Comments on: Strategy for a Cyclist Friendly Community — Our Law Departments can Help!!

By: Mighk

Mighk — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:55:04 +0000

Orlando bike cops are trained by an LCI, so most of them get it. Remember that they’re using bikes as patrol and community policing tools, not as vehicles or for traffic enforcement. I know quite a few of them ride recreationally, but probably not many for transportation.

Orlando Parking Enforcement does indeed use bikes (as well as electric carts). I’ve done about a half dozen trainings (abbreviated Road Ones) for them over the years.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:07:31 +0000

Yes, walking.

By: fred_dot_u

fred_dot_u — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:37:04 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, ChipSeal. It’s more amusing when you consider the lack of success I’ve had with one particular PD. They will be my first “target” for offering TS101 courses when I complete the LCI seminar. Oops, I mean first prospect.

By: JohnB

JohnB — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:49:35 +0000

The Bicycle Coalition of Maine has an education program specifically to teach bicycle-related law to police departments. We don’t get as many customers as we would like, but it’s been successful enough that we can point to it as an accomplishment. I don’t have any experience with it myself, but you can contact BCM directly ( http://www.bikemaine.org/ ) for details, or contact Jeff Miller of the Alliance for Biking and Walking ( http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/ , formerly Thunderhead Alliance ), as he was our director up until last Spring.

By: JohnB

JohnB — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:44:20 +0000

@Eric: “I was trying to cross in an unmarked crosswalk”

You mean while walking, right?

By: ChipSeal

ChipSeal — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:27:17 +0000

“I’m not sure of the tone of your suggestion, ChipSeal…”

ChipSeal said: “But who will explain to the bike patrol how ride in a safe and legal manner? Fred_dot_u?”

I meant it in a humorous way fred_dot_u. After all, haven’t you been spearheading a one on one bicycle law education effort with the police already?

I am angered by the injustice inflicted on you and I am compensating with (probably lame) humor.

Tailwinds to you.

By: Keri

Keri — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:41:31 +0000

From the article Eric posted… I learned about this at ProBike/ProWalk Florida:

In St. Petersburg, Florida, the results were even more impressive. The percentage of motorists who yielded to pedestrians jumped from 2% in 2003 to 82% in 2007, after police began writing tickets, educating the public and installing flashing beacons.

We sooooo need to do that here! That’s what REAL cities do. They enforce the law so a person can cross the #@$%& street!

If they did it on Edgewater Dr., they could get a twofer — motorists blowing off pedestrians and wrong-way bikers… like shooting fish in a barrel.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:26:35 +0000

Here is an AP article about something like this:
Police pose as walkers to nab drivers failing to yield
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-16-pedestrians_N.htm

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:03:11 +0000

Huh. Around here in Winter Park the cops are very well trained as to the pedestrian and bicycle laws. In fact one was aghast tonight as a car turned into a street as I was trying to cross in an unmarked crosswalk and almost hit me.

“He was supposed to give you the right of way” to which I shrugged and said, “But they never do.”

By: Steve A

Steve A — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:59:41 +0000

Thanks to Andrew for starting this discussion. Plainclothes cops on bikes – if I’d been one over the last year, most of the tickets would have been to cyclists for things like wrong-way riding, blowing signals, and riding at night without lights.

HOWEVER, it’d be cheap and simple to incorporate bicycle road riding training into police academies, where future cops would learn by first-hand experience how cyclists should ride to be safe on the roads. The lesson could be reinforced by incorporating road cycling into PT tests. Publicity associated with the training would improve police image and rub off on the general non-cycling public. “Ride a mile in my shoes” is a solid principle…