law. It's not that hard. Wear your helmet and don't blow through red lights and you should be OK.

MisterAngular

The "problem" being described here is selective and over-zealous enforcement of one particular law. I would strongly encourage everyone to wear a helmet even though I tend to disagree with "nanny state" laws and policies designed to protect us from ourselves. If you don't wear a helmet, you're not really endangering anyone else... unlike the mobile-phone/texting analogy that Clifton brought up. I also agree with tomagotchi and others that law enforcement resources should be directed toward other far more urgent public safety issues.

mattm

The world's smallest violin for all of those that got a ticket: ----->

tomagotchi

Dear self righteous helmet wearers,

Please refrain from hijacking this thread and turning it into one of your pro-helmet ideological rants. I am not anti-helmet, I just happened to not be wearing one that day. At what point in my posts did I mention being anti-helmet and did I at any point tell you NOT to wear your helmet? No. So please, do us all a favor and either STFU or keep on the topic of over-zealous law enforcement. I was just trying to help out our fellow riders by pointing out where these useless cops choose to camp out and write B.S. tickets to the tax-paying citizens of Seattle that are trying to make life a little easier for everyone by riding their bikes to work.

Thank you.

LesterOfPuppets

What a bummer! I would like to clarify that the law is not state-wide as mentioned here:

Vancouver, WA just got one on the books a year and a half ago. I'm glad I live and work in unincorporated Clark County and still get to choose helmet or no on my commuting and shopping trips.

If statewide law ever gets considered I'm gonna have to try to get the day off and roll up to Oly and pitch a fit.

Kneez

Wear helmet. Problem solved.

It's not that hard to do.

Kneez

I will not STFU. Wear your helmet and stop complaining.

K.Bike

we were pulled over yesterday by the same cop... in the international district.
206 bucks later!

Agreed CIVIL INFRACTION.

no warning, no talk, he just wrote the ticket without saying anything.

meanwhile two homeless beer smelling guys roll by on bikes without helmets... he does nothing. This to me makes me feel like he's just trying to make money off me. because he knows people like me will pay it.

so after he makes me late for work i have to walk home and drive to work for the rest of the week...Ticket $$, late to work $$, gas in car $$, new Helmet $$, (same for my friend -that's about 400 bucks when all said and done)

He costs me money on something that should be my own decision.

go find something better to do cop!

Kneez

You could have avoided all this by wearing a helmet in the first place. He didn't make you late for work. You made yourself late to work by making the decision to violate the law and risk getting a ticket.

tomagotchi

Hey Kneez,


I think you’ve made your point abundantly clear to everyone in this thread. You’re a member of law enforcement (and by the way, announcing that kind of makes me think you are a security guard or mall cop) who would like everyone to wear a helmet- brilliant point. We get it. Now please move along to another thread that is more relevant to your belief system and stop spamming this one. Nobody is saying that helmets are bad they are just pointing out where and when this cop tends to pull people over that choose not to wear a helmet. Nobody is arguing with your point and it has nothing to do with this thread, so stop chiming in. You are not contributing anything substantive and you're completely off topic.


To those on topic,


Please let everyone else know the date, time, location and circumstances under which you were pulled over.

K.Bike

Kneez, we've already heard what you have to say. Please get back to work & stop wasting your time and our time.

i have no problem wearing a helmet, i just happened to let someone borrow it.

tomagotchi

Hey everyone:

Here is a Google map I made where you can mark the time, date location and name of the officer that pulled you over. I hope this becomes useful in establishing patterns and informing other riders.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...fb17d17bd&z=19

Kneez

How am I off-topic? There are people who think the law does not apply to them and I am suggesting that the law does apply to them. You say that I am not contributing to this thread but I am. I am contributing a dissenting voice. If you don't like that you should come up with an argument as to why some people are not subject to the rule of law. That would be more effective than, say, "STFU." How do you justify your position that some people do not have to obey the law? We all know the law in Seattle. If you choose not to wear a helmet then you take the risk of being stopped and fined. It seems to me that rather than complaining about being fined and launching some sort of campaign to get cops to stop enforcing the law it would be far easier to just wear your helmet. Or, if you really, really feel strongly about it, you can work on repealing the helmet law.

In actuality, I do not feel very strongly either way about helmet laws. I always wear one whether there is a law or not. What I find peculiar about this thread is that people are complaining about being fined for being in violation of the law. We all know the law. Why is anyone surprised or upset about being stopped and fined for violating it? If you don't want to wear a helmet, ok, don't wear one but don't be so surprised when you are fined for it.

At any rate, I will continue to post to any thread I wish, with or without your approval. If you do not want to be exposed to dissenting views then I suggest you not post to public fora. As long as you do you should be ready to engage those with whom you do not agree.

Kneez

Does this mean you were exempt from the helmet law at the time the cop stopped you?

tomagotchi

Kneez,

Nobody is disagreeing with you. Nobody has made a single anti-helmet post. We are just pointing out where and when it happened. Can you understand that? Stop turning this into a flame war and go back to being a hall monitor.

K.Bike

nope its doesn't mean anything like that... biking is my form of commuting. i don't need a helmet to know how to bike safely.

i also don't need laws to live my life.

you are not a nice person kneez.

K.Bike

that's pretty awesome! that cop is out to getcha...

Seattle Forrest

I don't think very many people have ever decided to get on a bike without a helmet because wearing a helmet was too difficult. You already knew that, though.

Everybody fervently believes that the law doesn't or shouldn't apply to them, when it's not in their interests. That's human nature, and you're no exception. If your neighbor erects a fence on your site of the property line, after ten years the property line moves to the fence, and you've lost some of your land; this is the adverse possession law. If you own land and have some of it legally stolen from you, I guarantee you'll be complaining much louder than the people who just got bike helmet tickets. Hopefully K Bike will have the tact not to troll you right afterwards.

The problem is that you're taking the tone that people have committed some kind of grave moral transgression, like cannibalism, because they've broken a petty law. But law and morality are very different things; a man can't be arrested or fined for cheating on his wife.