[SDCBC] SD Police: "You need to be in the bike lane"

[Gene Carman]

I hope he does...  and I hope Serge then fights that ticket all the 
way downtown... to the point that the police department has to 
"educate" their officers about cyclists' rights.




At 06:52 AM 6/2/2008, John Eldon wrote:
>The next time that particular officer sees Serge riding anywhere but 
>in the gutter, I fully expect him to issue a traffic citation for 
>"obstructing traffic." This is why we so desperately need to educate 
>law enforcement.
>
>John E.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: sdcbc-bounces at bikesandiego.org 
>[mailto:sdcbc-bounces at bikesandiego.org]On Behalf Of JonIsaacs at aol.com
>Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 1:04 PM
>To: sdcbc at bikesandiego.org
>Subject: Re: [SDCBC] SD Police: "You need to be in the bike lane"
>
>
>Hello to all... Here's my thinking...
>
>
>Educating cyclists is the most important thing we can due simply 
>because an educated cyclist has to the tools to ride safely in the 
>real world, the world where enforcers are confused and motorists are 
>not aware of proper etiquette in the presence of cyclists.
>
>Educating law enforcement as well as the general driving public is a 
>worthy dream but it does not give uneducated cyclists the tools to 
>ride in a safe and sane manner, they are still vulnerable because of 
>their ignorance.  Currently motorists deal with cyclists from a 
>pragmatic viewpoint, they assume cyclists are going to run stop 
>signs and stoplights, ride the wrong way, do all the things we see 
>so frequently...
>
>Serge's incident was a non incident because Serge has taken the time 
>to learn proper riding techniques. This meant that when he was 
>confronted with uneducated police officers he was able to address 
>the issue properly and continue to ride as he has, positioning 
>himself properly in the lane.  So, rather than being a story about a 
>cyclist tangling with a car because of improper lane positioning, it 
>is an interesting story about Serge taking a moment to educate a 
>couple of officers...
>
>So, yes it would be nice to train law enforcement officers.  If the 
>enforcers understood the importance of proper lane position and 
>riding in a law abiding manner, they just might be more interested 
>in enforcing the laws so that people on bicycles would be much more 
>likely to abide by the rules of the road...  But for my money, I 
>think the first step give cyclists the tools they need to ride properly...
>
>Jon
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>----------
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