Dan H
David,
It's been a number of years but I was "pinched" for failure to use a bike lane.
I'm paraphrasing but the book read something like: "bicycles must use a bike lane when available unless deemed unsafe by local jurisdiction" The judge asked the ticket issuing officer if she knew if the lane was "deemed unsafe by local jurisdiction". The officer replied that she did not know. (she didn't want to write the ticket anyway but was asked to by her T.O. probably because he didn't want to be bothered with traffic court) The case was held over for the judge to do research and the final result was I got my bail back.
The bike lane in question was on Farmington where it is separated from the road by a 8" concrete curb. I argued it was unsafe because the lane crossed many curb cuts and driveways with no way to escape a car pulling into traffic because of the curb.
----- Original Message -----
From: David Auker
To: markjginsberg@yahoo.com
Cc: OBRA
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Fixed Gear Story
Mark,
Can you elaborate on the following:
For one failure to use Bike Lane, We lost.
I'm curious about when we might get pinched for that...
"Gravity, not just a good idea, it's the law,"
David
Mark J. Ginsberg wrote:
The Oregonian got the cases a little wrong.
For all the fixed gear with no hand brake cases, we lost.
For one right turn case, we lost.
For one failure to use Bike Lane, We lost.
For one failure to use bike lane we won
For one failure to use bike lane, after we won one, the state dismissed the next.
For one dangerous vehicle case, we won. (the tire was wearing out-really)
For one illegal turn case, we won.
In all, I think I tried 11 cases yesterday.
My personal opinion is that while the judges don't find fixed gear only bicycles legal, but I think they are. My hope is that there will be a legislative fix this upcoming legislative session.
And for most, if not all, of the cases we won, the officers were overreaching in the charges they were trying to bring.
That said, I know 2 of the officers well, and had met all but one of the officers prior to yesterday and they are all excellent officers, even if we disagree on this one small area of the law.
Mark Ginsberg, Esq.
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