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SLO police to stake out bicyclists who break rules of the road

May 11, 2015

bicycles-70aSan Luis Obipso police will seek out and ticket bicyclists who violate traffic laws, as part of a traffic enforcement operation taking place Monday.

Police have mapped out where bicycle crashes and collisions involving pedestrians have have frequently occurred over the past two years. On Monday, the police department will send extra officers to patrol those locations and issue citations to offending drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.

Officers will look for drivers and bicyclists who speed, make illegal turns, fail to stop for signs and signals or fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Police will pay attention to pedestrians who cross the street illegally or do not yield to drivers who have the right of way.

Over the past three years, 241 fatal or injury collisions involving bicyclists or pedestrians occurred in the city, according to police department statistics.

In 2014, five bicyclists died in San Luis Obispo County crashes. That placed SLO County as the statewide leader in bicycle fatalities per capita.

SLO County ranked fifth among California counties for the most collisions per capita last year. Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara counties ranked first and second respectively.

California lawmakers recently passed a law aimed at reducing vehicle-bicycle collisions that allows officers to cite motorists who come within three feet of bicyclists while passing them. CHP data, however, indicates the bicyclist is more often at fault in vehicle versus bicycle collisions.

Of the 1,503 vehicle-bicycle collisions in California in 2011 and 2012, 61 percent were the fault of the bicyclist, 20 percent were the fault of the driver and the rest were undetermined or hit-and-run.

The SLOPD traffic enforcement operation is funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration by way of the California Office of Traffic Safety.

 

 

 

 

Usually bicyclist’s fault


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Nice timing: “May is National Bike Month” – http://bikeleague.org/bikemonth


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They need to generate some money for Gesell’s golden parachute.


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I feel safer already.


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Bicyclists remind the automobile drivers all the time that they have as much right to be on the road as they do. This is of course barring the fact that the roads were built for autos and not bicycles. Well, then let San Luis Obispo County license the bicyclist like the automobile driver with all the stipulations of a regular DMV automobile license. For the bicyclist to pay for a license, then they will now have that good feeling that their right to ride upon the streets and highways are now being paid for by them too.


As we’re aware, existing roads and streets were “squeezed” to allow bike lanes so the unlawful at times “Timmy-Ten-Speeds” could ride for free where only the automobile should be the only mode of transportation. Yet the bicyclists have the audacity to disparage the automobile driver in their demand for more safety, like the recent three foot separation from where they ride and the automobile. What’s next, alternating times for cars and bikes to use the roadways?


Lest you forget, the new California AB1371 that allows a three foot separation between auto and bike, is for the bicyclists as well. When an auto driver is located in the middle of their lane, and a bicyclist is un-safely riding on the white line of their bike lane, or if no bike lane, riding far away from the edge of the roadway, one can remind them that they are to be three feet from your car! They wanted this law, and it works both ways, so let them follow it as well.


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Oh my! No scripture or sarcasm?

Thank you Ted!


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agag1,


You’re correct, I would be remiss if I didn’t include appropriate scripture for the “Timmy-Ten-Speeds” that bike for sport and winning, AND following the rules of the road.


“An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” (2 Timothy 2:5)


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You make so many erroneous assumptions that I won’t even try to answer them all. I will only state that California law treats cyclists most closely like operators of farm equipment on the roads with regard to rules and regs.


In the last round of debate about cycling rights in CCN (http://calcoastnews.com/2015/04/san-luis-obispo-county-leads-california-in-bike-deaths/comment-page-2/#comments), I answered most of the other mistaken ideas you are spouting. I recommend you stick to your preaching of biblical morality — you are better informed on that even if it gets tiresome at times.


(Sorry I don’t know how to make a link in these comments.)


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Just for one day? They need to do this every day. Far too many bike riders are arrogant, rude, and fully thumb their noses at all the rules that pertain to motor vehicles. A bike has to follow the same rules — it’s state law.


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“SLO Police Generate Revenue for themselves and their big fat paychecks, pensions, and benefits”


“Under the guise of Public Safety”


Sounds great public falls for it increasing government dependency.


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Honestly, cyclist are a problem throughout the county. Regularly we encounter those that are in the middle of traffic lanes, holding back traffic and failing to move to the side. Many others cruise right through stop signs as it breaks momentum when they are peddling up a grade. Installing bike lanes is a joke as the cyclist allege that they are not useable due to debris in the lanes.


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There are times when cyclists are supposed to ride in the middle of lanes — like when the right lane becomes a right turn only lane and the cyclist needs to continue straight. That said, many do it when it is unnecessary and they are wrong when they do.


As for bike lanes being unusable due to debris in the lanes, that is true too — just not all the time. If the bike lanes were given better maintenance care (street sweeping and pothole repairs), that excuse would disappear and you would be justified in your anger at those who use it (in most cases.).


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Where they really need to be concentrating is on the Cal Poly campus,where their fellow

brothers and sisters at UPD need to get after the bicyclists.Their unsafe riding habits spill

out onto the City streets when they are leaving the campus.


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As wall Street Steals, the pavement is rotting, Isis is invading so, what do we do? We go after people on bicycles. Way to prioritize. it’s the “little things”


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The last time I checked, city government had nothing to do with regulating Wall Street or National Defense. The last time I checked, the government caused the collapses on Wall Street with pressure on Lenders to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act forcing them to loosen lending guidelines for the “disadvantged.” Then when the economy falters and property values dont continue to skyrocket so people can use the equity in their home like a piggy bank, we blame Wall Street. How convenient.


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“Last time I checked, the government caused the collapse on Wall Street with pressure on lenders to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act ….”


I do agree with you that our city government (as well as all city governments) have nothing to do with regulating Wall Street or National Defense; your claim about the government causing the collapse of Wall Street would be laughable, if you didn’t seem so serious about your claim- would you have any facts to back up your assertion? I was under the impression that the collapse was caused by trading/lending institutions making up out of whole cloth the never-before-seen or regulated “derivatives” that included the infamous liar loans that had either no collateral or there was absolutely no oversight on the lending that was given out on properties that were vastly over-valued, hence the “sub-prime” market causing the crash because there were far too many loans written that should not have been, even though they were rated highly by the valuation companies, so investors got real greedy thinking they were all going to get really rich, then the bottom fell out of the whole scam.

Educate me please, where did you get your facts about this debacle being the fault of the government?


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Bob,


Your explanation is too long and complicated for people who don’t want to make any effort to understand. They would prefer to be told what to believe by someone who caters to their prejudices.


I did a LOT of reading on this subject and you are pretty close to right on the money. To over-simplify it though, the CRA did contribute to a small extent. When the big money boys realized that it didn’t have a major negative effect, they figured out how to expand and build upon it for short-term profiteering. I think of them as seeing a small fire in an alley that didn’t get out of control, so they built a bunch more and threw gas on them.


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The scofflaws riding bicycles have been out-of-control for a very long time. Attempting to stop this insanity is like putting a finger in the dike.


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I’m a non-scofflaw cyclist who doesn’t appreciate the generalization that all (or even most) cyclists ride this way. I am in favor of this effort but it won’t be effective if it isn’t maintained for months or even years. It would also help if the courts offered the options of either a stiff fine or a cycling traffic school for first offenses. Many of the scofflaw cyclists are either ignorant of or misinformed about the law as it pertains to bikes.


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Finally, these two wheel hooligans will be brought to justice.


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Only on Monday, will they be brought to justice in a more stringent manner. Henceforth, it will be back to the same situation as before.


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