When will the crackdown come?

[deronmoped]

Ok, I was writing a thread about pedicab drivers and today the city came down with a list of laws for them.

Now when will they come after the bicyclist, the e-bicyclist?

I remember as a kid I had to license my bicycle at the fire station, with the boom in cycling (more bikes were sold last year then cars) when will the law come down on us and what will it look like? License, registration, insurance, safety checks. Helmet laws are here for kids, who just ignore them, or do not fasten the strap. Will there be stepped up crackdown by the police on bicycle law breakers? I think all that has to happen is for the amount of bicyclist to reach a certain point and they will be after us in one way or another.

We have quite a bit of freedom on our bikes right now, better enjoy it while it lasts.

Deron.

 

[dogman dan]

I wish the local police would just crack down on car drivers. When the left turn arrow turns red, 10 more cars turning left on the red light is really too many. I only saw that once, honestly, but 6 left red light runners is pretty much normal. The police are so busy responding to the fender bender calls that they ignore red light runners, and run a few themselves.

This leaves me pretty safe riding an ebike without the law noticing me much.

When visting my brother in California, he always cautions me, remember, they enforce traffic laws here bro.

 

[mikefish]

when i first came to California 11 years ago, i was crossing a street on foot, when a motorcycle cop got on the loud system, and informed me "the cross walk is 20 yards down the street where you would be crossing legal" she must have been too busy to give me a ticket that day. crossing the street where i was from (Pennsylvania) was no big deal, and you can walk across no problem!

i have friends here that have gotten tickets on there bikes for breaking traffic rules. one was riding the wrong way on the street (personal pet peeve) and the other for running a red light.

i did not have much sympathy for either of them

 

[deronmoped]

I'm surprised they have not come down on the "Critical Mass" riders yet. We have that event in San Diego every month and I hear all kinds of law breaking going on there. Maybe there is just too many of them, or is it the cops are told to lay off, or is it just not enough car drivers are complaining yet.

Something is bound to happen, the government likes it's control over it's citizens. Most bicyclist I see figure the laws of the roads do not apply when you are on a bike.

Deron.

 

[Zoot Katz]

I'm surprised they have not come down on the "Critical Mass" riders yet. We have that event in San Diego every month and I hear all kinds of law breaking going on there. Maybe there is just too many of them, or is it the cops are told to lay off, or is it just not enough car drivers are complaining yet.

Something is bound to happen, the government likes it's control over it's citizens. Most bicyclist I see figure the laws of the roads do not apply when you are on a bike.

Deron.

This article came up today:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Va...+ride+snarl+traffic+Friday/1841292/story.html
Tomorrow is Critical Mass.

Our cops figured out early on that harrasing the mass was counterproductive. They became the ones disrupting traffic.
We've got it good in Vancouver compared to the war zones that exist in too many more southern cities.
But thanks to the assholes we now have baby sitters and body guards in blue on our monthly rides.
Critical Mass is legal by our Charter of Rights. City Hall wisely regards and tolerates it as a peaceful protest.
Bicyclists form a sizeable voting block in this town. Our mayor and a few council members ride bikes. We made sure of that in the last election.

There have been rumours lately that they're going to crack down.
I expect it will be late fall or early winter when there are fewer than 500 cyclists on the ride.
They'll keep up the pressure through our Olympic fiasco/fleecing.