Month: July 2011

[B’ Spokes: A very cool approach to policing.]
********************************************************
BY STEVE NORDER
…
That is the idea behind outgoing Police Chief Steve Dye’s creation of the city’s bike patrol this spring. He wants the officers to be accessible.
"I’ve tasked them with increasing police-citizen interaction," Dye told the City Council last month. "The approachability. We don’t have that metal of a car in between the bicycle officer and the citizen. … Approachability is very critical."
Dye said the intent is to talk to people, to find "out what their concerns are and what their views are on how we can better serve them."
For the eight officers with bicycles, patrolling their city district may start out in a car with a bike hanging from a rack. But during the course of that shift, officers will park their cars, get on their bikes and ride along a part of the city’s trails or take a tour of a parking lot.
An officer riding a bike through a parking lot is less noticeable than one driving a police car, Dye said. That may allow an officer to quietly approach someone trying to break into a vehicle.
However, officers will never be more than five minutes away from their cars in case they must respond to an emergency, Dye said.
…
Continue reading “Bike patrols rolling through Colleyville”

It amazes me congress has been unable to move anything near acceptable forward on this subject. Anyway here is a good summary of where we are at by Street Blogs Tanya Snyder https://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/07/12/mica-why-are-the-democrats-picking-on-me/

[B’ Spokes: While this action is going on for DC, still there is applicability for Maryland.]

---

By Shane Farthing

When we first read it, WABA had no intention of responding to Justine Whelan’s anti-cyclist rant, published by the Ballston Patch.  For the most part, the article’s content is so similar to the random blog comments we cyclists see regularly, it hardly seemed worth responding to.  But there was one interesting thing that I’d like to highlight–not for the content itself, but for what it shows about the mental state of certain bike haters.

Whelan writes:

I am SO sick of being behind some rando who thinks he’s the next Lance Armstrong in all of his official biking gear with the weird butt pants and neon outfits traveling at five miles an hour in a 35 zone.  I drive a stick shift, jerk, that too slow even for first gear.  How do I handle the situation?  I rev my engine in hopes of scaring the sheets out of the offensive biker.

The emphasis is mine, and it’s added to highlight that this behavior is assault.  Assault is, by definition, threatening or attempting to inflict offensive physical contact or bodily harm on a person that puts the person in immediate danger of, or in apprehension of, such harm or contact.  Trying to “scare the sheets” out of a cyclist by revving the engine from behind clearly counts as intentionally putting the cyclist in apprehension of harm.

Now, this isn’t about Justine Whelan’s behavior per se.  But it does provide some insight into a level of cyclist hate that most people are not willing to type up, sign, and publish.  It shows that there are motorists–seemingly normal people going about their daily business–who have such hatred for cyclists as a class of roadway users that they assault us as general practice.  Given the added power of a vehicle and an engine, Justine and those of similar mindset intentionally seek to intimidate the more vulnerable cyclist.

Sometimes it goes even further, however.

Those who follow area cycling blogs and forums have likely come across a story from “A Girl and Her Bike” about being struck repeatedly from behind while riding a Capital Bikeshare bike.  The driver struck her twice, then tried to run her over when he learned that he had picked the wrong CaBi rider to attack.

In her assessment of the driver’s rationale, she states:

I know what the driver was doing. He saw a young woman on a bicycle and thought it was be HILARIOUS to be a dick with his car. He did this because he thought there would be no consequences.

And she’s right.  Given the obvious physical differences between automobiles and bicycles, there is ample opportunity for bullying in the form of harassment, assault, and battery.  That opportunity should be curtailed by consequences for roadway bullies, but to date the imposition of consequences has been rare.

Yes, there are criminal laws against roadway assault.  But the criminal burden of proof is high, available witnesses are often scarce, and police are reluctant or unable to follow up if they did not witness the act themselves.

There is also a civil tort of assault, and a cyclist could, technically, bring a civil suit for assault.  However, bringing such a suit is likely to require an attorney and a fair bit of that attorney’s work.  But because intimidation, assault, and harassment do not often lead to big monetary damages (unless the cyclist is significantly injured or killed as a result), most victims cannot afford to pursue such cases.

The result, currently, is a situation in which harassment and assault of bicyclists goes undeterred through the legal system.  The “A Girl and Her Bike” case mentioned above is a truly rare instance in which the motorist is prosecuted–but still there will be no sentencing for his repeated, intentional assault. Thus, we need some mechanism to impose consequences on roadway bullies who harass and assault cyclists simply because those cyclists are more vulnerable.

Because we cannot change the criminal burden of proof, we need a law creating a civil right of action for assault that also provides for attorneys’ fees in order to ensure that cases can effectively be brought.  Below is a draft based on a similar bill in the City of Los Angeles.  We are at the very beginning stages of working to pass this law in the District and appreciate all support.

…
Continue reading “WABA Pushing Anti-Harassment/Assault of Bicyclists Bill”

By Charles Marohn, New Urban Network

A reader sent me this great quote regarding Independence Day from John Adams:It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever.

In typical Adams style, I’m sure he said it with drama and meant it with all seriousness, but it brings a smile to my face nonetheless. Pomp and parade … Oh, if he could see us now.

I absolutely love the 4th of July. My hometown of Brainerd bills itself as the 4th of July capital of somewhere … I can’t remember if it is “the world” or just “Minnesota”. Either way, I grew up with an annual dose of the full spectacle of American pomp. The only parades I ever remember missing were the two when I was off in the Army, and those were very lonely affairs. The pomp and parade of basic training may be more dignified, but just isn’t the same. There’s no place like home.

For one day each year, humanity descends on an otherwise inhumane landscape, pedestrians boldly take back the public realm and Brainerd feels like a community again. We brush up against each other walking down the street. We run into old friends and meet new ones. We look disapprovingly on the overly-tattooed kids puffing on cigarettes, who crave our disapproval. We stand in reverence of the flag, veterans of past conflict and current warriors. We laugh at the zany and the bizarre.

These are all the things that I would imagine our ancestors doing too.

When I say that Brainerd has an “inhumane landscape”, I mean that it is generally inhospitable to people outside of their cars. Sure we have sidewalks in the downtown, but they are inches from streets designed for fast-moving cars, with “decorative” lighting for cars, signs for cars, shops designed for cars and large parking lots (of course, for cars). I’ve detailed in this space how the new county government center is a confused blight on what is left of Brainerd’s urban fabric. But nonetheless, remove the cars from the street and it suddenly becomes a place that overweight people will walk a mile to be in.

…
Continue reading “On parades and community”