When the Cop Says Stop What do you do when you know your area's bike laws, but the police don't?

Bicycling.com ^ | Bob Mionske

[Immerito]

A few months ago, I received a phone call from a cyclist with an incredible story about an incident in Lawrence County, Ohio. Because the cyclist-a guy named Tony Patrick-was in need of an attorney, I hooked him up with Steve Magas, a contributing author to Bicycling & the Law, and a well-known bicycling attorney in Ohio. After hearing Tony's story, Steve took his case. More about that later; first, let me tell you about Tony.

Weekdays, Tony runs his small construction company in Huntington, West Virginia. Weeknights, and weekends, Tony, a Cat 2 racer, can often be found hanging out at Jeff's Bike Shop-that is, when he's not out on a training ride, or racing. And that's not unusual; Jeff's Bike Shop is the center of a vibrant racing scene in Huntington, the second-largest city in West Virginia, and the home of Marshall University.

That racing scene means regular training rides, all of which start out and end up at Jeff's. There's a ride every other day, each geared to a different set of riders, but the real hammerfest is the Tuesday night ride. That's the ride where the locals try, as Tony puts it, to hurt each other over the course of a 23-34 mile route that takes them across the Ohio River, into the back roads of southern Ohio, before looping back across the river into Huntington.

And that's how Tony found himself just outside of Chesapeake, Ohio, one Tuesday night in August of 2008, heading into town to take the bridge back across to Huntington. Tony was riding with "Ryan," a then-16 year old nationally-ranked racer with a 4.2 GPA. ["Ryan" is a pseudonym; I've concealed his identity because he's a minor.]

[gopheraj]

I have a question :) Does auto insurance cover a person on a bicycle? I really don’t know and if it doesn’t, wouldn’t one have to have ones bicycle covered as well?

[jpsb]

Agree with everything you said, I never ride in a group and prefer to ride into traffic so I can see what is coming my way. Fortunately where I live there is not much traffic, roads are one lane so moving into the unused lane is easy. If I do encounter traffic I get off the road and on the shoulder. Here we have more trouble with teenagers walking down the middle of the road then bikes. lol

[Squantos]

Dunno... With folks buying insurance for their goldfish these days anything is possible. Ironically it would be a “rider”....:o)

I drive a dodge dualie 4x4 with a ranch hand cattle / brush guard on the front. I’m insured if I were to accidentally hit human, horse, hereford or house.

Stay safe....

[Leaning Right]

But really .... how much time out of your day are they really taking? A few seconds?

Oh, I personally don't mind the delay at all. As you said, it's only a few minutes.

But I am appalled at the way many cyclists ignore stop signs and red lights. And how casually they will pass cars that do stop, passing them on the left and right.

And I have no problem with cyclists who stay off to the side. but the road should be for cars only. It makes no more sense for a cyclist to be going down the middle of a road than it does for a runner to be going down the middle of a road.

[Squantos]

Soapgirl was observant.... Some of em do push the press to test button on the spandex stretch factors...... Some are so tight you know why they have roid rage or a sore toe....:o)

I rode schwinn continentals an varsity bikes in the 60’s an 70’s across the USA an where stationed overseas. A few hundred thousand miles over my lifetime as a bike was cheap transportation for a GI with a family to support.

I never ever ever pulled the crap I see so called cyclists doing then as I see today. Some fill the slang description of “organ donors” well. My so called “right of way” never exceeded my common sense an value of life.

Just silly crap I see to much of these days. We policed ourselves then. They need to do such now or someone will ....intentionally or accidentally.

[xp38]

Global Positioning A Hole coordinates

[grey_whiskers]

It'd help if the nimrods who built the roads hadn't made so many stop signs just at the bottom of a nice hill.

I'd favor a voluntary check-off on the taxes for special additions to bike lanes to take the bikes OVER the intersections.

Of course, I live in the Minneapolis suburbs and am fairly close to the Luce Line bike trail which goes seventy miles straight west from my house, in addition to going almost all the way into the University of Minnesota and West River Road, thence nearly to the airport, in the other direction...

/Fantasy mode off>

[packrat35]

Get and drive a car.

/sarcasm

[grey_whiskers]

Schools often weight Advanced Placement (AP) classes so that if you get an "A" in it, it counts as a 5.0 instead of a 4.0 towards your GPA.

Some are fluff, some are not, depends on the teacher and the school. I'm still reading my son's AP European History textbook which he bought me a couple of years ago for Christmas...(other than the author being a flaming Commie and going into detail about the differences between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, it's not too bad for high school). But I still prefer the Hillsdale College Intro to US History text.

Cheer!

[packrat35]

I agree with you. Never met a serious bike rider who wasn't a pretentious ass.

[packrat35]

They also mess up your radiator if they get stuck in the grill

[packrat35]

yes

[packrat35]

I agree. While I find bike riders to be mostly insufferable assholes, this cop was worse as he does it under the badge. But that is what passes for cops nowadays.

[JimRed]

Naked blog-hit pimping.

??? Nonetheless, I'll be forwarding the link to the "blog" to my bike enthuiast brother... it's right up his alley!

[packrat35]

And wearing spandex, We call them insects. They look like them and splat the same way when they screw up and pull in frontt of the wrong car or truck.

[grey_whiskers]

5 MPH?! What ... are you 90 years old or something? When I cycle, it's at least 15, sometimes mid 20s.

I can hit 30mph going down a good hill ;-) Too bad there's ALWAYS a d@mn Stop Sign at the bottom, followed by a steep uphill.

"Team Gravity" works much better on the descent.

And anonymous notes for other posters:

Those helmets prevent severe head injury in case of a fall. On pavement, one can suffer skull fractures from a fall of as little as 3-4 feet. (Verified by lab experiments on cadavers).

Spandex looks gay, but prevents chafing.

I'm somewhat overweight but try to be sensitive by wearing a larger jersey so I don't look like a beached walrus.

The legendary Mrs. Whiskers bought me this jersey as a joke:

And $7,000 bikes are either for the mountain goats for who the extra weight and components make a difference(*), or the rich doctors for whom $7,000 is chump change and do quick metric centuries on the weekend to relieve stress.

Or fanatics who own five or six bikes just for themselves (divorced men).

(*) My son is an example. He was on the track and cross-country teams in high school and was leading a paceline on the MS 150 ride in Minnesota on a fat-tire bike for about 30 miles at at 23 mph. We bought him a good triathlon bike for graduation (tho' nothing like $7000) and it was like strapping at 50,000 hp Pratt & Whitney turbofan to him. Three weeks ago he took it out for a 140-mile ride "just for fun."

(Wistfully) Ahh, youth.

Cheers!

[packrat35]

Not a fan of cops, but that was stupid of him. I try to say as LITTLE as possible when stopped by police. I stop, give them my drivers license, and if I have a true argument, tell it to the judge.

Arguing with a cop on the road will almost always end badly.

[teenyelliott]

If some broken down jalopy is clunking down the road, it can be pulled over for impeding traffic and/or going below the minimum speed limit.

If bicyclists have equal rights to the road, they should be required to go as fast as the rest of the traffic on that road.

I live in the country. For some reason, there is a gaggle of helmeted cyclists who love to ride around on the roads out here. People go 70mph and you can't always see the bikes due to hills and dips and such.

If cyclists want to ride on the roads, they should only be able to do so if they do not impede drivers.

It is dangerous for drivers and bicyclists, and I get annoyed every time I have to slow down, or worry that another car isn't going to see them, or I have to drive 10 mph while I wait for an opportunity to pass them, etc. Go ride in town in the 30mph areas, ya maroons. It is only a matter of time before one of these guys gets hit. While an individual can take whatever chances they like with their own life, the motorist driving 70mph who didn't see the guy on the bike going 15mph will be devastated.

The "vehicles" are not in the same category, and they shouldn't be on the same roads. Can you tell it makes me angry? I didn't read the whole article but I'm guessing I would side with the cop. :)

[JimRed]

WADR, aren’t cyclists taxpayers too?

I strongly agree about the fat & spandex, though!

[grey_whiskers]

I agree with you. Never met a serious bike rider who wasn't a pretentious ass.

Checked your homepage. You've hung out in the South and Southwest.

Try coming up to the Great Plains / Great Lakes (Montana, Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin).

20 mph headwinds in both directions and rain will wipe the pretension out of you really quickly: they weather never even notices how expensive your bike is or what you're wearing.

Cheers!