{"id":215886788,"date":"2011-11-04T16:33:08","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T16:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=215886788"},"modified":"2011-11-04T16:33:08","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T16:33:08","slug":"d-c-advocates-seek-cultural-shift-in-view-of-cyclists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=215886788","title":{"rendered":"D.C. Advocates Seek Cultural Shift in View of Cyclists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[B&#8217; Spokes: Just some highlights:]<br \/>\n****************************************************<br \/>\nBy Martin Austermuhle<br \/>\nCan you legislate a culture shift, using the law to change the way drivers perceive cyclists?<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nOpponents of the law claim that it would unfairly put cyclists in a protected class offered to few other groups. But according to the law&#8217;s supporters, that&#8217;s the point. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) said that cyclists regularly face vehicular hostility on the District&#8217;s roads, criminal charges are rarely sought when accidents do happen and civil penalties are too low to encourage lawsuits as a means of seeking justice.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n&quot;Until injuries to bicyclists and pedestrians are taken seriously by MPD and drivers are held accountable, the streets are not safe for our children, our husbands, our sisters,&quot; Rowan said in her testimony.<br \/>\nAs a means to make police better understand the challenges faced by cyclists, Rowan proposed that they become cyclists themselves.<br \/>\n&quot;I&#8217;d like to see every police officer spend three months on a bicycle&#8230;because they&#8217;re going to come back and say, &#8216;Oh my God, this is really terrible,&#8217;&quot; she said.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/dcist.com\/2011\/11\/can_you_legislate_a_culture.php\">https:\/\/dcist.com\/2011\/11\/can_you_legislate_a_culture.php<\/a>oldId.20111104163308336<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[B&#8217; Spokes: Just some highlights:] **************************************************** By Martin Austermuhle Can you legislate a culture shift, using the law to change the way drivers perceive cyclists? &#8230; Opponents of the law claim that it would unfairly put cyclists in a protected class offered to few other groups. But according to the law&#8217;s supporters, that&#8217;s the point. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=215886788\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;D.C. Advocates Seek Cultural Shift in View of Cyclists&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215886788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215886788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=215886788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215886788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215886788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=215886788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=215886788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}