Word on the Streets

Bicycling as an Extreme Sport

The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota is hosting a showing Thursday of “Bicycle Dreams”, a documentary about the 2007 Race Across America.

I bicycle to get around town; Sometime I tour and go 50-80 miles a day. These riders are going 400+ miles for some 10 days. This isn’t my idea of bicycling. It just doesn’t seem fun.

When I saw the movie a couple of years ago it was with odd fascination. This isn’t about bicycling so much as about self-abusive achievements. There are scenes in which the riders are so delirious they can’t stand and don’t seem to really know what’s going on any more, yet are sent back out to ride some more. Every few year a rider is killed during the race and one death occurred during filming of this movie.

Still, the movie is becoming part of cycling lore and culture and may be worth a look.

Here’s the Bicycle Alliance page wherein is a link to buy tickets (I expect you could just show up and by a ticket too);

posted by | February 08, 2012

Enforcement and Diversion

As a volunteer for the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, I recently attended two meetings of the Enforcement, Education, and Encouragement subcommittee of the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC).

Enforcement

The December meeting was at the 1^st precinct, where the committee heard from police officers from both Minneapolis and Metro Transit. Both the police and the committee discussed what could be done beyond issuing citations for violations. Ticketing doesn’t necessarily change behavior and does not address the education component.

An officer gives a tour to a subcommittee of the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee

One barrier to enforcing the law appears to be disagreements beat officers have with bicycle-related infrastructure and traffic statutes. Also, officers have discretion on when to ticket (for example, they may choose not to cite a first time tourist parked in a First Avenue bike lane). Officers also lack confidence that citations will be upheld by the courts; although research not available during the meeting revealed that half of all citations go uncontested, and beat officers are likely only exposed to contested citations, which may impact their perception of the judiciary.

Diversion

After hearing challenges of the beat officers in the field, the idea of a diversion program surfaced. To help shed light on this idea, the subcommittee invited Mary Ellen Heng, from the Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office, and DeAnn Halberg, from the 4^th Judicial District Hearing Office, to discuss how bicycle-related infractions are handled in court and how a diversion program might work.

The path of a traffic ticket

Typically people who wish to contest their ticket—whether bicycle or car head to the hearing office. Depending on the case, the fine may be reduced, paid in full, or moved forward to the attorney’s office. In the court setting, sometimes the defendant agrees to a diversion program or the case may get sent to a referee like Linda Gallant, who eventually rules on the matter.

Diversion 101

Mary Ellen and DeAnn helped the committee better understand diversion programs and Rebecca Gomez, with the Bike/Walk Ambassadors, provided information regarding programs in other parts of the country. Bend, OR and Tucson, AZ have designed diversion programs with their county attorneys and local judiciary that are specifically targeted toward bicyclists. Bicyclists charged with a traffic infraction are able to take a safety education class rather than pay a fine for their offense. The programs often work when a person can’t afford the fine. but others will simply pay the fine instead.

Non-certifiable and certifiable citations

Certifiable offenses go on your driving record and non-certifiable offenses do not go on your driving record. Most bicycle-related infractions for bicyclists are non-certifiable and although they still require a fine (roughly $100 depending on the offense) they do not carry the same “stick” as a certifiable offense. It is unknown whether or not diversion programs would be popular for those dealing with non-certifiable offenses.

Next steps

Meeting leader Jim Skoog asked the two: “What do you need from us if we were to move this forward?” Mary Ellen asked for a more concrete proposal and then envisioned the city and county meeting with MPD to get their buy in and then get a judge on board.

“We’re open to this under the right circumstances. The best idea is to deliver the choice pre-court to give the individual their option. And remember, we have a model for this. You don’t have to reinvent it.” –Mary Ellen Heng

Other ideas surfaced:

Someone at the table floated the idea of giving an officer the power to give a ticket and the diversion class at the time of citation.

To keep costs down, could the Minnesota bicycle coalition help carry out the execution of the program?

Final thoughts

Minneapolis Bike Coordinator Shaun Murphy felt the diversion idea is worth exploring and plans to draft an enforcement/education plan and review it with Sergeant Nelson of the MPD. He envisioned a small scale enforcement operation, It would be positioned as providing information and public safety—not about issuing tickets.

Whenever a bicycle related story hits the news, he noted, it stirs great passion on both sides, which hinders Minneapolis’ ability to move biking forward as a city initiative. The idea is to help educate, not penalize. Lastly, Sean mentioned that a crash report involving cyclists and cars is in process. When completed, this could be the targeted location for the enforcement campaign.

posted by | January 31, 2012

What' up at the BAC? Bike lanes

As a volunteer for the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, I hear a lot about the great value of the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee. Essentially, this a group of very smart, passionate individuals appointed by the City Council and Park Board who are very engaged in “grasstops” advocacy as advisers to the Mayor and City Council. Eager to learn more about what they’re working on, I dropped into yesterday’s monthly meeting. Here are a few highlights.

Central Avenue in NE Minneapolis. Hopefully this will be a prettier picture for bicyclists once summer rolls around. Source: City of Minneapolis

Bike Lanes on Central Avenue: As at the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, this continues to be a very hot discussion topic among the Bicycle Advisory Committee. In a nutshell, MNDOT will be repaving Central Avenue between 27th Avenue NE and the Central Avenue Bridge/Mississippi River this summer. While there seems to be agreement that bike lanes are feasible between 27th and Broadway Avenues (with the possible exception of one short stretch near 18th), negotiations continue over whether to add bike lanes from Broadway Avenue to the Central Avenue Bridge/Mississippi River. The Bicycle Advisory Committee passed a resolution supporting near-continuous bike lanes on Central Avenue, but also recognizes that this option would necessitate some removal of parking. If removing parking in a few blocks is not possible, the Bicycle Advisory Committee supports sharrows instead for these blocks with bike lanes on the rest of the stretch that will be repaved. More to come soon in an upcoming blog.

Intercity Trail: The Bicycle Advisory Committee also heard from a representative of Three Rivers Park District on a valuable connection to their regional trail system being planned for South Minneapolis and Bloomington. The link they are studying would span from Lake Nokomis to the Mall of America and include a crossing over Crosstown Boulevard, a new bridge over 494, and a trail running parallel to Cedar Avenue. This project is currently in the conceptual stage and Park District planners are paying particular attention to the design of the trail that would parallel Cedar Avenue and 58th Street. At this stage, they are considering an array of designs. The Bicycle Advisory Committee will review these designs and weigh in with a recommendation soon.

Police and Judiciary Meetings: Members of the Bicycle Advisory Committee recently met with members of the City’s Police Department and judges to discuss enforcement of traffic laws among bicyclists and motorists alike. As a result of this discussion, a top priority of one sergeant is to have a targeted enforcement campaign (including PR, education, and more) in a specific Minneapolis region that focuses on preventing car-bike crashes. On the judicial side, one point of discussion was the potential for a diversion program, which would involve removing or reducing the amount that a bicyclist is fined for a violation if the cyclist takes a class focused on safety.

Want to hear more about what your Bicycle Advisory Committee is doing? Drop into one of their monthly meetings. They are held the last Wednesday of each month, 4-6pm, in City Hall’s Room 333.

posted by | January 26, 2012