What are the Toronto police doing in San Francisco???
The only summons Iāve ever received was for riding my bike on the sidewalk. My wife and I briefly popped up onto the sidewalk to avoid a bus stop, as the buses will definitely just plow you over. It was a completely abandoned sidewalk alongside a very high traffic road, and a particularly deadly spot for cyclists(according to a cyclist accident/death map). The officers who issued the summons to us waited outside the drug store we were headed to for 20-30 minutes for us to come out, then swooped on us. When we explained how many cyclists are killed in busy roads with no bike lanes, and that the sidewalk had been empty, they answered āyou know the other day a kid got his tooth knocked out by a bike on a sidewalk.ā We ended up serving our six hours in the county courthouse with the public urination/open container crowd, and now walk to the drug store.
Muni bus drivers have attacked me with busses on numerous occasions. Walking, biking, driving, doesnāt matter, these people are dangerous. They also like to āblock the boxā causing downtown gridlock.
Based on what evidence because experience says that they do exactly that (or less) in SF? There are many reports of witnesses telling the press and others that the cops didnāt interview them and werenāt interested in doing so for cyclist deaths.
In that case I would expect witnesses to come forward to the press right about now.
I was talking about ALL the other cases, as I was pretty clear about.
I know youāre in denial but cyclists get killed by vehicles in the Bay Area very often and the cops donāt really investigate and publicly blame the cyclist almost every time.
Iām not in denial and Iām aware of the SFPDās poor record, but I think itās a bad idea to hold up an as-yet inconclusive case as a poster child for bicycle safety policy. What if it turns out that yep, he really did get caught in the tracks and thereās no one to blame? Then the discussion gets derailed (sorry) into See, Thereās No Problem, Cyclists Just Need To Be More Responsible and actual problems with traffic design and enforcement get swept under the rug until the next time someone gets killed.
Itās not as if the city hasnāt made significant progress over the past few years, ever since that RWNJ who demanded a full EIR for any bike lane changes got thrown out of court. Undoubtedly getting the cops with the program is the next step. Given the POAās contentious relations with the BoS, itād be wise to use the driest powder, and so far this aināt it.
Aaand thatās probably more than enough local acronyms for a non-local blog. People will think they wandered onto 48 Hills.
Fair enough. I had assumed you werenāt a local!
Iām actually in Oakland but Iām terrified to ride half the time.
Leichhardt council turned it into an artform when I lived there. Many of the roads there are so narrow cars park on the curb anyway, so painting a white line 50cm out from the gutter and then stencilling a comically narrow picture of a bike into it did very little to make me feel secure.
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