For what it's worth, Madison was plagued 15-20 years ago by this creation called the bicycle police, who were not police but were authorized by the police/city council to ticket bicyclists for traffic violations. The point was to deal with the most ridiculous of offenders, such as those who run red lights with traffic coming at them, etc. Of course, there were some rogue "cops," who preferred to enforce less egregious offenses, including this one cop wannabe who parked her bike behind some bushes on the northeast corner of Dickinson and Rutledge Streets on the near-east side. She was watching bicyclists who came over the bridge over the Yahara past Thornton Avenue and Rogers St., both of which have stop signs for Rutledge. When these bicyclists continued up Rutledge, she would stop them and give them tickets for not stopping at Thornton and Rogers. The particular incident I witnessed occurred at roughly 10:30 a.m. on a weekday. There was virtually no traffic, bike, car, or otherwise.
A friend of mine was ticketed, although I was not. Thus, I did some research into what the MPD considered to be an offense for bicyclists. I talked to a Luis Yudice, whom I believe is now a highish-up MPD official. He told me that the MPD considered a bicycle to be stopping at a stop sign, as long as it was going no faster than a pedestrian would go crossing the same street. I asked for specifics, and he told me 3 to 5 mph. Obviously no nonsense about foot on the ground, or bowing in prayer to Detroit, or any such stuff. That may no longer be MPD's policy, but that is what a cop who then worked in the Traffic Bureau told me. What this incident tells me is not that people should start behaving as this ignorant Verona cop who flaunts the law to harass bicyclists is doing, but rather to urge all bicyclists to avoid Verona, and to write to the Chamber of Commerce and to tell them that we will not be patronizing their businesses until this renegade cop has been straightened out. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lindsay Feuling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 12:16 PM Subject: Re: [Bikies] FOOT DOWN > > Whatever the ordinance is for stopping in any case, I practice, as a > general > rule, stopping completely, and putting one foot down. > > My observation of other bikers in various settings where they have not > stopped has shown that motorists become angry at bicyclists, and take > their motorized agressions out on bikers, including myself, who do > actually stop. > > So my plea is to just stop and put your foot down at the stop sign no > matter what, and put your ego/pride/whatever aside for a minute. Be a > model example > to other (and even younger) bikers, and show the poor and unfortunate > motorists that bikers are safe and responsible, and even to our respected > (and often vigilant) law enforcement personnel! > > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies > _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
