Alexandria Police Ticket Bicyclists

[Steve Palincsar]

Peter Watkins wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2007 at 04:11:07PM -0400, Robert Brubaker wrote:
>   
>> Somehow the orginal question got lost.
>>
>> Understand that a cyclist blatantly (add more adjectives if necessary to 
>> make sure everyone agrees) blowing through a stop sign at high speed is 
>> dangerous.
>>
>> That said,  must bicylists come to a complete stop, typically would me 
>> putting foot down, to be sure of not getting a ticket?
>>     
>
> Some web searches turn up a good bit of discussion of Idaho's statutes on red 
> lights and stop signs, which allow common-sense behavior by cyclists:
>   http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=490070020.K
> Perhaps we should be talking to our state reps --and candidates!-- about 
> following Idaho's lead.
>
> Often it is safer to roll slowly through with feet on the pedals than to stop
> and disengage one foot, or attempt to. I suspect we've all seen folks fall
> over when they've failed to release from clipless pedals or straps, and we've
> all seen folks struggle to re-engage their shoes or clips after stopping.
> It *is* in the public interest for bicylists to operate their bikes predictably,
> *and* yield right of way but I think it's a bad idea to expect the same "stop" 
> behavior from bicylists *when there is no other party with right of way* as we
> expect from operators of motorized vehicles that don't face the same challenges
> stopping and starting.
>   

In most places, a cop will ticket you if your car doesn't come to a 
"rock back on the springs" dead stop even though there's no other 
traffic at all in the intersection.   The "come to a dead stop" behavior 
for automobiles makes absolute sense only for cars equipped with manual 
transmissions and unsynchronized first gears - since there, the choices 
are either coming to a dead stop, or rolling through at around 10 mph 
(any lower in 2nd gear and you'd lug the engine, but you can't shift 
into first without either stopping entirely or double-clutching).