Re: Bicycle 'crackdown' continues, cyclists fear it may be permanent

[About Fucking Time Too]

In article <sss73q$mnqj$1...@news.freedyn.de>
governo...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> All you biking assholes who put cars on road diets thought you'd get away with it.
> Fuck you. Laws apply to everyone including you bastards.
>

It seems reports that the “bicycle crackdown” ended were
premature.

Enforcement targeting bike riders along the popular east-west
cycle route “The Wiggle” are back in force, bicyclists tell the
San Francisco Examiner.

Morgan Fitzgibbons, a cyclist and member of The City’s
Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee, said he’s seen enforcement
return. “It’s been almost weekly,” Fitzgibbons said.

Targeting cyclists with tickets was a renewed effort from the
summer, when Park Station Capt. John Sanford controversially
started a “crackdown” on cyclists who roll through stop signs or
run red lights began along the Panhandle.

Soon after, Supervisor John Avalos proposed a “bike yield law,”
that would make ticketing cyclists who roll through stop signs
safely a low enforcement priority for police. That law will be
reviewed in a Board of Supervisors committee next week.

When Sanford announced the end of the enforcement action in
August he told the community “we can revisit it at any time.”

At a police commission meeting Wednesday night, Sanford verified
the bike enforcement’s back. “It’s exactly what I said to the
community,” he said, “that we could resume enforcement at any
time.”

Bike advocates claim the enforcement actions target cyclists who
pose no physical danger to pedestrians or themselves. One of
those cyclists is Katrina Sostek.

Sostek said she was ticketed for rolling through a stop sign at
Church and Duboce streets Nov. 30, but was traveling slowly and
safely. She showed a photo of her ticket to the Examiner. The
officer wrote her speed was less than five miles per hour. “I
wasn’t endangering anyone,” she said. “I slowed down, looked
both ways, and went through the intersection cautiously.”

Sanford said he will task his officers with ticketing cyclists
when Park Station receives complaints of unsafe cyclists. He
also said only 1 percent of all traffic enforcement in The City
is of cyclists. According to the San Francisco Municipal
Transportation Agency, bicycling represents 4 percent of all
private trips locally.

Chris Cassidy, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition spokesperson,
said the San Francisco Police Department should focus
enforcement on autos, as they’re the source of the most
dangerous collisions.

Fitzgibbons favors SFPD bringing enforcement levels in line with
the number of cycling trips in The City, with a caveat.

“Please, only [ticket] the ones who are being dangerous on the
road,” he said, “Do not waste your time ticketing people being
perfectly safe.”

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/bicycle-crackdown-continues-
cyclists-fear-it-may-be-permanent/article_c14cce45-bdbe-5f4e-
a567-cd6d6d9b8c57.html#tncms-source=block-contextual-fallback