Minneapolis police are looking to better enforce vehicular and pedestrian laws to help prevent life-changing [...]]]>

The Minneapolis safety record for bicycles is suffering right now. First, a driver jumped a curb near Dinkytown and hit several pedestrians. Today, a right-turning dump truck killed a cyclist near 4th Street and 15th Avenue, again near the U of M.

Minneapolis police are looking to better enforce vehicular and pedestrian laws to help prevent life-changing accidents, but also ask “pedestrians and cyclists to watch out for themselves.”

One of the filthy truths about “sharing the road!” is that most of the responsibility for doing so ends up being assigned to cyclists, rather than it being a more community effort. And it’s hard to say to cyclists that they shouldn’t make these efforts to protect themselves — even with the protection of law, dead is dead, and cyclists are a more vulnerable road user than a car or truck. Complete Streets and other road calming measures are one response to this, as they can prompt more considered driving by heavy vehicle users on roadways.

Today’s accident, while the details are not yet clear, also serve as a reminder to cyclists that roadway facilities like bike lanes are recommendations, but not necessarily edicts. By this, I mean that if there is a safer place on the road for you than between the painted lines, use THAT place and not the bike lane. On streets like 4th Street and University near the University of Minnesota, the roads are 3-5 lanes, one-way, with narrow bike lanes that do not necessarily allow for actions like safe left turns, or dodging broken beer bottles in the gutter. While I’ve not gone out with a tape measure, I am fairly sure the painted bike lanes are narrower (and predate) current AASHTO standards for bike lane width.

Look out for yourself out there, and remember that sharing is really great, but sometimes you do need to control a lane or other part of the roadway for your own safety. You’re a legal user of the road as well, and “sharing” will do you no good if it leads to injury. Use good sense, and be careful out there.

A key piece of the 2011 Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota legislative agenda has been the support of bills to increase careless driving penalties. Cyclists have been encouraged to send messages of support to committee members and to their own legislators, preparing the latter to vote [...]]]>

EDIT: This has been rescheduled for Thursday, April 14, at 1:00 PM.

A key piece of the 2011 Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota legislative agenda has been the support of bills to increase careless driving penalties. Cyclists have been encouraged to send messages of support to committee members and to their own legislators, preparing the latter to vote in favor of these bills when they are available for floor votes. Unfortunately, these bills were tabled in March after several committee hearings.

The bills, however, remain alive at the Capitol. Another hearing — this time on SF 201, which would increase the penalty for causing a death while committing a careless or reckless driving offense to a gross misdemeanor and carry a fine of up to $3,000 and a jail sentence of up to 1 year — is scheduled for today, at 1 PM. The hearing is part of the agenda of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, and the meeting is scheduled to take place in Room 15 of the State Capitol.

It turns out that this bill has some heavy-hitting opposition — chiefly trucking organizations, and budget hawks who fear the expense of additional jail time for guilty individuals. It is important for cyclists and pedestrians to reach out to friends and family to ask them to join their voices to ours for support, and groups like the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota are reaching out to other vulnerable road users — motorcyclists and scooter operators — requesting their support.

Stay tuned. The Bicycle Alliance is on top of this issue, and will be releasing regular updates via their Facebook page — go be a fan.

Senate File 201 will be heard in the Minnesota Senate Judiciary & Public Safety Committee today, March 1, [...]]]>

We have previously covered the proposed harsher penalties for careless drivers who kill or inflict serious injuries on bicyclists and pedestrians. At yesterday’s Minnesota Bicycle Summit, many participants spoke to their legislators to support the bills, SF201 and HF68.

Senate File 201 will be heard in the Minnesota Senate Judiciary & Public Safety Committee today, March 1, at 1:00PM. The hearing will take place in Room 15 at the Capitol.

Minnesota cyclists and pedestrians (which means EVERYONE, because even if you’re in a wheelchair you count under pedestrian laws) are encouraged to contact their state senator to encourage passage of this measure. The measure steps up the penalty for careless driving that results in injury or death from a misdemeanor (up to $1,000 fine/90 days in jail) to a gross misdemeanor (up to $3,000 fine/365 days in jail).

I’ve discussed how to contact your legislators before, but here’s a review:

• Figure out who your state senator is via the state web site, if you don’t know already.
• Write a brief message referencing the bill at hand (SF201 in this case!).
• Be direct and ask your senator to support it, and why you think it important.
• Thank them for considering your position.
• Include your name and postal address/zip code, regardless of if you’re sending e-mail or a postal letter, as it helps establish your constituent cred.
• Send it — e-mail is quickest in the modern age.

Calling your senator’s office is also an option for expressing your support of this bill and asking for your senator’s similar support. This bill is revenue-neutral, and offers a common-sense enhancement of penalties to those who do harm to vulnerable road users via careless behavior. Thankfully, Minnesota is not a state that allows the defense “I didn’t see them” as a release from all charges of negligence, but current penalties are toothless compared to the damage a driver can do to a bicyclists or pedestrian. Distracted driving is only increasing as cars acquire more and more new electronic features.

Contact your senator today to request support for this bill!

Photo by Teresa Boardman, via Flickr/Creative Commons

On the plus side, Minnesota often will charge people under existing rules. Not as much in Alabama, where police officers cannot issue citations if they do not [...]]]>

One legislative priority for the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota this year is to increase penalties for injury accidents against cyclists and pedestrians. Proposed laws in Minnesota step up existing penalties.

On the plus side, Minnesota often will charge people under existing rules. Not as much in Alabama, where police officers cannot issue citations if they do not see what occurred, even if drivers are clearly negligent. In this op-ed from the Huntsville Times, Morgan Andriulli speaks out about this flaw, and how it makes the excuse “I didn’t see the cyclist” a free pass for negligent behavior.

I especially like this passage:

This is not a debate about who does or does not have the right to be on the road. Our streets and roads are a public-use facility and it is a privilege to use them that comes with responsibilities, drivers and cyclists alike. This is about protecting vulnerable users from others who have failed in their responsibility to not hit things or kill people. Your driver’s license charges you with that responsibility.

Many traffic calming strategies are aimed at protecting vulnerable users, and are frequently opposed on the basis that they “slow down” motorists. It’s important to remember that roads are public-use, and their use is a privilege. There is not necessarily a “right” to certain speeds or exclusivity.

Accident reconstruction agrees with me, per the Star-Tribune. The driver now has been charged with misdemeanors – failing to [...]]]>

Last fall, when a cyclist was killed in a car-bicycle collision on Summit Avenue near Snelling Avenue, I observed that it was all but impossible for the crash to be the cyclist’s fault due to the street configuration.

Accident reconstruction agrees with me, per the Star-Tribune. The driver now has been charged with misdemeanors – failing to yield the right of way and disobeying a stop sign.

Now, misdemeanors are still pretty weak given the end result. Probably won’t even louse up the driver’s insurance record, save for whatever front fender work he needed post-crash. However, it’s at least an attempt at enforcement.

In each place where the inner service road meets the main throughway of Summit Avenue, there is a stop sign – for the service road. Summit is [...]]]>

The death today of a cyclist on Summit Avenue in St. Paul sadly demonstrates that cyclists keeping to bike lanes – as some motorists urge – simply isn’t an answer.

In each place where the inner service road meets the main throughway of Summit Avenue, there is a stop sign – for the service road. Summit is the ‘main’ road, and thus the only stops along Summit for a vehicle of traffic would be at the major crossings. The cyclist is almost undoubtedly not at fault in the crash described in the Strib – for all the good it does her.

Multiple sections of Minnesota Statute 169 pertain to right-of-way. Being not an officer of the law, or an expert in Minnesota laws as such, I can’t tell you which is especially applicable here. I doubt it’s 169.20, subdivision 4, a personal favorite of mine:

Subd. 4. Vehicle entering roadway. The driver of a vehicle about to enter or cross a roadway
from any place other than a roadway shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles approaching on
the roadway to be entered or crossed.

Usually this is applied to things like alleyways, not service roads.

It’s far more likely that 169.20, Subd. 3 applies:

Subd. 3. Through highway; stop sign. (a) The driver of a vehicle shall stop as required by this chapter at the entrance to a through highway and shall yield the right-of-way to other vehicles
which have entered the intersection from the through highway or which are approaching so closely
on the through highway as to constitute an immediate hazard, but the driver having so yielded may
proceed, and the drivers of all other vehicles approaching the intersection on the through highway
shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicles so proceeding into or across the through highway.
(b) The driver of a vehicle shall likewise stop in obedience to a stop sign, as required herein,
at an intersection where a stop sign is erected at one or more entrances thereto although not a
part of a through highway, and shall proceed cautiously, yielding to vehicles not so obliged to
stop which are within the intersection or approaching so closely as to constitute an immediate
hazard, but may then proceed.

Given the road configuration at the point of the crash, that St. Paul police do not seem to be at least ticketing the driver seems pretty insane. At a minimum, a ticket under the reckless driving statute (169.13) should be possible, even without witnesses. Again, totally not a legal expert, so this is speculation.

What I am, though, is a bicycle educator, and I do think this shows that education matters. Summit is a striped bikeway. There was a stop-sign for the driver, and the cyclist would have been in a legal through lane. There is no low shrubbery through there. Clearly, the SUV driver wasn’t paying attention.

Only education focused on watching for traffic on the road – including bicycle traffic – is really an answer to collisions such as this. How many motorists did you see on cell phones today? How many motorists did you see eating in their car, or putting on makeup at a light, or yelling at the kids in the back seat? None of these behaviors create safe roads for anyone.

According to police, a female guest at Best Western Soldiers Field Tower and Suites, 401 Sixth St. S.W., had used the swimming pool and was showering when she heard a door open about 3:10 p.m. Sunday. She saw a naked man. He ran from the [...]]]>

So, the Rochester Post-Bulletin reports nefariously weird bicycle-related activity in Rochester, Minnesota:

According to police, a female guest at Best Western Soldiers Field Tower and Suites, 401 Sixth St. S.W., had used the swimming pool and was showering when she heard a door open about 3:10 p.m. Sunday. She saw a naked man. He ran from the room, pulled on swim trunks, got on a bicycle and rode through the hallways.

He hit a 76-year-old Michican man and the man’s 33-year-old son, said police Lt. John Edwards. The son chased him, tackled him and held him until police arrived. Edwards said both men suffered minor injuries from being hit by the bike.

Strange days in southern Minnesota!