Screen-shot from rear-facing video which documented that the group was riding legally and not impeding traffic.

It was a beautiful Friday morning in April. Sgt. Troy Williamson, Community Relations Officer with the University of Central Florida Police Department was on his way to work when he saw something unusual – a squad of bicyclists, traveling two-abreast, spinning their way up University Boulevard.

A veteran officer, Sgt. Williamson was absolutely certain that bicycles were to ride as far to the right as possible – to stay out of the path of cars. And riding two abreast? Well that was just looking for trouble. He bided his time, waiting for the group to cross into his jurisdiction, then hit the lights.

The leaders of the group – Kitzzy Aviles and Jason Buckner tried to explain that the group was part of a regularly scheduled “Bike Bus” that ran a route from Downtown Orlando to UCF twice a week. They tried to explain that they were operating safely and lawfully, but Sgt. Williamson held firm in his conviction that riding two-abreast during rush hour on University Boulevard was a dangerous activity that impeded the flow of traffic. He issued two citations, one each, to Jason and Kitzzy, for impeding traffic.

Florida Statutes are clear. Section 316.2065(5), the law governing cyclist position on the roadway, states:

A cyclist on a roadway who is not traveling as fast as the “normal speed of traffic” must ride in the lane marked for bicycle use or, if no lane is marked for bicycle use, as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, except in the following situations:

• When passing another vehicle;
• When preparing for a left turn;
• When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions including, but not limited to, a fixed or moving object, parked or moving vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or surface hazard;
• When a lane is too narrow for a bicycle and another vehicle to travel safely side by side.
• A cyclist operating on a one-way street with two or more marked traffic lanes may ride as close to the left-hand edge of theroadway as practicable.

The Florida Department of Transportation’s Manual of Uniform Minimum Standards recommends an outside lane width of 14 feet as the “minimum width that will allow passenger cars to safely pass bicyclists within a single lane,” i.e., without the need for passing motorists to change lanes.

The lane in which the Bike Bus was traveling measures 11 feet, and is by law “unshareable.”

Section of 316.2065(6) of the Florida Statutes goes on to say that:

• Cyclists may ride two abreast only within a single lane and when not impeding traffic.
• Cyclists may not ride more than two abreast except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.

In a lane “too narrow for a bicycle and another vehicle to travel safely side by side,” the law requires drivers to cross over into the next lane. In this case, cyclists riding two abreast cause no additional impediment to traffic.

Jason and Kitzzy shared this information with the officer, but Sgt. Williamson was firm. The cyclists were polite, and didn’t argue. Instead, they got the officer’s information and called Bike/Walk Central Florida.

When we first contacted Sgt. Williamson he refused to rescind the tickets, even when we escalated the matter to the chief and deputy chief.  Officer Williamson was not an unreasonable man.  Law enforcement is a tough job and everybody has a ready excuse to justify their behavior. He was just doing his job.

Fortunately, Jason and Kitzzy not only knew the rules of the road, but also had rear-facing high-definition video to back their assertion that they were not impeding traffic.  Jason customarily runs front and back video on his bicycle. The Bike Bus had been pulled over before, by officers from other jurisdictions, and Jason and Kitzzy knew it was important to document their ride. The video clearly showed that, other than Sgt. Williamson, who chose to follow the group, other traffic routinely changed lanes and passed without even slowing down.

After reviewing the video, and the Florida Statutes, Sgt. Williamson contacted the Florida Department of Transportation to verify our claims. After several weeks of back and forth, he contacted Jason and Kitzzy to let them know he would be rescinding the tickets.

With all the laws officers need to enforce it’s only natural that they might miss or misinterpret some of the finer details, especially when it comes to rarely enforced laws, such as those governing bicycles operating in traffic.

Let’s be honest, most bicyclists don’t know the laws either.

Jason and Kitzzy did everything right: they knew the law, they documented their ride, and they were polite and respectful to the officer in the field. All of these factors ultimately contributed to the reversal of the tickets.

Bike/Walk Central Florida is happy to have helped keep the Bike Bus rolling and we wish Jason, Kitzzy and their “passengers” safe travels.

Within the next two weeks, all patrol officers in the City of San Diego will receive training on the full text of CVC 21202, the bicycle law that applies to cyclists in California. This section of the vehicle code is the one that addresses where cyclists can be positioned when riding on the street and the specific exceptions to the code that have been the subject of two citations we’ve written about here. This has been the section of the vehicle code that has been oft cited when bicyclists in San Diego have been ticketed. Not surprisingly, the lack of understanding of the vehicle code has been a source of much consternation among the region’s cyclists. But with this new training, the patrol officers in the City of San Diego will now be better able to serve the region’s cyclists.

Nice work, Sam Ollinger!

Closer to home, CyclingSavvy instructor Jeff Hohlstein has been making inroads with law enforcement Jacksonville. Jeff will share the story with us soon.

In new drivers manual, MVA gets something right

MVA has a new version of its Maryland Drivers Manual out on the street, and the section on bicycles is clear and well-stated.

Many of us received our licenses at a time when driver’s education hardly mentioned the subject of co-existing with bicycles. So what the MVA wrote is worth reviewing.

Credit should go to the agency for reaching out to bicycle advocacy groups for help in drafting this section.

Check it out!

County Judge Kelly McKibben acquitted a Brevard County sheriff’s deputy whose patrol car struck and killed a pedestrian last September.

In her seven-page judgment for acquittal, McKibben wrote the state could not prove Vincent Marino-Vitani was indeed the person driving the patrol car when it struck and killed 65-year-old Henrietta Strong on State Road 520 near Wilcox Avenue in Cocoa.

-MORE-

What this means is that a LEO refused to step up and take his or her medicine. It was a patrol car, so an LEO must have or should have been driving it.

Mark Simpson and Michael Cacciatore at WMFE’s Intersection are following up on the mandatory bike lane law that was passed last year. You may recall, Mark rode with me on Orange Ave. and did an in-studio interview with Mighk last year when the law was passed.

If you have had any interactions with the police over the bike lane law, whether or not it ended in a ticket, please share your story with Michael at r_intern@wmfe.org. An interaction could be anything from being yelled at over the loudspeaker to being pulled over. Individual and group stories are welcome.

Please pass this on to anyone you know who has had interactions with the police for avoiding a bike lane, or any striped-off area that looks like one.

Huntington Beach has become the first city in the state to offer traffic school for bicyclists who break the law.

The city’s police officers now give cyclists the option of going to court and paying high fines or going to traffic school. Some counties, including Santa Cruz and Marin, offer traffic school for bicyclists, but court permission is required first. In Huntington Beach, violators will not need permission or go to court if they elect to take the city’s offer.

Unlike the much longer traffic school for drivers, the Police Department’s Adult Bicycle Safety Program takes two hours, said Lt. Russell Reinhart. Since the program began late last month, Reinhart said, most of those cited have gone the traffic school route. Ten people opted for the class the first day it was offered, he said.

Violators are charged $50 to cover the cost of the class, which also waives any other fees or fines.

“It’s a good deal,” said Frank Yonemori, who rides his bike several times a week in the city.

The new policy does not apply to bicyclists caught riding under the influence of drugs or alcohol, said Police Chief Ken Small.

State law treats those who break traffic rules while riding a bike the same as if they were driving a car. The difference is that bike violations, except for the DUI equivalent, don’t appear on drivers’ DMV records.

For example, a bicyclist or a driver who fails to stop at a stop sign could end up paying $233.

“The process of going to court and paying that very high fine doesn’t seem appropriate for bicyclists,” Reinhart said.

In traffic collisions involving bicyclists and cars between 2008 and 2010, two-thirds of the time the bicyclists were at fault, according to city data. That points to the need to help bicyclists improve, but the law doesn’t provide for that, Reinhart said; it simply punishes riders by levying fines.

The safety program, he said, “helps bicyclists save money and get more education as opposed to just paying fines.”

Yonemori, who was riding his bike on the beach with a friend, said Huntington Beach’s approach is a good one because many people are not aware of the rules. The class, he said, will help them become safer riders.

Steve Gardner, who was visiting Huntington Beach from his home in Oregon, said the rules should apply to everyone, as should traffic school.

“We should have the same options when it comes to fines and violating the law,” he said while biking near the beach.

AND From Facebook:

The Huntington Beach Police Department is now offering a new Adult Bicycle Safety Program as part of our continued effort to be a bicycle friendly community.  The program is administered like the Juvenile Bicycle Safety Program which has been at our department since 1972.  Under this program, individuals issued citations as bicyclists or pedestrians for minor traffic violations can attend the Bicycle Safety Program and have the citation dismissed.

This new program is designed to decrease bicycle involved traffic collisions and encourage safe bicycle riding with adult riders.  When stopping adult bicyclists and pedestrians for minor traffic violations, police officers will now have the ability to issue an Adult Bicycle Citation in lieu of a regular Traffic Citation.

The new Adult Bicycle Citation will allow the individual to attend a two hour Bicycle Safety Class for a $50 fee, similar to Traffic School for motorists. The class will be held on the third Thursday of each month in the Huntington Beach City Council Chambers.  After attending the class, the citation will be dismissed and no further action will be taken against the individual.  If the individual desires to contest the citation, or chooses not to attend the class, the citation will be forwarded to the court and treated as a normal traffic citation.

In the court system, bicycle violations carry the same fine as vehicle violations; however, there is no point attached to the individual’s driving record.  For example: Vehicle Code section 22450(a), “Failure to Stop at Stop Sign” has a fine of approximately $233 and one point on a driving record. For bicycle violations, the point is not issued but the $233 fine is still applied.

Huntington Beach traffic collision statistics:

2008 – Bicycle/Vehicle Traffic Collisions – 145

• Bike at Fault – 91
• Vehicle at Fault – 54

2009 – Bicycle/Vehicle Traffic Collisions -146

• Bike at Fault – 98
• Vehicle at Fault – 48

2010 – Bicycle/Vehicle Traffic Collisions -155

• Bike at Fault – 102
• Vehicle at Fault – 53

Why Are Cyclists Allowed On The Roads?

Do Cyclists, or Motorists,  “Pay For” The Roads?

Why Aren’t Cyclists Licensed?

Are Cyclists Driving Recklessly?

How do we move forward?

The answers are here. Enjoy.

I’m not anti-bike, but

followed by some cockamamie statistic and then some dreadful interpretation of the motor vehicle laws.

It’s a pattern we have all seen far too many times. And here it is again, all in one paragraph, from a fellow applauding the new NYPD crackdown on cyclists. But in a way, his complaint about cyclists not riding on streets that have bike lanes makes perfect sense . . .  it is another logical conclusion to painting lines and requiring cyclists to stay on one side of the painted line.

*thanks, with a tip of the hat, to Jimmy Hatlo

When people ask me why I’m for the NYPD’s new bicycle safety enforcement initiative that’s poised to start, I have a very straightforward answer for them: It’s going to save lives, period.

As president of the 84th Precinct Community Council, I talk to cops all the time. Just the other day I was asked to come over to the station house on Gold Street to address the 20 new cops we’ve received. I told these young officers flat out that they shouldn’t be shy about giving out tickets, because sanctioning people with tickets will ultimately save someone’s life.

I’m not anti-bike, but I follow police statistics: About 90 percent of the bicyclists killed in this city died, in part, because they were not following the rules of the road. Obviously, these deaths were tragedies and they never should have happened. But in many of these cases the bicyclists were violating the rules in some way. They were either on roads without bike lanes, going through a red light or riding the wrong way down the street. The “ghost bikes” you see in the different neighborhoods that honor these fallen bicyclists only tell half the story.

When a cop pulls a car over and gives a motorist a ticket for driving while holding his cellphone to his ear, the cop’s not being petty or cruel. He or she probably saved that person’s life because the driver won’t be so fast to talk on a cellphone the next time he or she gets behind the wheel.

The same thing pertains to bicyclists. A neighbor of mine once complained to me that he got a ticket for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk on his own block. All I could tell him was, “I don’t think you’re going to do that again.”

And it was true, he had already taken the lesson to heart — he walked his bike down the street to complain to me about the ticket!

Every single day, I drive to Borough Hall and every single day I see both motorists and bicyclists breaking one rule or another.

Often I see a bicyclist with three toddlers sitting on the back of his bike. Now, when the light is red, he waits at the crosswalk, but as soon as he feels that he’s not going to get squashed, he zips into the street — with three little babies in tow! If that’s not playing with fire, I don’t know what is.

But I bet if he got a ticket, he would think twice about jumping the light again. That’s because in the end, proper enforcement saves lives, no matter if you’re a bicyclist, a motorist or a pedestrian.

Leslie Lewis is president of the 84th Precinct Community Council.

EDITOR’S NOTE: It is not illegal to cycle on a road without a bike lane, but we made a conscious decision not to alter Lewis’s opinion piece.

He is still trying to set up a meeting with the OBPD to ensure they will leave him alone.

Now, if we could only seek restitution for the time lost and emotional damages suffered by being harassed while not breaking any laws, that would be a deterrent. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, especially if you’re a police officer!

Fred’s troubles began in Port Orange in February 2009. Until then, he had been happily and legally traveling around the Space Coast without trouble from the police. Like many of us, Fred had studied the laws regarding bicycle operation and ensured that he was operating in accordance with the law. He uses lights at night, obeys traffic control devices and drives in the right lane on multi-lane roads. Because the roads he uses have lanes that are less than 14ft wide, he rides near the center of the lane as he is legally allowed by 316.2065(5)(a) exception paragraph (3).

When the Port Orange PD began stopping Fred, they were not interested in the exceptions. They wanted him to ride next to the curb. He refused to give up his legal right to the lane. They began a campaign of pulling him over and ticketing him every time he drove through town. Fred hired a lawyer ($400) to file a motion to dismiss. The tickets were dismissed without a hearing.

We thought the problem was solved, but early this year, Port Orange PD renewed their campaign of harassment. Fred received two more tickets and the threat that he would be pulled over every time he was seen. Through the pro bono efforts of attorney Jeffrey Lynne, president of the South Florida Bike Coalition, these citations were also dismissed… expedited by a nicely-worded letter to the Assistant City Attorney about Constitutional concerns and liability for the city.

Once again, all was well in Fredworld.

During the exchange, it was revealed that the triggers for police action were Fred’s “unusual vehicle” and “citizen calls.” It turns out, this was to become a recurring theme.

Until recently, Fred had experienced little trouble with other agencies and no trouble closest to home in Ormond Beach. But his freedom to travel hit a new snag at the beginning of September. First, he had a rather intimidating encounter with a hostile FHP officer. It didn’t result in a ticket, but ended in a threat: “…if I see you that way again, I’m gonna burn your butt.”

Two days later, trouble continued when Fred was pulled over by an officer of the Ormond Beach PD. Fred described the circumstances leading up to the officer pulling him over:

Ormond Beach, FL, Granada Blvd, Route 40, just east of the river, approaching A1A. Motorcycle patrolman well behind me in traffic, bus stopped in my lane. Turn signal, lane change, back into my lane. Less observant drivers back up behind the bus. Motorcycle cop pulls alongside me in left lane (not my lane) and shouts something. I waved, all fingers, of course.

He drops behind me, lights me up, no siren, I pull over.

The officer accused him of impeding traffic (solo bicyclists are not subject to the impeding law, it only applies to motor vehicles). I guess he didn’t notice the bus. Fred carries his dismissal paperwork for his 4 previous citations, along with a copy of the Florida statutes. The officer wasn’t interested. Told him he had to ride near the curb or he was going to get a 5th ticket, stating he was sure could get it through the judges because he doesn’t have a problem with them. So, is the law interpreted so arbitrarily the police think they can change the outcome by having a good relationship with the judges?  A scary thought.

A week later, Ormond Beach PD made good on their threat. In one trip, Fred was stopped twice and received one citation. The following is a video of the traffic conditions before both stops.

It’s interesting that Fred was on the road by himself for over a minute (this is pretty typical), then the officer followed him on an empty road until a platoon of traffic caught up. The presence of the officer actually created a slow-down in the passing traffic. I’ve seen some of Fred’s other videos, there is a small curiosity factor from his “unusual vehicle,” but traffic typically flows around him faster than you see here.

After stopping at a red light, the officer pulled Fred over and gave him a citation for: 316.2065(a), “impeding traffic bicycle violation – not riding as close as practical to right curb.”

As you can see in the video, there is an undesignated area that is striped like a bike lane to the right of the travel lane. The officer correctly referred to the stripe as a “fog line” and did not call it a “bike lane.” But he still wanted Fred to drive his vehicle in that space. I have more to say about that and will get to it below.

When you’re a bicycle driver, it’s up to you to prove your right to drive defensively in court. And well, if that costs you hundreds of dollars in legal fees, then maybe you should consider driving a car like everyone else.

Again, there was no interest in the text of the law or the dismissed citations.  Motorists get pulled over for speeding, running red lights and doing things that can cause bodily harm to others… violating actual laws. Bicyclists get pulled over for driving defensively in the way that is both legal and safe and the justification is that incompetent drivers might a) run over the cyclist or b) cause a crash while passing unsafely. Clearly, in the face of illegal or unsafe behavior by incompetent members of the majority, the solution is to remove the legally-operating minority.

After signing the citation, Fred took his measuring tape out to the street. He waited for a gap when there was no traffic and measured the lane width. The officer yelled at him to get out of the road and threatened to give him another ticket for blocking traffic, even though there was no traffic. Thou shalt not violate the hallowed ground of the culture of speed.

Not 20 minutes after resuming his travels, Fred was tailed again. This time an officer in an unmarked vehicle (not sure if it was a personal or official vehicle) saw Fred leave the bike lane on the downhill side of the SR40 bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway. Fred climbed the bridge in the bike lane, because he was going slower than traffic. On the downhill, an aerodynamic vehicle can easily outpace cars. The speed limit is 35. Fred was traveling, um, a bit faster, and pulling away from the cars in the lane behind him.

He was stopped on A1A after being tailed for four minutes by an unmarked car. The reason for the stop was that he wasn’t in the bike lane on the bridge.

This is a good example of how bias works. Because of the belief that bicyclists should not be allowed to operate as equal drivers, the police only read the part of the statute that confirms this belief and allows them to stop something that looks wrong in the context of the belief. Fred’s position was explicitly legal via the very first line in the statute: “A person operating a bicycle on a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic…”

After some heated discussion, they let him go with a warning. Most likely because they knew there was no basis for the stop, though they did try to change to focus to his lane position on A1A. And stated that he would be impeding the right lane even if traffic could easily pass in the left lane. A couple choice items came out of the discussion.

1) Irate motorists have been calling 911 to complain about him “impeding them.” Translation: making them change lanes and possibly wait 10 seconds for the opportunity because they were driving 10 feet in front of their noses until they encountered him.

2) If you want to ride like that you need to talk to your legislature and get the law changed because it’s not legal. Of course it is legal, but the problem is the way the law is written. It’s far too easy for an officer, and even some judges, to interpret it in favor of the cultural taboo against getting in the way.

The Tyranny of the Majority

For this, I will refer you to Wikipedia

The phrase tyranny of the majority (also: tyranny of the masses), used in discussing systems of democracy and majority rule, is a criticism of the scenario in which decisions made by a majority under that system would place that majority’s interests so far above a dissenting individual’s interest that the individual would be actively oppressed, just like the oppression by tyrants and despots.

The 911 theme was at the core of Chipseal’s problems and it was a theme in his recent trial. It’s distressing to me that motorists can call 911 to whine about having to change lanes to pass a bicyclist and that the police respond by harassing the bicyclist. Hello. We need you to uphold the law that protects our safety, not safeguard the tender convenience of a few crybaby motorists.

Another thing that has been said in nearly every encounter is that “all the other bicyclists” ride on the edge near the curb. Again, tyranny of the majority. If you are different, you must be wrong.

The muddy issue of practicability and undesignated gutter lanes

It is very clear leading up to the second stop that Fred was operating within the explicit exceptions of 316.2065(a). It is less clear in the first stop. The issue of roadway position and practicability become a bit more convoluted when a stripe is added to a road. Legally, a fog line demarcates the edge of the travel lane. Cyclists are not required to operate on the shoulder. But what happens when that stripe is to the left of curb and gutter and is broken at intersections to look like a bike lane? It is not designated as a bike lane, so it not subject to the new language requiring use of a “lane marked for bicycle use.”

Now, if we’re measuring from the lane line to the gutter seam (which marks the edge of roadway, gutter is not included), that space is 14’10.” If there was no stripe, it would not be explicitly exempt by sub-section 3 (substandard lane). However, it is not a single lane and the stripe changes the dynamic of the space in some fundamental ways:

• It is more likely to collect debris and broken glass due to the sweeping action of the cars tracking in the narrowed travel lane.
• Motorists tend to track the center of their defined lane space. They will move over if something is in that space (like a bicyclist in a wide curb lane), but are less likely to deflect for anything outside that space (like a bicyclist in a shoulder or bike lane).
• The stripe makes anything to the right of it irrelevant to a multi-tasking, distracted driver because it is outside his/her focus area. This exacerbates the problems with crossing and turning conflicts, as well as close passing.

Just because the definitions and exceptions are ambiguous, does not mean it is practicable to operate in that space. The definition of practicable is: feasible: capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are.

Personally, I don’t find it feasible to operate my single-track bicycle in 3’10″ of space next to a lane with a significant volume of truck traffic. But Fred’s vehicle has additional considerations which make operating in that space a serious detriment to his safety, ergo not practicable.

• Fred is not driving a single-track vehicle. He has 3 wheels that must miss debris or broken glass. An obstruction that might be avoided by minor deflection with a bicycle, could cause him to have to merge completely out of the lane. This increases workload, stress and can cause him to suddenly be where he’s not expected.
• Fred’s vehicle is much shorter than an upright bicycle. This makes him far more vulnerable to being overlooked by crossing and turning drivers, and more easily shielded by shrubbery and moving screens. When he is operating in the center of a travel lane, he is highly visible, but placed out of contention, he’s at an even bigger disadvantage than a two-wheeled bicycle driver.
• Because Fred’s vehicle is not readily identified as containing a human being, drivers seem to move over less when passing it in the shoulder. While they make complete lane changes when he operates in the travel lane, they barely deflect at all when he is to the right of the stripe. In my experience, at least half of drivers will deflect when passing me in a bike lane or shoulder (whether I’m riding or standing there), in the video below, you can see that far fewer deflect to pass the Velomobile. Quite a few of those passes are downright scary.

We need to take action

While Fred’s vehicle is different and adds additional safety concerns to the equation, none of us should be forced by law or misinterpretations of law to ride in a manner we know to be less safe and efficient than full lane use. It is ridiculous that we should be contained in a substandard, hazard-prone space in order to not be a bother of 10-30 seconds (for the 2 or 3 drivers who didn’t recognize the need to change lanes until the last minute).

Rather than being viewed as an affront to the majority, human powered vehicles need to be seen as a fact of life, like traffic lights and transit buses. Rather than reinforcing the tyranny of the majority, law enforcement needs to lead the way to a better, safer and more equitable traffic culture.

But we need help to get them there. One program in the process is the Florida Bicycle Law Enforcement Toolkit. But we need more than that. The roadblock we constantly face is the unwillingness to accept an interpretation of the law that allows for full lane use. We’re up against a cultural norm and an entrenched belief system. I don’t think we will make real progress until the law itself is rewritten.

There is lots of talk about active transportation, alternative transportation, carbon footprints, obesity and how the bicycle fits perfectly into the solution… it’s become the hip thing. But if the legislature and community leaders want to make human-powered transportation truly viable, they have to remove a system of oppression whereby the drivers of human powered vehicles can be subject to harassment, delay, citations, anxiety and financial burden simply as a result of driving defensively. These are, in fact, the most proficient and engaged bicycle drivers and the best representatives of human powered transportation.

How can we build a sustainable and healthy bicycle culture on second-class citizenship?

If you live in Florida, tell the Florida Bicycle Association you want this to be a priority (and make sure you’re a member to support the organization). Tell your legislators you want transportation equity and an end to discriminatory laws that punish people who are trying to do something good for their community and the environment.

If you are a member of the League of American Bicyclists, please take a moment learn about three board candidates who will put your legal right to the road FIRST:

Eli Damon (who has suffered from police harassment)

John Brooking (a regular reader and commenter)

Khal Spencer (a strong advocate for traffic justice)

Then please sign the petition to put them on the ballot for the next election. If you are not a League member but would like to help these fine gentlemen help us, you can join the league and then sign the petition.

Independence City Council unanimously approves anti-harrassment ordinance

Wouldn’t it be great to know your right to share the road with motorized vehicles was protected by an ordinance like this? Why not get it done?