Good to know that crime is so low in OC that nabbing wayward cyclists has gone to the top of the priority list. OTH I do see some of my fellow velos doing some pretty dumb stuff just to avoid having to stop at a light/sign etc, I have been guilty of same.
I realized that when I am riding with my eye on the cyclo-commputer to ride for time, speed a "new course record" etc my willingness to bend/ ignore the law increases substaintially now that I am slowing down and trying to actually have fun obeying traffic laws isn't that much of a hassle hmmmm ;-) For what its worth cops in Seattle do the same "target the cyclist at the stop sign" stuff occasionally too. Especially in the more affluent neighborhoods. They also provide excellent protection for cyclists during the annual Seattle To Portland ride that sees thousands of cyclists leaving urban Seattle in the wee hours. The cops provide control at intersections along the route and keep us from getting flattened by caffiene deprived motorists. I guess it all balances out somewhere. RR On Jun 15, 10:27 am, Joe Bartoe <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > Saturday, I had an interesting experience. I was approaching a stop sign in > San Clemente when two OC Sheriffs on motorcycles passed through the > intersection going the opposite direction. One of these guys, upon seeing me, > came to a complete stop in the middle of the road so he could see whether I > would stop at the sign. Part of me was tempted to stop without putting my > foot down to see what he would do, but I decided that any cop willing to stop > and watch me like this was just waiting to ruin my ride, so I put my foot > down and then continued through. I'm still in disbelief that this guy > actually stopped in the middle of a roadway and obstructed traffic (he almost > got hit by a car from behind) just to watch me stop at the intersection. > > It seemed to me that these two were patrolling for the sole purpose of > ticketing cyclists. The Irvine Bicycle Club was having their annual weekend > trip to Carlsbad and back this past weekend and these two were heading down > along their route. Last month, there was another club doing a ride down in > San Diego County and motorcycle officers in Oceanside were camped out along > their route (note that these were club rides, not big organized rides), > issuing tickets to riders who failed to completely stop at a stop sign. In > both cases, this was done on a road that was not a major road and at places > where riders going through the stop sign would not cause much harm even if > they did blow through them (they were at T-intersections where riders were > passing through the top, where they wouldn't obstruct a turning car). > > With all the bad driving that I see all over, this seems like a big waste of > time and it feels like these guys are singling out cyclists. In addition, > they seem to be a little too aware of where bike club rides are going to be > and taking advantage of that situation. > > Sorry, this is more of a rant, but it annoys me a lot that there seems to be > some element in law enforcement that feels that we as cyclists are such > scofflaws that we merit this extra attention. > > Joe > > _________________________________________________________________ > Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage > limits.http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
