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This issue does not contain a list of
upcoming events. Instead of taking time to research cycling events, I
have been busily watching the Tour of the Basque Country
professional bicycling stage race over the Internet on
universalsports.com/cycling. Expect further cuts in
content as the professional bicycle racing season gets into
full swing. We all have out priorities. :)
Update on Flagstaff Police Attitude
In a previous issue of Arizona Road Cyclist News, I wrote
about cyclist Randy Mason, who was buzzed by a Flagstaff
City bus while riding in a bike lane that was partially
blocked by snow. Randy caught up with the bus, boarded it,
and attempted to inform the driver in a calm manner that he
had violated
Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) 28-735, which requires
motor vehicles to give cyclists at least three feet of
clearance when passing. The driver radioed his dispatcher,
who in turn called the police. When the police arrived,
instead of ticketing the bus driver, they arrested Randy and
charged him with disorderly conduct on the bus driver's word
with no supporting evidence.
A review of video recorded by the bus's system and at the
bus stop, which you can view on YouTube by clicking
here, shows how unjustly the Flagstaff Police Department
acted in taking the side of the bus driver against the
cyclist. The video not only seems to show that the bus
passed Randy too closely, it also shows that the bus was
exceeding the posted speed limit and that the bus driver
lied when he claimed that traffic in the left lane prevented
him from moving to the left to give the cyclist the legal
three feet. There was no traffic in the left lane.
As can be seen in the video, the police who arrived were
uninformed about of the laws that they are charged to enforce. The
police first claimed ignorance of the three-foot law and
then argued that it does not apply when the cyclist is in a
bike lane.
ARS 28-735 is written in plain English and makes no
mention of bike lanes except to say that the monetary
penalties set forth in the statute for a driver who strikes
and injures or kills a cyclist do not apply if there is
passable bike lane present and the cyclist is not in it. Any
literate person should be able to read and understand the
statute.
The situation dragged on for weeks with rumors circulating
that the city attorney's office had sided with the police.
Finally, under pressure from the news media and in the face
of the video on YouTube, deputy city attorney Lisa
Stankovich recommended in an E-mail that the bus driver be
ticketed for speeding and for violating the three-foot law.
She added in her opinion: "Since the bicyclist in this case
was in a bike lane at the time of the alleged violation, and
it is our opinion that a violation occurred, it is thus
clear that we think the 3-foot rule applies in all
situations when a vehicle overtakes a bicycle traveling in
the same direction, whether in a bike lane or not."
Although I have been unable to independently confirm it, I
read on the
Tucson Bike Lawyer Blog that the bus driver has since
been ticketed. I hope that this is the case. If it is true,
it is the first time that I am aware of when a driver has
been cited for violating the three-foot law when the motor
vehicle did not strike the cyclist.
My thanks to Ed Beighe, who maintains the
AZbikelaw blog, for pointing me to some new information
on this story.
Pima
County Sheriff Acknowledges Right to Ride 2 Abreast
I also wrote in a previous issue of Arizona Road Cyclist
News about two cyclists who were ticketed under
ARS 28-815 for riding two abreast in Pima County, were
fined in traffic court, but who had the traffic court
rulings overturned on appeal. In a memo dated March 5,
Lieutenant K. Woolridge of the Pima County Sheriff's
Department wrote that the statute does indeed permit
cyclists to ride two abreast and also permits the cyclists
to ride out in the lane on certain circumstances.
He also
noted that motorists are required to give cyclists three
feet of clearance when passing and asked sheriff's deputies
to abide by the interpretation of the laws set forth in the
memo. Missing from the memo is the fact that cyclist are
only required to ride as far to the right as practicable when
the cyclist is riding "at less than the normal speed of
traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then
existing." This means that there is still the possibility
that sheriff's deputies might falsely ticket cyclists
who do not ride to the right when there is no motor traffic
present.
It may be a bit difficult to grasp, but according
to that wording if the traffic present at "the time and place
and under the conditions then existing" consists entirely of
bicycles, then the normal speed of that traffic is the speed
of a bicycle, and there is no requirement to ride to the
right of the lane. Maybe it will take another court case for
Lieutenant Woolridge to ad that to the memo.
You can read the memo in PDF format by clicking
here.
Again, my thanks to Ed Beighe for pointing me to the memo,
which he is hosting on his Website.
Time
to Wear a Helmet Cam?
For some time I have been considering wearing a helmet
camera with a microphone while I ride. In one case, I would
have been able to document a pickup truck passing me far too
closely in Scottsdale and then having its driver assault me
when I pulled up alongside the truck at the next traffic
light and calmly [uncharacteristic for me, I know] tried to
talk with the driver. The camera would have also documented
the unprofessional conduct of the Scottsdale Police Officer
who responded to my 911 call and promptly blamed the assault
on me. According to the police officer, who didn't ask to
speak to any of the three witnesses to the event, I had
provoked the driver's anger by lightly tapping on the
truck's window and motioning to the driver to lower the
window so we could talk. I know that many cyclists can
report similar incidents but have no way of proving them
other than witnesses, whom the police can easily ignore.
In the past, I have been put off by the cost and bulk of
video cameras, but
those two problems have recently disappeared. High
definition video cameras with mountings for bicycle
handlebars or a helmet can be purchased for under $250. The
video is recorded to a small flash memory card that plugs
right into the tiny camera.
Although I am not promoting any specific brand and am still
investigating myself,
here is a link to a small camera listed on Amazon that
you may want to look at. If you look at the enlarged image
of the camera, notice the on/off switch on top, which could
easily be operated while cycling. If more cyclists ride with
cameras, aggressive motorists might think twice about
buzzing us and police officers may be more willing to write
tickets if confronted with conclusive evidence that a
motorist violated the law. If police officers refuse to cite
the motorist, the video of the traffic violation and of the
police officer's reaction to the cyclist's complaint can be
uploaded to the Internet for all to see.
Feedback
I received a number of E-mails
in reply to my editorial of two weeks ago stating that the
police departments and traffic magistrates in Arizona are
badly in need of training on the traffic laws as they
pertain to cyclists. Here is the saddest of those E-mails:
The indifference to cyclist risks and even deaths is not
limited to police or magistrates; it also extends to states
attorneys and prosecutors. Another Arizona cyclist was
killed last June, my wife, Cynthia Pool who is still on your
subscriber list. A tractor trailer was stopped at a stop
sign in Lander, Wyoming. The driver waited until Cindy was
right in front of him, traveling from his right to left, and
then the driver pulled out from the intersection and killed
her. The driver admitted his negligence in failing to yield
the right of way at the scene and the police sent their
report to the state attorney's office, commenting to me that
they had enough evidence to convict the driver on a charge
of negligent vehicular homicide. As it happens, the
president of the trucking firm also is the speaker of the
house in Wyoming's legislature. Guess what? the state's
attorney decided not to prosecute the driver. He was not
even issued a traffic ticket. What a surprise - who ever
knew, in this country, that politics trumps justice. How
long do you suppose I'd be in jail if I was a driver stopped
in that intersection, waited until the prosecutor's wife
rode past and then killed her?
Roy Pool
I received a number of E-mails from the officers of the
Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists, the two messages that follow
were especially positive.
Out of an uncharacteristic (for me) sense of delicacy, I have omitted several other E-mails
that portray their writers in a more negative light.
Jack,
FYI, the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists is doing the following:
- With
respect to the death of Cindie Holub in Scottsdale, we are
connected with AZ Republic reporters who are following the
case and we have been promised a police report. We are
monitoring the City of Scottsdale’s handling of this, and
have staff and an attorney following it. We will go “on the
record” with the AZ Republic and will register our views
with Scottsdale PD and other officials as appropriate.
- As Gene
replied to you [see next letter], we have been attempting to get a “wheel in
the door” at an Arizona law enforcement agency (most
recently, Mesa) via a training program that meets current
budgetary limitations of most of these agencies. Due to a
recent donation to the CAzB, I believe we are in a position
to absorb the materials/training cost of the initial
program(s) in order to “beta” this with a willing agency.
Our idea would then be to get feedback from the initial
agency, improve the program (if needed) and leverage a
recommendation from them to replicate the program throughout
the state.
- We are also
getting involved in the Flagstaff issue.
- We have a
number of legislative proposals in development targeting
next year’s AZ legislative session. Both Sterling Baer (now
on our Advisory Board) and Eric Post are working on both
text and development of legislator support needed to get
traction.
I, for one, appreciate your vigilance on these matters. We plan
to pursue all that need to be addressed to the extent of our
resources and talents. We appreciate your periodic “plugs” for
the CAzB, as well, as we are continually on the hunt for
additional volunteers and talent to help tackle these and other
issues constructively.
Bob Beane
President, Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists
Here is another from Gene Holmerud, Education Vice President of the Coalition:
Jack, your points are well taken. As for education of police
and magistrates, as Ed [education] VP of CAzBike, it is directly at my feet
(in the fire). During the 9 months in this job, I have
concentrated on cyclists (Traffic Skills 101) and have only
marginally worked on the needs you speak of.
In October I had several e-conversations with Ms. Jean DeStores,
the City of
Mesa Transportation Safety Educator. CAzBike leadership was in
favor of establishing a program for all of AZ,
using the Mesa experience as a "loss leader." Although little materialized, I
just reopened the e-conversation. About that same time, I
contacted the Phoenix Police Bicycle Program and invited myself
into the training class at the South Mountain facility. No
luck, even though I had the endorsements of Bike Officers I have
gotten to know while volunteering at Sky Harbor Airport (who
have to take the course for that duty).
Having
said that, please put me into contact with others that respond
to your suggestion.
Gene Holmerud
And finally, this note from Sterling Baer:
I agree that we need to work together on improving awareness and
skills for both Motorists and cyclists as well. The tone and
tenor of Radar's note [this refers to one of the unhelpful E-mails
that I chose not to
publish -- Jack Q.] is not what we need to proliferate to our
cycling community in Arizona or they will never consider
attending a class. We need to put a different spin on this and
market an approach for both officers and cyclists which appeal
to our own sense of responsibilities out on the roads and
encourage all to participate in a "Arizona Cycling" course which
couples skills with strategic vision and strategy for our State,
Correlation and Networking amongst Teams & Clubs, with Rules and
Enforcement updates. If you ask a Cat 1-4 cyclist to come to a
"Skills Course" you will get ZERO people to attend. Appeal to a
broader range of subjects, which have meaning to all cyclists
and you will get traction.
Police training is absolutely critical as well and Cycling
Advocacy should be included or representatives of our Teams and
Clubs at these trainings. One of my cyclists was cut off on our
morning ride and t-boned by a mother 2 weeks ago making a right
turn into the school parking lot. She passed him on the right
and he was in the bike lane. He had several bones broken in his
face and when the ambulance and officer arrived on the scene,
the officer actually was telling our cyclist that he was going
to be cited for riding on the wrong side of the road! This was a
7 year police officer and it was not dropped until another
officer arrived and told him he was wrong and that it is illegal
for cyclists to ride against traffic.
This is the kind of unbelievable ignorance that exists sometimes
and yet we expect them to enforce the 3 ft law???? There is no
enforcement of the 3 foot law in this State!!! I did an
investigation and there are very few of these citations that
have been given since the laws enactment over 6 years ago.
Police, cyclists as well as motor vehicle training is imperative
for us to change the attitudes about cycling on our Arizona
roads...together we need to make this happen, we need far more
than skills training. Let's work to make this happen....and I'll
guarantee we'll many more lives in the process.
Sterling Baer
Red Mountain Brumbys
NotOneMore Foundation
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