A ticket at Hains Point

[Bill on Capitol Hill]

Around 10 Friday night, at a stop sign that doesn’t control any traffic at that point (cross street is closed after dark), a Park Police officer decided to make an example of a middle-aged guy on a Bikeshare bike. He ignored a pickup truck that rolled through, then pulled me over as I, in slow Bikeshare-bike fashion, passed right behind (and even had fled to the sidewalk because I heard an engine behind me).

Even lectured me for not signaling my only-turn-one-could-possibly-make turn to the non-traffic.

Watch the video from my helmet cam here.

Topic

[Bill on Capitol Hill]

But my ticket was only $25 — surely a motor vehicle is fined more for running a stop sign?

[Bill on Capitol Hill]

@dasgeh 82962 wrote:

Good point. Though I think something along the lines of “if you choose to operate a multi-ton vehicle with a powerful motor, you have a heightened responsibility to operate such vehicle in a responsible safe way.”

I am really sick of the whole “everyone has an equal role to play here”. We don’t. Drivers of cars are augmenting the power they have on their own, and with that comes more responsibility. Similarly, I think cyclists are augmenting their own power, so should be more responsible than pedestrians. Though the gap in power between cyclists and pedestrians is nothing compared to the chasm between drivers and the rest of us. Moreover, those in cars surround themselves in lots of safety equipment, decreasing their personal incentive to play safely with others. The law should work to put a thumb on this great imbalance by favoring the vulnerable road user.

Yes.

And — as I told Officer Friendly, not that he would have had any way of knowing whether I was lying — I really do stop at stop signs and red lights a lot more than most cyclists I observe. I even understand the desire to rein in the scofflaw pelotons. But the cops need to display the rudimentary mental capacity to understand that these “dangers” cease to be dangers if nobody is being endangered or even slightly inconvenienced.

[mstone]

@Steve O 83057 wrote:

I’ve always wondered what would happen if I told the officer I had no ID?

In the worst case, if he’s in a bad mood, you can be detained until your identity has been established. That’s probably worse than the ticket.

[bobco85]

Man, that sucks to get a ticket at that time of day when there is no cross traffic to worry about. It’s definitely one of those situations where 999 times out of 1000 there’d be no problem with it, but I think the main reason you got pulled over is that it happened right in front of the cop. I can easily imagine the cop saying, “Did he REALLY just do that RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME?” before deciding to pull you over.

This is anecdotal, but in my experience when multiple vehicles break the law (e.g., speeding or running a red), the cop will go after the last car in the line of law-breakers. I think that if you had stopped at the sign, the cop might have gone after the pick-up truck instead.

[Bill on Capitol Hill]

@bobco85 83078 wrote:

Man, that sucks to get a ticket at that time of day when there is no cross traffic to worry about. It’s definitely one of those situations where 999 times out of 1000 there’d be no problem with it, but I think the main reason you got pulled over is that it happened right in front of the cop. I can easily imagine the cop saying, “Did he REALLY just do that RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME?” before deciding to pull you over.

This is anecdotal, but in my experience when multiple vehicles break the law (e.g., speeding or running a red), the cop will go after the last car in the line of law-breakers. I think that if you had stopped at the sign, the cop might have gone after the pick-up truck instead.

I’m tempted to speculate that busting an actual lawbreaker as opposed to screwing over somebody for no reason provides less masturbatory fuel when he gets home, but perhaps I’m being uncharitable.

But seriously, one of the many ironies, as I may have already said, is that I hurried to get out of the way, and onto the sidewalk, precisely because I heard his engine. I don’t normally ride on the sidewalk, but in a practically empty park I didn’t want to be the guy who is slowing down an impatient driver — or, worse, in the path of a driver too drunk or distracted to even know I’m there before plowing me over.

And because I proceeded to the sidewalk, in a very real sense I didn’t “run” the stop sign, even though I didn’t stop. The path I ran to before turning to the sidewalk was a dead patch of asphalt next to a ROAD CLOSED gate.

Not only could the nonexistent cross-traffic never have hit me, but Officer Friendly also couldn’t have, without leaving the roadway.

[PotomacCyclist]

Another problem with the scenario is that the Park Police are some of the biggest offenders when it comes to traffic laws and safe behavior at Hains Point. I think most people who ride there long enough have seen officers speeding in their cars through East Potomac Park in non-emergency situations (no siren or flashing lights), running through the STOP signs as well. They are one of the top safety hazards there. I wish I were kidding about this one.

[Author]

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