Hey, Martin, Early this spring I jotted to this list about a conversation I had with one of those officers. This was the older guy who appears to be nearing retirement age. He's a very polite, low-key guy who has on occasions too numerous to recount during a.m. and p.m. commute times, when there are very few pedestrians on the walk, told me to walk my bike on the Capitol Square. I just say "OK" and keep on riding. Last June I asked a Capitol Police supervisor for an explanation of the legal basis for enforcing a prohibition against cycling on the Capitol sidewalk. When I looked at what he sent (see below), I wrote back with my interpretation that there is in fact NO prohibition against riding on the outer sidewalk.
One day this March or April I stopped, turned around, introduced myself, shook hands, and asked this officer if his supervisor had ever discussed my interpretation of the legal status of biking on the Capitol grounds with him and the rest of the officers. He said he hadn't. When I explained the statutory situation (below) he acknowledged, and I quote, "Well if we were to ticket someone it would be on pretty shaky grounds." Personally, I'd like to point out in court just how shaky the ground is in light of state statute, but have not been ticketed. So, Martin, if you want to volunteer to be the noteworthy individual who helps set the record straight once and for all (no, I take that back, this would be a state court we'd be dealing with here, and who knows what our reactionary legislature would do in response) make sure you are behaving in all other ways in a legal, proper and courteous manner, receive your ticket with grace, and I will not only establish the Martin Lund Defense Fund, but offer my services in your defense, pro bono (a fancy Latin term meaning you'd be just as well off being represented by a Bonobo monkey...). Seriously, let's push the envelope and put an end to this harassment of law-abiding cyclists. The Capitol Police should be spending more of their time helping out with pedestrian safety enforcement, gathering evidence against legislators using state-paid staff hours for fund-raising, and other much more pressing issues. Below is the response I got from the Capitol Police a little over a year ago to my inquiry regarding the statutory basis for the Capitol Police telling otherwise law-abiding and considerate cyclists to walk or get their wheels off the Capitol Square sidewalk. The statute defers to the discretion of local authorities, which means the City of Madison in this case. As established previously, the City permits courteous cycling on sidewalks where buildings do not abut on the walk (which is the case in most residential areas and in a few commercial zones). Therefore, a reasonable interpretation of the following statutory language would be that it is in fact legal to bicycle on the sidewalk along the outside of the Capitol grounds, providing cyclists issue audible warnings to persons they are overtaking, allow at least three feet passing clearance, and otherwise "exercise due care." Also, there appears to be a distinction made between riding a bicycle and driving a vehicle, which seems to imply that, while bicycles are vehicles, s. 346.94 addresses only motor vehicles - i.e. "riding" applies to bicycles, while "driving" applies to motor vehicles. In any event, because Madison permits cycling on non-fronted sidewalks, and the Capitol grounds has a non-fronted sidewalk, s. 346.94 does not prohibit sidewalk cycling around the Square. -----Original Message----- From: Schmidt, Marc [Sender's Note: Mr. Schmidt was as of June 4, 2003, a supervisor of the State Capitol Police unit.] Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 10:45 AM To: Schimpff, Jeff A Subject: RE: Capitol Square transportation 346.804 Riding bicycle on sidewalk. When local authorities under s. 346.94 (1) permit bicycles on the sidewalk, every person operating a bicycle upon a sidewalk shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian and shall exercise due care and give an audible signal when passing a bicycle or electric personal assistive mobility device rider or a pedestrian proceeding in the same direction. s. 346.94 (1) 1) Driving on sidewalk. The operator of a vehicle shall not drive upon any sidewalk area except at a permanent or temporarily established driveway unless permitted to do so by the local authorities. I believe that the city of Madison has a local ordinance against it also on the sidewalks in the city. I'm not sure about that though. [Sender's Editorial Note: As noted above, the City of Madison does permit riding a bicycle on a sidewalk when no building abuts the walk. No building abuts the outer sidewalk on the square. A reasonable person could conclude, though, that the State Capitol building does abut the inner walkway around it, Also, while I agree with Arthur's interpretation of "sidewalk," I do not agree that bicycling there is prohibited, as noted above.] -----AbOriginal Message----- From: Schimpff, Jeff A Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 9:41 AM To: Schmidt, Marc Subject: Capitol Square transportation Hello, Could you please provide me a statutory citation for the law which prohibits bicycling on the Capitol Square sidewalk and terrace? Thank you. Jeff Schimpff -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Martin Lund Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 1:59 PM To: bikies Subject: [Bikies] a sidewalk or a terrace? a few days ago i was riding on the capitol square, specificly on the area between the sidewalk and the street. a cpd officer stopped me and seemed intent of giving me a ticket for riding on the sidewalk until i attempted to explain that i was not riding on the sidewalk but instead riding on the terrace portion of the captiol square infrastructure. i've always considered this to be perfectly legaly regardless of whether or not it is recommended. my explination seemed as least approching sufficient. i was not given a ticket, was told that the officer would look into my claim and that i myself should consider re-examining it. thoughts? -martin __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
