Bean Counter, this is standard procedure for deliverymen of all kinds. Bike delivery people probably break the law far less than truck delivery people. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a truck delivery that was parked legally.
In fact, I remember an interesting lawsuit by some sort of delivery driver that was fired for refusing to park illegally.
I think part of the reason may be that crossing a street in Boston is generally accomplished by jumping out from behind a parked van without looking. At least that’s what I’ve seen. In any event, jaywalking is rampant.
Also, the laws are written such that a bike messenger faces a potential $20 fine for a traffic violation, and a $100 fine for not being registered or not wearing a helmet. Which doen’t exactly emphasize the problem areas. Bike messengers are also required to carry more insurance than cab drivers.
I enjoy biking in Boston, despite the fact that every aspect of the city seems designed to make life difficult for cycling. There is not one foot of designated bike lane on any street in the city. Several streets do not even have any room between the right hand lane and the curb. The drivers do not follow the law. Cars and trucks seem allowed to double park for an indefinite time period as long as they have their hazard lights on. Pedestrians leap off of curbs without a care in the world. And just when I think that I’m in the clear, I see some moron on a bike heading towards me against the traffic flow.
Yes, the bikers disregard the law. Even more than the cars, but probably less than the pedestrians (if you consider jaywalking illegal, which technically it is). Most of them that I see seem to only look out for their own safety, and regard the letter of the law as unimportant. Usually, they take care to keep as much out of the way of cars as possible, but have no qualms about running red lights if it’s safe to do so. In general, the law does not seem to be applied to bicycles. I have seen fairly blatant acts committed as traffic cops have watched.
For the record, the only time I ever hit a pedestrian was many years ago, when I was young and stupid and riding on the sidewalk, and was really more of a slight brush than a real hit. On the street, I have never been in an accident, despite what seems like serious attempts by some drivers.
Oh, and Chaim, if you don’t want to stay as far to the right as possible, or if you don’t feel safe there, there is nothing saying you have to. You are well within your rights to take a lane whenever you want.
I used to ride on the sidewalk very slowly, unless no one was around. Of course I lived in a small resort town (Stepford, I mean Coronado, CA).
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by UncaStuart *
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Well I wouldn’t even have used the fucking sidewalk if there had been a fucking bike lane or the drivers on the main street weren’t fucking crazy. I tried riding on the street once and got forced off the road by an asshole in an SUV. And almost everyone on the road was in an SUV.
“I agree with all of this. I’ve nothing against cyclists and am one at times, but many of them seem to want to transform from vehicle to pedestrian and back depending on what’s convenient for them”
I call supreme crap-flingin’ BS on this one. Bending the laws is the ONLY way to survive as a bicyclist. Cities are not designed for bike traffic (unless you’re in Singapore or someplace equally unlikely). Here in Seattle, no bike lanes, pothole-ridden streets, and sidewalks overgrown with blackberry tangles at neck and eye level ready to decapitate the unwary rider. I respect foot traffic when on the sidewalks, I ride slowly around corners and past people. On streets there is nothing scarier than getting sucked into the backdraft of a metro bus and pulled out into traffic.
If you SUV-driving shits want me to be riding in the road with you so you can monopolize the sidewalks with your double-wide knobby-tired REI off-road baby strollers for Britney and Courtney then you’ll happily support a gas tax for your two-ton behemoths to build me a friggin bike lane or two, right?!?!?!
I constantly hear people yelling “Your going the wrong way!” “Wrong side of the road!”. I have my hand set on auto-middle-finger for every one of those shitheads.
Oh yeah. If you yell at me as I pass, the next time I pass your house I’m riding straight through your lovely curbside flowerbed that could be used to benefit my safety instead of your vanity.
What was the outcome of the law suit? My guess would be that the company took the stance that (s)he was fired for other reasons. I would hope there would be no way a company could not be held responsible if their only reason for firing an employee was that the employee did not break the law.
Re-reading my post a couple hours later, I shocked myself at how sanctimonious my post sounded considering I pretty much drove home at a clip of 10 to 15 mph faster than the posted speed limit. The excuse, of course, is that I was staying with traffic. “Everyone else was doing it”. Hmmm… I think I hear my mother saying something about my friends and a bridge.
Unfortunately we all do it. Does not make it right, though.
Apologies on the hijack.
How strange…here I was thinking I didn’t live in a large city like Seattle and it turns out I have all along. Thanks for pointing that out to me. I must have forgotten it during all my crap-flinging.
I think “bending the laws” is far too mild a term to describe the situation I recounted in my OP. Making an unsignalled left turn, through a red light, cutting off a car making a left turn through a green light, is way beyond bending. There wasn’t even traffic stopped at the red light on the other side of the intersection from him. As soon as my light turned red, he could have gone safely. Instead, he chose to endanger himself, me and my wife. Sorry, no sympathy here.
I hope you aren’t talking to me. I neither live in Seatlle nor drive an SUV. I drive a 6-year-old Ford Contour. And frankly, I’d be thrilled if the people who steal I mean tax my paycheck, gasoline, license plate fees and state inspection fees would use some of it to build bike lines instead of horrors like the Mixing Bowl.
Sure, I’ll pay for your bike lane. You want me to buy your band-aids too? How about if you support a bike tax to pay for them? Most towns and cities require that bicycles be licensed, though they don’t enforce it. Have you paid for your bike license this year? Do you pay property tax/excise tax/etc. on your bike? Gee, I already pay a gas tax…what about we tax bikers for the miles they ride? You know, a required odometer, and you pay for some of the wear and tear on the roads and sideWALKS you use? No? Gee, go figure.
Sure I’ll pay for the wear and tear my bike does to the road as compared to how much your car does as how much you pay: Got change for a milpence?
In the meantime, can I get all my tax money back for the superhighways my bike is not allowed on? Your gas & reistrations taxes barely cover their costs and the rest is made up with on my tax dollars.
I have yet to live in a town the * required * bike licenses. I’d like to know where they are required.
How about the entire state of California? From the USC Department of Public Safety page, “A license (available from the Student Law Enforcement Program). This is required by California law and university regulation.”
Look up your own local statute; I’d be willing to bet that it’s required but, as I said, not enforced. I spend a good part of my workday looking up information on various cities and towns, and rarely come across one where the city’s homepage doesn’t have a listing for bicycle licenses.
Pasadena, California requires registration with the city of any bicycle ridden on city streets. I can’t get the direct link to work, for some reason, but it’s section 10.60.030 of the Pasadena Municipal Code. Chapter 10.60 deals with bicycles:
Do I know anyone who has actually done this? No. Have I done this? No. Do I know anyone who has been busted for having an unregistered bike? No. But, strictly speaking, it’s the law.
Let’s see, the Big Dig here in Boston has an estimated cost of $14,400,000,000. I don’t believe there is any provision for bicycles being allowed on it. Yeah, I’m getting some money back!
As far as bike registration goes, Massachusetts has a provision for allowing towns to mandate it, and imposes a $1 fine for being unregistered. If Boston requires registration, I have been unable to find any evidence of it in the city’s transportation rules.
Washington has a Model Traffic Ordinance that can be adopted by individual municipalities. WAC (Washington Administrative Code) 308-330-500 details requirements for bicycle registration.
I am still trying to find which, if any, cities in Washington have adopted that section. Bellevue, for example, adopted Section 308-330 (ordinance 4671, which replaces Section 11.810.010 of the Bellevue City Code), but excluded subsections 500 and 505 (the ones requiring bicycle registration.
For any city that does adopt this ordinance, the text would be:
“WAC 308-330-500 Bicycle license required. No person who resides within the jurisdiction of the local authority shall ride or propel a bicycle on any highway or upon any public path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles unless such bicycle has been licensed and a license plate or decal is attached thereto as provided in WAC 308-330-500 through 308-330-540.”
and
“WAC 308-330-505 Bicycle license application. Application for a bicycle license and license plate or decal shall be made upon a form provided by and to the chief of police. An annual license fee as prescribed by the local authority shall be paid to the local authority before each license or renewal thereof is granted. Duplicate license plates or decals may be supplied for the same cost as the original plate or decal in the event of loss of the plate or decal.”
and
“WAC 308-330-515 Attachment of bicycle license plate or decal. (1) The chief of police, upon issuing a bicycle license, shall also issue a license plate or decal bearing the license number assigned to the bicycle, and the name of the local authority.
(2) Such license plate or decal shall be firmly attached to the rear mudguard or frame of the bicycle for which issued in such position as to be plainly visible from the rear.
(3) No person shall remove a license plate or decal from a bicycle during the period for which issued except upon a transfer of ownership or in the event the bicycle is dismantled and no longer operated upon any highway within the jurisdiction of the local authority.”
Further research finds that in Washington:
Bellevue (BCC Section 11.810.010)
Island County (Ordinance Number C-129-99-R-40)
Pullman (PCC Section 12.10.020 Sections of the MTO not adopted)
Snohomish (SCC Section 11.04.010 MTO Sections Not Adopted)
Tacoma (TCC Section 11.05.020 Sections not adopted)
Vancouver (VMC 9.02.020 Sections Not Adopted)
All expressly deleted the bicycle registration sections from the Model Traffic Ordinance. Of course, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t some other ordinance requiring bicycle registration. Looks to me like Washington made bicycle registration optional and most places opted out.
All the city requirements for bicycle registration in California stem from Division 16.7 of the California Vehicle Code, found here. It appears that it is up to individual counties and municipalities to enact this section of the vehicle code.
I see that Oakland has adopted this. Who knew that I was such a scofflaw!
Just in case you are interested, here is the california definition of bicycle:
Thanks for the state links, obfusciatrist.
Do you (or anybody else) know if cities which do require bike registration honor registration in another city? Or does a bike need to be registered (and the fee paid) in every city in which the owner wishes to ride it?
Out in suburbia, where cities aren’t that big, that could be a real PITA.
As obfusciatrist has pointed out, this would seem to be an exaggerration on the part of the USC safety page. I’ll concede the point that some townships may require it.
Now, care to justify those comments about bicyclists being required to pay for ‘wear and tear’ they cause? Care to justify why you’re so hostile regarding ‘paying’ for bike lanes?
and…
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I told you. Others told you. Did you look up your own local statutes? Are you riding illegally?
**
Because I’ve read enough bicyclists’ rants around here bitching about “SUVs,” etc. to know that many of them think that they should be able to do whatever the hell they want, whenever they want…I point you to Colin’s posts.
I pay taxes as a car driver. Multiple taxes. Doing so, I get streets and highways. When bike riders start paying their share of use taxes, I’ll be on their side. But don’t come whinging to me that you don’t have bike lanes when you’re flaunting both traffic and registration laws. My car is properly registered with the state and the municipality. Is your bike? Do you even know what the laws in your area are? Or is your knee jerking?
You pay taxes. Do you think I don’t? Furthermore my taxes are paying for roads I cannot use with my bike. Your taxes that you pay for registration along with the gas taxes don’t even come close to paying for the roads. Guess where the extra income comes from: All of us. That means I am paying for roads I am not allowed to use. This isn’t just a couple of miles here, this is the basis of our tranpsortation infrastructure that is verbotten to me and my bike. Furthermore, my bike does as close to absolutely no damage to the roads whatsoever, the same cannot be said of your vehicle.
Don’t try to whitewash this by painting me as some kind of lawbreaker. Your statement is indefensible and selfish. You assume that you are paying for my bike lanes when in fact I am already paying for your roads.
Need some hints? Here:
http://www.trainweb.com/mts/bi/bicyclists-subsidize.html
http://www.parrett.net/~rralston/bsubdize.html
http://cabobike.org/goodroads/faq.htm#_What_about_freeways_1
http://www.vtpi.org/whoserd.htm
Now, care to tell me how I am not paying for the roads again?
Gonna answer my question first? Let me rephrase it. Are you riding illegally? Are you contributing your share toward the roads? Or are you pissing and moaning like a so-called welfare queen that you ain’t gettin’ yours?
Listen, pal, roads weren’t built for bicycles, they were built for cars. Don’t like sharing them? Get a car. Want a bike lane? See if you can pay some municipal fees or some campaign contributions to get them painted. But get off my ass just because I can afford 20th century transportation.