ChipSeal

Police Contact

2011-07-13T09:32:00.001-05:00

I was stopped on the way home last night at about 10:15.

I will hide the officer's identity to shield him from public ridicule. I will call him "Officer Fife".

Officer Fife works for the Richardson Police Department.

I was traveling south on Plano Road approaching Beltline when he pulled me over.

"You must have a blinking red rear light to operate on the roadway at night. Get off the road and onto the sidewalk."

"I am not required to have a rear light on my bicycle."

"Like all vehicles, you have to have a rear light. You must ride on the sidewalk. If there is no sidewalk, you must ride on the other side of the road against traffic."

"There is no law requiring such."

"It is a City of Richardson law."

"Does city law supersede state law?"

"Our laws conform to state law."

"Could you show me the statute, please?"

"I'm not going to argue with you. Do I have to write you a ticket?"

"For what violation?"

"Very well, show me your ID."

"I have no ID on me."

"Take your bicycle onto the sidewalk and out of the street. I'll deal with you there."

So I walked my bicycle to the sidewalk and lay it down. I waited while he got his notebook out.

"Name?" I told him my name.

"Driver's licence number?" I told him I had no driver's licence.

"No driver's licence? Any ID issued by Texas?" "None" I said.

"Birthday? Address?" I gave them to him.

With that he retreated to his squad car. After a few minutes he returned.

"I don't have time to deal with stuff like this, so I'm letting you go with a verbal warning."

"We disagree on what the requires of me."

"I told you what the law says."

"What does Sec 551.104 say?"

"I'm not going to argue with you. Stay on the sidewalk!"

"Do you just make up laws?"

He stalked off in a angry huff.

I waited until he was out of sight, and then I continued on my way in a lawful manner, as I had before. I was delayed about 15 minutes.

Sec. 551.104. SAFETY EQUIPMENT. (a) A person may not operate a bicycle unless the bicycle is equipped with a brake capable of making a braked wheel skid on dry, level, clean pavement.
(b) A person may not operate a bicycle at nighttime unless the bicycle is equipped with:
(1) a lamp on the front of the bicycle that emits a white light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet in front of the bicycle; and
(2) on the rear of the bicycle:
(A) a red reflector that is:
(i) of a type approved by the department; and
(ii) visible when directly in front of lawful upper beams of motor vehicle headlamps from all distances from 50 to 300 feet to the rear of the bicycle; or
(B) a lamp that emits a red light visible from a distance of 500 feet to the rear of the bicycle.

Deja Vu All Over Again

2011-04-19T21:42:00.005-05:00

Sadly, another VC hit from-behind wreck happened here in Dallas, this time to a middle-aged couple on a tandem.

The collision happened within 200 feet of the crash I reported last month, but this time in broad daylight.

The Stoker on the tandem suffered a sprained ankle and a deep two inch gash that required ten stitches to close. The Captain was bruised.

Surprisingly, both are expected to fully recover in spite the fact that neither were wearing a helmet. The tandem's rear wheel will be fine when the rim and spokes are replaced.

The driver of the car may have been distracted by one or more of the five children who were her passengers. She locked up the brakes on her car before hitting the tandem.

The tandem was traveling about ten miles per hour centered in the right travel lane on a road with a forty MPH speed limit. The motorist struck the bicycle on her license plate- perfectly centered in the middle of her bumper.

Because she had no car insurance, her car was impounded.

City assets involved in this incident was one EMT ambulance with three EMT personnel, one fire engine with three firemen, six police units and six police officers.

VC Overtake Crash in Dallas

2011-03-20T07:28:00.003-05:00

Further investigation into the recent overtaking collision of a cyclist in Dallas reveals that, contrary to the opinion expressed by a "trained crash investigator", operating on the shoulder at the time in question would have most likely resulted in much more severe injuries to the cyclist.

The cyclist was traveling south on Buckner, centered in the right lane, having just crossed over I-30 and the highest point of the bridge. Due to gusty headwinds, he was traveling around 10 MPH. It was 11:15 at night, the cyclist was traveling home from work, a 22 mile commute.

The motorist A (who struck the cyclist) was traveling in the right lane. Motorist B, merged right into him from the center lane, cutting him off. Motorist A swerved right onto the shoulder to avoid a collision. Motorist B, upon seeing the cyclist directly in front of him, swerved left to pass him, avoiding a sideswipe by inches. His left tires were about two feet into the next lane as he passed the cyclist.

When asked, the cyclist allowed that the perceived high speed of motorist B may have been due to the close proximity of him when he went by and not empirically true.

Motorist A saw the cyclist after he began to re-enter the roadway, and he swerved right in a belated attempt to avoid him. The cyclist was struck in his right calf by the PT Cruiser's front bumper, and his right hip, arm and shoulder bounced against the left window post, breaking the mirror off of the car. The cyclist then landed on his right side, banging his head on the pavement. Motorist A stopped to render aid and call for help, as did many a passerby. Motorist B fled.

Motorist A was operating without insurance.

The Dallas Police Officer interviewed for this piece described himself as a "trained crash investigator". He cited many reasons why it was not prudent for a cyclist to operate on that roadway. "It is a high-speed road", (Signed MSL 40 MPH), "It was late at night on St. Patrick's Day", "Two out of three people in that area are intoxicated that time of night", "He was obscured by the crest of the bridge for following traffic", and a few others.

He insisted that a better route for a cyclist was to travel on the improved shoulder. He was unswayed when it was pointed out that it was debris strewn and still covered with sand from the winter storms. It has ceramic reflectors placed in diagonal lines every twenty feet to indicate it is not a travel lane. The chances of cyclist striking debris and crashing or damaging his tires is heightened by the darkness.

When asked; "What is the cyclist to do when the shoulder ends?" He had no answer. (The shoulder ends when the bridge ends. There are no signs to warn either cyclists of this or to warn motorists that cyclists must re-enter the roadway.)

He insisted for a while that a cyclist must operate to the right edge of the roadway at all times, until he read for himself the actual statute. He didn't notice that a further right position would have almost certainly resulted in graver injuries.

When he was asked how long a couch in the right lane would last before being hit, he said it would be hit "Within minutes." This reveals his low opinion of the driving skills of Texas drivers, despite the pervasive evidence to the contrary.

As for his objection that the cyclist was obscured by the crown in the bridge, this is entirely speculative on his part. The cyclist had a Planet Bike Superflash tail light about three feet above the pavement, and numerous reflectors both above and below it. Sight lines are more than ample for vehicles operating within the speed limit.

He then retreated to "It's just common sense" argumentation and insisted that the cyclist was a contributory cause of the accident. "He may have a right to the roadway, but he would still be dead."

It is not yet known if any citations will be issued.

Image courtesy of Keri Caffry

Dallas Cyclist Struck By Car

2011-03-19T14:11:00.002-05:00

March 17, 2011, Dallas.

At about 11:30 PM a local man on a bicycle was struck by a car on Buckner Blvd. while crossing the I-30 freeway. Witnesses said he was traveling in the right lane rather than on the wide shoulder, and that he had blinking lights and reflectors.

A "trained crash investigator" from the Dallas Police Department said the blame for the accident rests with the cyclist. "It's just common sense; You are begging for trouble if you ride in the roadway when there is a good shoulder nearby."

The cyclist was taken to Baylor hospital and released. The motorist was shaken up but refused medical treatment at the scene.

Judge Calvert Sentences Mr. Bates

2011-02-21T04:38:00.000-06:00

From the transcript, this is the sentencing comment made by Judge Calvert at my "Reckless Driving" trial last August.

I’m sympathetic to the defendant’s blight. In fact, what he was doing was in many ways very admirable, trying to get a job, exercising every means at his disposal to try to regain gainful employment, and utilizing the resources that he had available to him at the time to provide that he had available to him at the time to provide for his own needs without relying upon other people. And so in many respects his conduct’s admirable. And in many respects, it’s lawful. As the parties were arguing and even some of the evidence earlier, trying to think of an example that might apply and I don’t know that this is a good example, but this is the one that came to mind, is that it’s not unlawful for a boy to swing a bat. In fact, it’s good for them, it’s good exercise, it’s good for them to participate in athletics and be in team sports and things of that nature.

But there are times when swinging a bat can become more dangerous, get into a crowded room or you get into circumstances, the swinging of the bat circumstances can change in such a way that if you put other people at peril even if you’re not at risk of being hurt, they might be injured by the way that you’re doing something that otherwise is completely lawful.

And there are times when it can even go beyond that where it’s reckless to where it could even be construed as knowing that there’s a high likelihood that somebody would get hurt if you continue that type of behavior and at some point, some people can infer by your conduct that you’re intentionally putting other people at risk, so that you could be accused of assault and even at times aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with a piece of wood that otherwise completely lawful to be utilizing. So there’s a spectrum there that has to be taken into consideration. And there needs to be good judgement utilized by people not only with regard to their own safety but to the safety of others. And you may be right. It may have been safer for you under some circumstances to ride in the middle of the roadway, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t create a hazard for other people at times. And it may even jeopardize your own safety under certain circumstances. You have to take into consideration the safety of other persons and their property under those circumstances.

In this case, according to a note that was left by the clerk, the court costs, due to the subpoenas that were issued, are in the neighborhood of $512.10. It will be the judgement of the Court 13 days in jail, a $100 fine plus the court costs and give him credit for time served. Five extra days will be applied to the balance of the fines and court costs reducing the total by $500. Any remaining balance will be due to be paid.

The Judge Makes His Ruling

2011-02-18T04:52:00.004-06:00

This is the comments made by Judge Calvert at the conclusion of my trial.

A. GENE CALVERT, JR. : The defendant certainly has a right to operate a bicycle on a roadway. There are some restrictions upon the operation of a bicycle. There’s certainly roadways where it’s not permissible at all even if you’re operating on a permissible roadway, it has to be done in a safe manner.

The question in this case is whether or not your conduct on the date and time in question should be considered reckless. The fact that you were able to safely navigate the roadways on prior occasions, as your attorney pointed out, is not really relevant. Times and conditions and circumstances of the operation of a vehicle change. Circumstances change with patterns of traffic, visibility, numerous other conditions.

On the occasion in question, taken into account the totality of the circumstances that have been testified here today, there was a high degree of concern with regard to the way that you were operating the motor vehicle -- I’m sorry -- the bicycle in the presence of motor vehicles. And as such, officers were dispatched to your location to discuss their concerns with you and you disregarded their instructions and their request and commenced to return to operate your bicycle on the roadway.

It appeared to be at least in the center of the roadway and at times, maybe even be closer to the center stripe for a portion of that time. I’m sympathetic with the fact that there’s not designated biking lanes on enough of our roadways to accommodate a bicycle traveler. It would certainly do a lot to relieve a lot of the concerns we have regarding numerous issues including, physical health, obesity, and consumption of oil and petroleum products. However, that’s not really part of the decision I’m making today.

Even though it may have been permissible for you to be in the right lane of traffic, operating the motor vehicle or your bicycle in the presence of motor vehicles, at this particular occasion, you were presenting a hazard to other vehicles. And you may not have been aware of it up until that point, but once the officers made you aware of the concerns that have been reported and the numerous calls that had been made regarding the circumstances on that day, for to you disregard that warning and return back into that same state of operating your bicycle in the presence of motor vehicles on that roadway on that day it constituted willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.

And so based on that, I am going to find you guilty of reckless driving.

Ms. Barnes Closing Rebuttal

2011-02-16T10:30:00.003-06:00

This is Ms. Barnes’ rebuttal to Mr. Jones’s closing statement.

Thank you, Judge. I think we’ve established through testimony that he has the right to ride his bicycle on the roadway. I don’t think we’re contesting that. I’m certainly not contesting that the roadway is 12 feet as Mr. Bates, I guess, measured it, your honor. But we’re here today because a bicyclist on a roadway is not only afforded the same rights as any other vehicle, but he is also held accountable for the duties that he is responsible for. And he’s responsible for driving in a manner or riding a bicycle in a manner that is not reckless and that’s exactly why we’re here. Recklessness, according to caselaw, reckless driving means a deliberate and conscience indifference to the safety of others.

And the Court can infer based upon the testimony and the evidence presented that, that’s exactly what happened here. He’s been warned and he’s admitted on the stand when Officer Zapata said, for your own safety, sir, for the safety of other people, please don’t get back on the roadway. And he walked off and then before he could open up the door to get in his car, he sees that he goes right back on the roadway, right back on it.

His actions, his actions show nothing but a deliberate and conscience indifference. And we are here today because of that. Nobody says he doesn’t have a right to be on the roadway, but he got on the roadway at a time and manner in which his action of being on the roadway was reckless and he disregarded the safety of others and he disregarded the safety of himself and he continued to do it. And I ask that you hold him responsible, Judge. Hold him accountable.

Mr. Jones Closing Argument

2011-02-14T04:23:00.001-06:00

I am pleased to share with you the closing argument of my attorney, Mr. Jones.

May it please the Court. I know it’s a little outmoded. When I was in law school we had a saying, the law is the law. And that’s our case in a nutshell. Except as provided in subsection B, a person operating motor vehicle, the exceptions are plain, less than, a lane that’s less than 14 feet in width and does not have a designated bike lane adjacent to that lane.

Evidence is uncontradicted, 12 feet, not 14; therefore, he had the right. Actually he had the duty, legally, to be in that lane of traffic; or, too narrow for a bicycle and a motor vehicle to safely travel side-by-side. Again the evidence is uncontradicted. It’s not safe if he stays over to the right hand side. His statement – really the police officers didn’t testify to the contrary. I doubt that they would if they had been asked. The base fact is 551.103 says he has to operate that in that lane of traffic. It is true that the statute, the shoulder statute says that he has an or option. But he explained to the Court why he does not do so.

Rumble strips are put there for a reason because cars drift off to that side when drivers lose their attention. He didn’t go out there with any intention to slow people down. And he certainly didn’t go out there with any intention to draw an accident. In fact, in all of this time riding on this highway, he’s never seen an accident occur. So it can hardly be called reckless indifference or some kind of wonton disregard when his common experience is that there is no such accident. I submit to the court that it is simply a matter of law.

Ms. Barnes Closing Statement

2011-02-09T04:11:00.001-06:00

I have in my hands the transcript of my "reckless driving" trial of August 17 last year. I hope to have the entire transcript digitized shortly.

Here is the closing argument made by Ms. Christin Barnes, Assistant County and District Attorney.

Thank you. Judge, like I stated in my opening statement, we were here we are here to hold Mr. Bates accountable for his actions and his choice. And as he stated in his own testimony, the limitations under the statute don’t apply to a bicycle in terms of riding or driving on an improved shoulder. He has access to that improved shoulder. And we’re talking about someone making a choice, a deliberate choice, when the improved shoulder is available, to instead, ride on the main road of traffic on a very heavy trafficked highway.

He has been asked, told, by officers on several occasions, do not ride in the middle of the roadway. And there’s a reason for that. And that reason is that it is dangerous. That is common sense. It is dangerous, not just for himself, but for the other motorists on the roadway. And because the officers repeatedly told him, Mr. Bates, don’t get back on the road, he made a very conscious and deliberate disregard or indifference for the safety of those around him.

It is common sense that when a bicyclist rides on a roadway in the middle of a very heavy lane of traffic at night time, it is common sense that harder to see a bicyclist. It is common sense that he is riding at a speed very well below the speed limit. It is common sense, as the video showed, so many vehicles traveling adjacent or aside to him at a speed that was high rate of 65 miles an hour or above, and yet he thinks it’s safe for him to just continue to do what he does.

We know from the testimony from Lonnie Creager, who’s an Ennis firefighter, that he witnessed, and the reason for his call to 911, is that he witnessed Mr. Bates riding on his bicycle. Before he saw that bicycle, he saw vehicles, including an eighteen-wheeler, make an abrupt stop. And his testimony was it was scary what he saw. And as he made his way around the eighteen-wheeler, he saw right in front of it, Mr. Bates in the middle of the roadway traveling and that eighteen-wheeler had to come to an abrupt stop to avoid colliding with him, to avoid swerving from him, to avoid having an accident.

His action, for the sake of principle to ride in the middle of this roadway when he could easily choose the improved shoulder to travel, is nothing but downright dangerous. And the warnings and the pleadings and the requests and the orders from police officers for his safety and for the safety of others have been disregarded by Mr. Bates, completely and totally disregarded.

So I ask that you find him guilty based upon the evidence that has been submitted to the court because he has, he has driven recklessly. And as I stated in the opening statement, Your Honor, a bicycle is considered a vehicle. And it is defined under the Transportation Code as a device in or by which a person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a public highway other than a device used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks. And it falls within that definition of a vehicle, Your Honor. And reckless driving statute does not say, specifically, it applies to a motor vehicle, but to a vehicle which includes a Bicycle.

And in this case, I think it’s imperative that we’re here today in front of this Court because we want to protect our citizens in our community. And whether Mr. Bates recognizes it or not or wants it or not, we’re going to try to protect him. The evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that he did drive in a reckless manner and he did show a conscious indifference and he did make a choice that was deliberate and I ask that you find him guilty.

More Ennis Peril

2011-02-07T04:41:00.000-06:00

The city of Ennis has informed me that they are going to move ahead and prosecute me for the March 2010 arrest.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place on February 24. So far the charge remains "Failure to Keep Right". I anticipate the charge to be changed before too long.

From Waco to Eastland

2011-02-03T10:33:00.001-06:00

I spoke to my attorney about my case last week.

My appeal has been moved from Waco to the Eleventh Court of Appeals in Eastland Texas. The reason is to balance the workload among the various courts.

This is a blessing for our cause. Eastland is 130 miles east of Dallas, which makes the journey to the courthouse less arduous for me. But more significantly, Eastland has a reputation for being more conservative than other appeals courts.

Neither our legal team nor the State have filed any briefs on this case, but that will change soon. There is no date set yet for the trial either, but it is expected to be put on the courts calendar somewhere between July and September.

Lastly, the transcript of the trial will be in our hands soon, and I will be able to share parts of it with you.

What a Busy Year It Has Been For Me.

2010-12-23T10:30:00.000-06:00

Here in Dallas, (The best city to get around on a bicycle.) I’ve had a lot of changes.

I have been working steadily which has kept me away from the keyboard most of the time.

And, to my surprise, I have developed a romantic interest in my old age. This too has distracted me from this forum.

Ms. Crystal Denise Trammel and I are engaged to be married this spring.

New Trial Date Set

2010-07-28T00:07:00.003-05:00

My new trial date is August 17 at 2 p.m.

It will be held at County Court at Law 2,
109 S. Jackson street, Waxahachie.

Trial Date Changed From July 29

2010-07-20T01:56:00.002-05:00

A new prosecutor is taking over Ellis County DA Finney's cases, and she has a jury trial already set in a different court on July 29th. I will post the new date as soon as I am notified by the court of when it is scheduled.

That said, my trial will be held before the honorable Judge A. Gene Calvert, Jr., At the County Court At Law Two, Ellis County, 109 S. Jackson St., Waxahachie, 75165

Because Seeing is Believing

2010-07-18T10:10:00.002-05:00

I have changed my position on using mirrors whilst cycling.

My position has been for years that unless you were astride a recumbent, or had impaired neck movement, mirrors were a silly distraction to the task at hand.

The reason for this is that the perils that face a cyclist are far and away predominantly ahead of him. We face hazards in the form of road surface impairments, obstructions and debris, and the turning movements of other traffic.

My feeling has been that until one is preparing for a movement that will potentially cross the path of following traffic, knowing what traffic behind you is doing is of no concern.

This not always true.

I now recommend the use of mirrors for cyclists

When one first takes to the roadway with a defensive position that uses body language to communicate his presence, he ought to use a mirror.

I can describe how traffic reacts to the presence of a slow moving vehicle, but few who are new to driving their bicycles in the traffic lane will really be confident of that until they observe it for themselves.

So when you grow weary of the close passes and the near misses of suddenly opened doors, right-hooks and left crosses and begin to assert your right to the roadway as an equal user of the public roadway, use a mirror.

Count the times you nearly get "runned over". (You might be surprised to see that it never happens!)

Observe how overtaking traffic yields to your presence. Take note of the delays you create. You will soon learn that any such expectation is simply a myth.

When you get tired of watching for such things that never happen, and have proved to yourself how even high speed traffic have no difficulties in overtaking you, you can put the mirrors away.

Because then you will have seen for yourself that the perils you face are in front of you, not behind you.

Bicycle Rules For Motorists TDH

2010-04-25T06:32:00.004-05:00

1. A bicycle is a vehicle and any person riding a bicycle has all of the rights
and responsibilities as a driver of a vehicle.

2. Bicyclists are required to ride as far right in the lane as possible only
when the lane can be safely shared by a car and a bicycle, side by side.

Even then, there are certain conditions that allow a bicyclist to take the full
lane such as:

a. The person is overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in
the same direction.

b. The person is preparing for a left turn at an intersection or onto a private
road or driveway.

c. There are unsafe conditions in the roadway such as fixed or moving
objects, parked or moving vehicles, pedestrians, animals, potholes, or
debris.

d. The lane is of substandard width making it unsafe for a car and a bicycle
to safely share the lane side by side. When this is the case, it is best
for the cyclist to take the full lane whether riding single file or two
abreast.

3. Bicyclists are not restricted to the right lane of traffic. One-way, multi-
laned streets are one example. Another instance is when the bicyclist is
changing lanes to make a left turn. The bicyclist should follow the same path
any other vehicle would take traveling the same direction.

4. Motorists should merge with bicycle traffic when preparing for a right
hand-turn. Avoid turning directly across the path of bicycle traffic.

Common Motorists Mistakes

1. The most common motorist caused car-bicycle collision is a motorist
turning left in the front of oncoming bicycle traffic. Oncoming bicycle traffic is
often overlooked or its speed misjudged.

2. The second most common motorist caused car-bicycle collision is a
motorist turning right across the path of the bicycle traffic. The motorist
should slow and merge with the bicycle traffic for a safe right-hand turn.

3. The third most common motorist caused car-bicycle collision is a
motorist pulling away from a stop sign and failing to yield right-of-way to bicycle
cross traffic. At intersections, right-of-way rules apply equally to motor
vehicles and bicycles.

TEXAS DRIVERS HANDBOOK
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY
Revised October 2008

Part of Chapter 13 of the Texas Driver Handbook

2010-04-23T09:18:00.006-05:00

COMMON MOTORIST MISTAKES THAT BICYCLE RIDERS SHOULD
KNOW

1. The most common motorist caused car-bicycle collision is a motorist
turning left in the face of oncoming bicycle traffic. Oncoming bicycle traffic is
often overlooked or its speed misjudged.

2. The second most common motorist caused car-bicycle collision is a
motorist turning right across the path of the bicycle traffic. The motorist
should slow down and merge with the bicycle traffic for a safe right-hand
turn.

3. The third most common motorist caused car-bicycle collision is a
motorist pulling away from a stop sign, failing to yield right-of-way to bicycle
cross traffic. At intersections, right-of-way rules apply equally to motor vehicles and bicycles.

Page 13-3

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

2010-04-19T10:21:00.008-05:00

Sec.　541.302. (15)　　"Shoulder" means the portion of a highway that is:
(A)　　adjacent to the roadway;
(B)　　designed or ordinarily used for parking;
(C)　　distinguished from the roadway by different design, construction, or marking; and
(D) xxnot intended for normal vehicular travel.

Because an improved shoulder is defined the by the law this way, it has certain consequences that materially impact the safety of a cyclist who may wish to operate on the shoulder.

Because improved shoulders are "not intended for normal vehicular travel", warning signs that would inform highway users of a change in the disposition of the shoulder are not erected.

In the photo above, the roadway’s shape is changing from a median in the center to a "suicide" shared left turn lane. A warning sign has been erected to inform travelers of this change.

There are no signs informing travelers that the "Ennis City’s mandatory bike lane" is coming to an end and to be alert for cyclists entering the travel lane.

The posted speed limit for this section of the roadway is 45 MPH.　　　　　

A Close Call.

2010-04-12T14:40:00.001-05:00

I was traveling home in unusual weather. I was fighting a headwind.

I had just turned north on FM 1722 away from our airport. I could hear that there was some traffic behind me waiting to clear the sharp turn in the road before overtaking me.

As usual, I paid them no mind. It is, after all, their responsibility to overtake slower traffic in a safe manner and with due care.

The engine pitch changed as they accelerated to overtake me.

I suddenly became alarmed at their behavior. They were passing me on the right!

There is no improved shoulder here, and it is a steep drop off into the ditch. He is overtaking me fast, his engine screaming as he floors it! I can only imagine him losing control and skidding into me!

I glance over my right shoulder to see which way to dodge.

There is no car in the ditch. Or behind me…

As I glanced behind me in alarm, I realize that the “traffic” I heard is a single engine airplane taking off from the airport and climbing over my head!
I had a good chuckle at how my hearing and traffic “bias” fooled me!

Local Road Work

2010-04-07T15:20:00.004-05:00

For months it looked like this. Yikes!

Ennis City road department has completed their resurfacing project on Kaufman Avenue.

They have done a very good job!

There is a special delight in driving on smooth pavement.

It sports four 12 foot lanes and a center common turn lane in the 35 mph section. I am allowed to travel on this part of the roadway.

It has four 12 foot lanes with disappearing shoulders in the transition between 45 mph and 35 mph section.

It has not been established where along here I am allowed to leave the shoulder and begin operating on the roadway.

There is no indication of where along here I am required to abandon the roadway for the shoulder. (Or is that a “designated bike lane”?)

I am not allowed to travel on the roadway along these part according to local police, the local prosecutor and the local court, contrary to State law. Go figure!

Nemo and Daisy

2010-04-06T13:01:00.003-05:00

On one of my common routes, I have a pair of friends; Nemo and Daisy.

They would always bark at me, and I would bark back (In a friendly way!) as they ran down the road pacing me. The always “chased” me from their side of the fence. They had about a quarter mile of frontage to gallop across.

The only problem they ever caused me was that their friendly barking would alert one of the dogs down the way that I was coming. (Casey) I could usually sneak by him going east, but Nemo and Daisy would give me up every time I went west.

Casey, however, has learned to keep his distance with only one application of my squirt bottle. We get along fine now.

Encouraged by my friends on the internet, one day I stopped (Yes, stopped! Gasp!) to take a picture of Nemo and Daisy, but they wanted to make friends. I now stop in for an enthusiastic hello whenever I happen by.

I met their owner a while ago. While I was petting them he came out to see if they had been menacing me. I assured him it was most likely the other way around. Thus I finally learned their names!

Daisy is paranoid and shy of automobiles. She is uncomfortable on the road side of the fence when a car is coming by. Their owner said she had been hit once. From her behavior, I’d say she didn’t like the experience. For that reason I roll up the driveway to the gate to pet them.

Nemo is the dominant one, and they stick together. So I noticed when Daisy greeted me by herself a few weeks ago. And then, after a short absence, Nemo was back. But he was limping now. His back leg was mangled. Only he knows how. I was told it is a permanent injury.

Despite only three healthy legs, he is almost as fast as before now, but he abandons the chase sooner.

For these two, life on my side of the fence has been harsh to them. I enjoy stopping and showing them there is some kindness over here as well.

What Codger Said

2010-03-31T15:11:00.002-05:00

My road bike making nice with fixies.

“You believe that ChipSeal has a right to the road, but disagree with his decision to exercise that right? What good is a right, if the tyranny of others prevents us from exercising it?”

-Codger

My single speed waiting for me to be done at the library

Impede Traffic, Pull Over a Cyclist!

2010-03-22T15:17:00.005-05:00

Graphic courtesy of Keri Caffrey

Friday March 19, 2010. Approximately 13:30 hours. Ennis PD traffic stop.

Cause: The Patrol Officer preferred the cyclist use a different route.

Result: Cyclist allowed to proceed after a consultation with headquarters.

Particulars:

The cyclist was traveling west-bound on East Ennis Avenue having just crossed Kaufman Avenue, on his way home with groceries. He was pulled over in the 200 block in heavy traffic. Because there was no place to pull off the roadway, they blocked the right travel lane for the time of the stop.

The highway has four 12 foot travel lanes. The posted speed limit is 30 MPH.

The Officer initiated the traffic stop from the left lane. When he “whooped” his siren, the cyclist did a head check to see the patrol car in the left lane trailing the cyclist by less than a car length. There was another car, directly behind the cyclist, trapped by the patrol car. The cyclist signaled a right turn and pulled to a stop at the curb.

The officer approached the cyclist and greeted him by name. The cyclist was unfamiliar with this officer.

The officer asked the cyclist if he understood that he was not allowed to drive on the left side of the right travel lane.

“Not on this lane.” Said the cyclist.

“Why not?” Asked the Officer.

“It is less than 14 feet wide.” Replied the cyclist while producing his 12 foot tape measure.

The lane turned out to be 11 ½ feet wide.

The Officer excused himself to consult someone who had access to the law books.

The cyclist busied himself with taking photographs.

Shortly, the Officer again approached the cyclist and apologized for stopping him.
The cyclist accepted his apology, and continued his trip home.

Self-portrait in Officer McCurdy's glasses

First, Stop Digging

2010-03-13T10:45:00.003-06:00

I am concerned with the City of Ennis’s reputation. They seem to be garnering the mantel of a backward jurisdiction with a Barney Fife police force.

I resist that notion. I still want to believe that the men and women on our police force are sincerely serving our community with personal integrity and with honor. But it is hard.

To maintain that notion, I am clinging to the idea that they have inept leadership, and those who ought to know better are allowing otherwise fine officers to look foolish.

On Tuesday, March 9, Officer McCurdy arrested me. He did not tell me what law I had allegedly broken. After cooling my jets in the Ennis city jail for 26 hours, (10 AM Tuesday to just after 12:30 PM on Wednesday, according to my phone records.) I was keen to look at the citation to see what the particular charge was.

I was not given one.

What I did receive was a “personal recognizance” bond form with the charge “Impeding traffic/Bike Offence” in Municipal Judge Johnson’s handwriting and his signature. This was different than last time. I wonder: Was my previous arrest handled in an irregular manner, or was this latest time the irregular one?

I suspect, but I can’t be certain, so this is somewhat speculative: Why was I held for about three hours after the PR bond was signed? I think they would have held me longer but it was easier to release me than to make a run to McDonalds for another dollar value menu hamburger.

So Friday I stop at the court to file seven motions and plead not guilty to this charge. I ask the court clerk for my case number. She runs my case envelope through the copy machine. Here is what my case envelope says:

E0011786 01 100053359
Fin: 100.00 Cst: 94.00 Due: 194.00

BATES, REED

Officer: MCCURDY, JASON E
FAILURE TO KEEP BICYCLE ON RIGHT SIDE OFROAD

Violation Date: 3/9/2010

Yeah, that charge has me scratching my head too. As absurd as it is, they avoided an even worse charge that the police were considering, and perhaps this is just a reflection of it.

I wonder who changed it to “Impeding Traffic/Bike Offense”. Was it Judge Johnson cleaning it up after closely questioning the circumstances surrounding my arrest by interviewing the four officers who were present? Did he interview any of the 911 callers who accuse me of impeding them?

Who else has the authority to change the charges? Toby Mash, our city attorney?

My recollection of how it went down

With unsubstantiated anonymous reports of death and mayhem pouring in to the Ennis 911 system, three patrol units and four Ennis city officers responded to suppress the latest crime wave on Hwy 287.

Now while I always strive to be polite, some of my friends have counseled me that my style of presenting my case can feel confrontational. Making declarative statements of what the law actually says to a police officer can get their backs up, apparently. “You may be right, Reed, but they think they know the law. You can’t appear to be schooling the teacher.”

So I am resolved to defend myself with Officer McCurdy by avoiding declarative statements by asking questions instead. (Y’all can see how well that worked out!)

So after I take his picture, I concentrate on presenting my case through questions.

Chip “Why did you stop me?”
OM “We have been getting a lot of 911 calls.”
Chip “Couldn’t the 911 operator inform them that bicycles are allowed to operate on the roadway in Texas?”
OM “We are concerned with your safety.”
Chip “Oh, you stopped me on a safety violation?”
OM “Yes. You were riding out there”; He pointed to the roadway. “Why weren’t…”
Chip, interrupting; “Now you are talking about traffic law, not a safety violation!”
OM “… you riding over here on the shoulder?”
Chip “So did you stop me for a traffic violation or a safety violation?”
OM “Traffic law is about safety.”
Chip “How wide is that travel lane?”
OM “I’m not here to argue about the law.”

Officer McCurdy seemed a little flustered, and unsure of himself. He tried a different tack.

OM “You know tractors, right? They have to have those slow moving vehicle signs on them.”
Chip, displaying the back of his messenger bag that has a 7” by 7” triangle on it; “You mean one of these?”
OM “Yes, but bigger, you need to have one of those to ride out there.”
Chip “So you stopped me because I have an equipment violation?”
OM, looking hopefully toward arriving backup officers; “No…” He seems sorry he brought it up.
Chip “So if I get a big triangle, I can drive on the roadway?”
OM “No, I’m not here to argue about the law.”

Enter Sgt. Pillow. She came toward the front of officer McCurdy’s unit, but would not advance closer to us than standing beside the front wheel. I suspect she was avoiding being viewed by the dash camera. She and I exchange greetings with each other by name.

SP “Mr. Bates, we have been through this before, you need to be riding over here.” She points to the shoulder.

(I want to say that I replied that shoulder use was optional, and I chose not to, but frankly I don’t remember what I said here. I will take the time to transcribe the dash-cam audio when it is made available to me. I hope what I write here will correspond to the audio. I will post it so you can see how well I did.)

SP “This is a designated bike lane here. You are required to ride on it.”
Chip, in astonishment “Where are the signs designating it? How is the public to know it’s a bike lane?”
SP “It is a designated bike lane”

She holds a quick roadside conference with the other two officers present.

OM distracts me “This is a wide shoulder. It’s in pretty good shape. It’s pretty clean. Why won’t you ride on it?
Chip “It is more dangerous than the roadway.”

Officer McCurdy dismisses all of my objections as inadequate, and I am irked that I am being required to justify opting “no” to what by state law is optional. I finally ask him what vehicles are required to use the shoulder. “I’m not here to argue the law.” He said, as he went to consult Sgt. Pillow.

He returns after a moment and places me under arrest. Outside of “OK” and “thank you”, I say not a word more. Officer McCurdy never tells me what I am being arrested for, and so for the next 26 hours I am hoping it will be a Sec.551.103 (a)(4)(A) violation of failure to use a designated bike lane. Wouldn’t that be a hoot!

Which behavior causes the most harm?

It is clear by their roadside behavior, the line officers are not getting guidance from their leadership other than “get him off the road!” These officers are casting about for any excuse to arrest me and make the 911 calls stop. But the way charges are changed after the fact, why do they even bother?

Clearly, what the law actually says, allows and prohibits has no importance at the street level. The Ennis police apparently are buffeted by forces beyond all that nitpicky legal stuff. Any excuse , no matter how ridiculous, is seized on to justify arrest.

And our judge and city attorney clean it up and back them up.

Logic and reason likewise are unable to deter this manic imperative to put the irksome uppity cyclist in his place. Could someone point to the harm that requires an arrest be made? With at least 20 hours of exposure on Hwy 287 and more than 300 miles expended crossing it, who has been harmed? Bring forth the victims!

If operating on that roadway were such a perilous activity, why am I still able to write this after all that exposure? Shouldn’t I be road kill by now?

But with the international attention being drawn to the City of Ennis, are continued arrests worth the damage they are causing to our reputation? It is easy to draw images of Barney Fife blundering about. Negative slander is carried along with popular notions of “southern small town corruption”. The behavior of our police can be easily cast as typical ignorant prejudice. [biking in heels, Rantwick, city cycle]

The lawfulness of my behavior is clear to any who can read. There plenty of helpful guides on-line if one needs help. [1] People outside of Texas have a better handle on the rights of cyclists in Texas than the Ennis PD does! Oh yes, let’s keep arresting the bicyclist!

Stubborn

Who should back down, the City of Ennis or ChipSeal?

Perhaps the City of Ennis should wait to see how the new appeal trial turns out. Such a claim would save face and allow further sport at our expense to cease. It would be just like those two years prior to October 2009 when I drove around just like do now, but without the drama. (How did Ennis get along all that time without arresting me? Can the City of Ennis point to chaos and mayhem during that period when I was “unregulated”?)

Or perhaps I should voluntarily abandon exerting my right to drive on the public roadway. Suck it up and drive where it is less safe. Expose myself to greater peril for the greater good. (Reducing the work-load of our 911 operator?) Take to gravel roads and take longer trips.

I should just stay home, or take the bus. (There is no bus.) I could walk the six miles to town for groceries. If I took a wheelbarrow, I would be a vehicle and thus traffic, and able to use the roadway! [2] I would no longer write critical phone numbers on my arm before leaving the house.

No, I think not. The more the City of Ennis strives to remove my right to the public road, the more dear that right seems to me. I won’t be backing down, Ennis. Perhaps you should weigh the costs and reconsider before proceeding.

I have.

[1] The Ennis PD should make haste to update their copies of the TTC. It is shameful that Officer Watson was made to look the fool because he was provided with an outdated copy of the TTC

[2] Sec. 541.201. (23) "Vehicle" means a device that can be used to transport or draw persons or property on a highway.

Sec. 541.301. TRAFFIC. In this subtitle "traffic" means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles and streetcars, singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel.

My Formal Reply To Larry

2010-02-19T14:17:00.004-06:00

What are you hoping to accomplish with this "rank political activism"? Is pissing off the drivers your goal?

No, my goal is to travel about on the public road. I am often going someplace. But why I am on the public road is immaterial, isn’t it? The only purpose that is required in order to use the public road that one is using it for travel. (Sec. 541.301 TRAFFIC. In this subtitle "traffic" means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles and streetcars, singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel.)

I don't know about you but making mad the people operating things that could easily kill me seems pretty foolish.

I am not responsible for the emotional state of other people. I am acting lawfully. If that upsets other travelers on the public road, rest assured I am on a very long list of other things that are making that person angry. It is not especially hard to overtake a bicycle on any road, let alone this one. It is not a maneuver that requires the lightning fast reflexes and the focused skill of a Formula 1 race car driver! Encounters with motorists on this road last less than a minute. It takes an expansive ego to assume that it will ruin the rest of the day for someone! If having to overtake me on Hwy 287 is the worst thing to happen to someone during their day, they have it rather good, don’t you think?

What is worse is they will be more likely to [not] be courteous to OTHER bikers they see. Thanks a lot!!

The vast majority of drivers I encounter on the public road are courteous and display due care around bicycles. Surrendering to bullies is not likely going to have an outcome you will like.How about adjusting your attitude and approach. I find that being courteous to drivers (and cops for that matter) gets the drivers more courteous to me on a bike.

I am the very picture of courtesy to those around me! I drive where they are most apt to notice me from a distance, thus allowing them plenty of time to negotiate a merge into the passing lane. (A maneuver that is so common, it is rarely even recalled at the end of a trip.) It is only the motorists that are not paying attention to the task at hand that end up having to slow because they don’t notice me in a timely manner. Is it courteous to other drivers to neglect your primary duty when operating on the public road?

Those who are paying attention never even have to let up on the gas. Projecting the hardships experienced by incompetent motorists onto me is a neat trick. My conscience is clear.

I violate no one’s right-of-way, nor does anyone violate mine. How am I discourteous?

I wave, smile, and try to not impede them as much as I want them to not impede me.

I am not impeding anyone who is driving competently. In order to do that, I would have to drive my bicycle simultaneously in two lanes. Do drivers have the right to drive at top speed at all times? Please take a moment to review “Texas Maximum Speed Law Explained”, it should clear up this misapprehension of yours.

THAT makes the world a better place for bicyclists, not your childish antics.

Capitulation and abandoning my express statutory right to operate on the roadway? (Travel lane) That would make it better for cycling how? I find it hard to call a roadway “public” when the only vehicles that are allowed on it are those that are first required to obtain a license from the state!

You seem to think I am doing some sort of stunt. I am not. I am lawfully traveling between Waxahachie and Ennis on a public road that is not a limited access highway, nor does it have a minimum speed limit.

I am not only doing it lawfully, I am doing it in the safest manner possible. I am sure that I have made the round trip on that highway twenty times. At my reasonable speed for a cyclist, that would be about an hour of exposure in the sixteen miles I travel on it round trip. So with twenty hours of exposure, across 320 miles, how many times do you think I have been hit? How many motorists crashed into each other within a mile of me?

Anonymous, you have no clue how high speed traffic behaves around slow moving vehicles. To think it is hazardous can only be the result of hysteria. If this is a stunt, or childish antics, it is as dangerous or controversial as taking a bath.

In the series of photographs below, they are taken from the side of HWY 287, near where I was arrested twice. This was taken on a Friday morning, a week ago.

Besides an official traffic control device warning of a pedestrian crossing ahead on a road with a 65 PSL, this series documents the heavy congestion in both directions one can find on this roadway.

second in series

third in series

fourth in series

Sometimes Motorists Do the Darndest Things

2010-02-16T11:14:00.002-06:00

After writing my friends phone number on my left arm*, I had to deal with one of the complications that my bicycle set-up causes. With the unusually heavy snowfall in the local region, I had a little trouble getting onto the road that attaches to my driveway so I could resume impeding traffic.

I have chosen to equip both of my bicycles with a speedplay pedal and cleat system. One of the characteristic features of this system is that it is intolerant of mud, packed snow, ice, sand and gravel. These pedals are a particularly poor choice for the cyclocross crowd.

Now, when I chose them, I could think of no reason to have to walk in them- certainly not once I got underway! Ah, yes, those were the days!

With the wet season in full force, I normally have negotiate 200 feet across the lawn from the door to the driveway that is mud, muddy and swampy. I have an old set of sneakers that have the singular purpose of delivering me with dry feet onto my driveway. Whereupon I remove them and put on my cycling shoes, and they await my return.

Today, (Friday February 12) however, I faced a 50 yard walk in twelve inches of snow. This was the heavy wet kind you Yankees seem so familiar with, not the dry blowsy kind that passes before the residents up in Montana and Wyoming while on it’s way to Nebraska. If I wore those faithful sneakers, I would have to take a towel to dry my feet before donning socks and cycling shoes. All the while standing on one foot, perhaps on the roadway. Yes, it would’ve been ugly.

So I slogged out to the streets with these boots on. Switched shoes and I was on my way. Oh, and I put the boots in a plastic bag to protect them from automobile spray.

This is a trade-off for my style of cycling. I find it acceptable.

Why I want to town

Today I viewed the Ennis Police stop dash cam videos and some of the audio that was recorded on them. (today = Friday February 12)

I’m glad I did. I found that my demeanor was not nearly as combative as I had feared. My contemporaneous recollections of our conversations are more accurate than I thought they were. I was striving for accuracy in all of my descriptions of the events and so I am pleased.

When Officer Watson stopped me in town, on October first, I saw that I had forgotten part of it. While Officer Watson and Sgt. Pillow discussed the ins and outs on impeding traffic, I was looking for identifying marks on the police car to write down, pen and paper in hand. Suddenly you can see a light go on in my head as I remember that I have my camera with me! And even with me looking the police car over so carefully, I never did notice Sgt. Pillow!

Yosemite Sam

One aspect of the dash cam footage that interested me was how soon I could be observed from traffic coming up behind me.

So when Officer Hudson comes up on me, on the dash cam there is no me to be seen! There is this old pickup protectively trailing behind me with his hazards on! Yikes!

It’s the fella who was hopping up and down, warning me that the long arm of the law would soon put an end to my scofflaw ways, or something similar.

Now, in my opinion, he did something incredibly dangerous and stupid!

Part of what makes a bicycle driver safe from being “runned over” is our distinctive silhouette. Everyone who sees it knows instantaneously that the cyclist is moving at a “slow speed”. I operate in the most annoying lane position I can precisely so that I will be seen and identified as a slow moving driver at the earliest possible instant. I want to afford the motorist the maximum time to access his options, decide early to merge, and go around me. In the vast majority of the time, motorists flow around the slow vehicle without hesitation and without the slightest of delays.

But for a distracted driver, making a quick scan ahead every four or five seconds, they rarely notice that they are quickly closing the gap between them and a slow vehicle when the slow vehicle is an automobile. In a quick glance, our minds assume the automobile is proceeding down the road at approximately the same speed we are. We have been trained for that by endless repetition.

Thus, I believe this “good Samaritan” was in grave peril, just as he felt about me.

Keri Nailed It

“The culture of speed causes some police to enforce traffic flow vs safety. Worse, they often don’t even realize that their concepts of protecting safety are stealthy manifestations of traffic flow management. (i.e. the notion that speed differentials and lane changes cause safety problems resulting from the presence of a slow vehicle rather than the incompetent or aggressive behavior of faster drivers)”

The language and concepts Officer Hudson spoke to me about precisely reflects this idea that the problem is my presence, not the competency of the motorists. I believe he was genuinely concerned about my safety. But while he had watched me drive by him earlier that day on Hwy 287, he failed to observe how traffic operated around me.

He said many 911 callers said there were many close calls and near wrecks. Did he observe any? It doesn’t matter, these reports validated his bias of how the situation would play out.

Perhaps he will watch how fast traffic behaves around an obviously slow moving driver tonight. Perhaps he will listen enough to hear why traffic behaves as it does.

*You can thank SteveA for the precise description.

Ellis County Demands a Public Showdown

2010-02-12T15:03:00.004-06:00

Hello, dear Reader.

I received a dispatch today here at my bunker.

The authorities at the Ellis county jail last month released me with instructions to contact Judge Polk in Waxahachie for a court date.

His long-suffering clerk will be glad that I will no longer be pestering her about it. It is now evident that my charges were forwarded to a different court. I’m glad they let me know!

My case has been forwarded to Ellis county’s precinct 1, in Ennis. It will be heard or overseen by Justice of the Peace Bill Woody. (ChipSeal wonders if he voted for him…)

The dispatch is notification that a pre-trial conference will be held February 25, and that all motions must be filed seven days prior to the conference. (No motion will be entertained beyond February 25th.)

They have again changed the charges leveled at me. I am now required to defend myself from the scurrilous charge of “obstructing traffic”. I am thinking of filing a motion for a pledge from the prosecution to not change the charge again!

I still do not know the name of my accuser. (Motion 1) I do not yet know what law they think I am in violation of. (Motion 2) Did the deputy actually see me obstruct traffic? I don’t think so. (Motion 3 for dash-cam footage) What exactly was said by both me and him? (Motion 4 for audio captured by the deputy.) What did my arrest file say? What did the Deputy claim in his arrest statement? (Motion 5 for my arrest report.)

Empty Threats

I have been sternly warned that if I fail to show up for the pre-trial conference, that my driver’s license could be denied when I try to get it renewed. I guess that will be after I get one in the first place.

Let’s work through how this works, shall we? They arrest me for using a bicycle rather than an automobile to get around. Now, to compel me to submit to the judicial process, they threaten to cause me to get around on a bicycle!

Alternately, I could have a warrant for my arrest issued against me. Huh. That seems rather formal to me, seeing how they will arrest me for simply traveling on the public road!

The judicial system in this county seems particularly ill prepared to deal with bicycle issues.

Unusual Plea-bargain Proposed

I look forward to the pre-trial conference. I think that I will consider a plea bargain. If the prosecutor apologizes for violating my right to travel on the roadway in writing, I won’t insist on a public trial. Yeah, something like that.

In another forum, a commenter who claims to be a lawman, made this statement regarding this arrest; “I feel this rider attempted to be excessive in his interpretation of his individual rights to the extent that it impeaded [sic] on the rights of others.” He therefore approves of my arrest.

I either have the right to travel on the roadway or I do not. It is a right expressly granted to operators of bicycles in Sec. 551.101. What statute removes it?

What right do motorists possess that I infringed? Do drivers have the right to proceed at the speed limit? Did I prevent any driver from proceeding down the road? No, it was me who was prevented from traveling home.

Which Will Prevail? Cultural Bias or the Law?

This is the perfect expression of the windshield view of the world. No slow moving traffic allowed! Traffic flow tramples everything in it’s way- even express statutory rights.
The letter from Justice Woody’s clerk reeks of it.

The ever changing charges betray a frantic search for a statute to justify their point of view, rather than seeking to find what the law actually says- which is their sworn duty to enforce.
No, this is far more important to me than it is for them. I want a public trial. The law is clear, and I was acting lawfully.

Their windshield view is also clear to all who wish to see it. Inconveniently, it is contrary to Texas law. Nonetheless, their view may prevail. The culture of speed is pervasive in our society.
It will be a public spectacle in either event.

The stakes are high for both sides of this issue. Do they decide the case based on the law, or do they substitute their notion of what the law ought to be “had the legislators thought about it” instead? Dare they display their willingness to override the law in favor of their prejudice in a public forum?

They need not worry that I won’t show up.

I want a public trial.

Sincerely, ChipSeal AKA The Menace of Ennis

Correction

2010-02-10T16:19:00.005-06:00

I was under the false impression that jury selection would take place on one evening, and the trial would be the next morning.

That is false.

The jury selection will commence at 5:30 PM Tuesday February 16, and the trial will be held immediately following.

The courtroom will be inside this building near the corner of Dallas Street and Brown Street in downtown Ennis. From I-45 go west from exit 251 on Ennis Avenue. Turn left at the second streetlight after you cross the railroad tracks. I have no idea where you would park a car. I never have to think about that sort of thing.

Perhaps you will be able to come down to witness the proceedings. I would like that! I won’t hold it against you if you can’t manage to make it- Don’t worry, I’ll let you know how it turns out! (But the first report will likely be from the courthouse from Steve’s fantastic phone. Watch this space for a Tuesday night dispatch!)

But if you do decide to come, could you go to Waxahachie first and then proceed to Ennis on Hwy 287? It will not be during the same time of day I was stopped or cited or arrested, either being a little earlier or a little later than when I was driving on it. But could you do this experiment for me? Could you travel as close as possible to the exact speed limit, and take note of how many vehicles you pass, and about how many pass you?

(I-35E to exit 404. Take Hwy 287 east to Ennis. Exit Business 287 which will become West Ennis Avenue. When you come across a sign warning that the “lane ends merge left”, go through the next two signal lights and turn right onto Dallas street.*)

To those who are seeking other ways to help me out, contact SteveA, who has more timely communication with the world, and is heroically shouldering most of the things I have been able to off-load onto someone else. A full credit roll will be made after the trial, but help has been supplied from Florida, California, and all over Texas. It has been offered as well from Canada and Montana. Just knowing you are keeping tabs on all this is heartening. Thank you!

*e-mail me for directions that trace my crime spree. See if that shoulder is one you would drive on! My e-mail address is cleverly hidden from spam-bots over there -> under "about me".

Court Date

2010-02-04T06:00:00.001-06:00

The mail has come.

The three violations have been combined, and jury selection will be done on the evening of February 16, 2010. A Tuesday.

The following day will be independence day.

I am submitting motions for the disclosure of dashcam video and some 911 information.

I have yet to secure a court date for my Ellis County arrest. The court where I have been ordered to appear has not yet found a record of my violation. That is a fact, anything else is speculation.

All the above will consume much of my attention, but as SteveA pointed out, it is more important to me than it is for them.

A letter came in the mail.

2010-02-03T06:00:00.001-06:00

It said: Re: State of Texas v. ChipSeal (Poetic license, don’t ya know!)

Hmm. It’s me against the entire state of Texas? I think I could be a contender to get the Nobel prize for being the most annoying cyclist, don’t you?

It went on: Dear Mr. ChipSeal, The offense of impeding traffic is defined at Section 545.363 of the Texas Transportation Code. Sincerely, Toby Mash, City Attorney for Ennis Texas.

Well, certainty! Now with a fixed charge, I can defend myself!*

How this came about

In my narrative A Tale of Two Jails, a judge (Who it turns out is Municipal Judge Johnson) released me with the promise that we would meet in the next week. He spent nearly a half-hour with me.

He said he was interested in hearing a defense for cyclist’s use of the highways.

He is very idealistic of juries, and spoke of them as being a forum of “equity” for the community. He encouraged me to choose a jury trial.

He said at this judicial level, it was reasonable for me to represent myself, and that a wider latitude of conduct would be extended to someone who did so.

He answered many of my process questions, including how to submit a motion to the court.

I was surprised when he suggested that I speak to Mr. Mash about it. So I did.

I went to Mr. Mash’s office and walked in unannounced. I expected that I would need to make an appointment. To my surprise, Mr. Mash dropped all that he was doing and immediately sat down with me for about twenty minutes.

He too was helpful with my process questions, and enlightened me on some of the bureaucratic details of how this whole thing goes down.

Jury trials

Should I choose a jury trial, 24 Ennis residents will be assembled on a Wednesday evening. Both Mr. Mash and I would be able to ask questions of them under the watchful eye of Judge Johnson, and both Mr. Mash and I would each be able to disallow six of them without reason. The goal will be to empanel six jurors before it becomes so late that we annoy them. (That part worries me. I seem to be extraordinarily annoying!)

I find this task daunting. Both judge Johnson and Mr. Mash advised me to bone up on Texas Jury Selection rules. I will also be required to pay a fee to cover some of the cost of empanelling the jury. (Mailings and the like.)

Separate trials?

Mr. Mash said I could file a motion to combine my charges into one trial. I am inclined to do so. The three Ennis City violations are essentially the same, and if I prevailed on one charge tried separately, the remaining two would be dropped.

If they are combined, I will have the opportunity to question all of the officers involved.

On filing motions

A motion is submitted in writing to the court clerk, and if granted by the Judge, is sent on to Mr. Mash’s desk. (What? No internet submissions?**)

Mr. Mash said that when the motions begin hitting his desk, he then proceeds to see if a case can be made, usually by interviewing the arresting officers.

I asked about getting information about what particular law I am accused of breaking, rather than the vague description of “impeding traffic”.

He said that the formal charge, including the section of the law, is normally sent to the accused ten days prior to his trial, but a motion could be submitted for an earlier release.

Since I had on my person a written out motion for that very purpose, I asked him to look at it to see if it was what the court expected in a motion presented to it.

Because Eli Damon was so good as to include his lawyers motion in his discussion of his case, I adapted it for my purpose. The paper Mr. Mash saw said this:

Motion for disclosure of statutory relevance.

Your Honor, I do not yet know what statute I am being accused of violating. My ticket only says “impeding traffic”. There is no reference to any chapter or section of the Texas Transportation Code, or any other law other than this vague description of violation.

I am certain I was operating my vehicle lawfully under the bicycle specific rules found in chapter 551. Operation Of Bicycles, Mopeds, and Play Vehicles. I am very familiar with those statutes. Therefore, my accuser must have some other, undisclosed and unknown to me portion of the law in mind to have so accused me.

Would the court order the prosecution to disclose the statute under which I am accused? Without such information I am unsure as to how to defend myself.

With that as an example before him, I asked about filing a motion to see relevant dashcam video. He told me to be as specific as possible in my request, and that generally I would be able to see the video but not have a copy. Because I found Eli Damon's motion so helpful, I intend, once this whole thing is done, to publish the motions I submit to the court, and any other helpful things I come across.

He then returned my motion to me. Thus this letter of disclosure to me was a happy suprise.

*Sec. 545.363. MINIMUM SPEED REGULATIONS. (a) An operator may not drive so slowly as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.

**Submitting a motion electronically is impossible, because by doing so it changes into an e-motion! Why am I the only one who laughs at my jokes?

Back-talk

2010-02-02T15:22:00.003-06:00

So many great comments, so little time!

I have had limited access to the internet, and while that will become better soon, it will be more restricted than I enjoyed before. I meant to have the six posts publish daily using a “delay” feature Blogspot offers, but after publishing part one, my internet connectivity was again suddenly interrupted- causing unintended aggravation to you, my dear reader. I am humbled that put up with it. Thank you for your patience.

I have a picture I intended to post with each of the series, but using “public” computers has compatibility issues. I am dismayed at the unpolished look my blog has descended to. Relying on my limited writing skills and content alone is a thin reed to lean on.

I have been writing the posts at home on my desktop, and transferring the files in a cut and paste manner with a flash drive on a public computer. As time allows, I have saved web pages to the flash drive and read them at leisure at home. E-mail correspondence has become more like snail mail. Sigh. It has caused a feeling of isolation, so I have been heartened by your many comments, reading them for the first time on Friday night.

I wish to answer some of the questions and offer a few more comments of my own.

CarFree Stupidity said...
Do they really have nothing better to do with their time than continuously harass you? Or is your riding on the roadway really seen as that subversive down in Texas?

“Continuously” is somewhat of a exaggeration. I have been car-free in Texas since 2007, and I have logged 12,000 miles of impeding traffic. The first citation I received was last October. I was not stopped by anyone on my one dozen or so prior traverses across Hwy 287 to Waxahachie, so this is a recent manifestation. Each stop has been described here.

I think Keri and Mighk are right that it is seen by local police as primarily a safety issue. The police (And many others!) think I am mad to travel on the roadway when the speed limit is 65 miles an hour with a “perfectly good paved shoulder” nearby.

SteveA said...
So, when these guys toss you in the hoosegow, do they offer you coffee? If so, is it any good? I'm thinking Chip may have some ulterior motives here and may be on to a good thing. (They didn’t even let us smell coffee!) Seriously, it's hard to believe these guys haven't researched the statutes a bit better by now, considering there seems to be little real crime for them to pursue out in Ellis County. The level of courtesy they offer is a sign they're not really feeling real good about all this.And it's late January now, what about the first introduction to Officer's Watson & Pillow. That would seem to hold the key to all these later incidents and, perhaps, someone having a lot of explaining to do.

That would be Sgt. Pillow to you Mister! I will be making a motion to combine all three of the Ennis PD tickets into one trial. I will do progress and “process” blogs shortly.

danc said...

Well I kinda imagined this was next. Boo! Did you ever get the video/audio from the Oct ticket?

I intend to submit a motion for their disclosure. It is doubtful that I will be able to have copies, but I expect to be able to view them in the presence of the City Attorney.

Dear Rantwick said...
I am insulted. I would ride home miserable and cold and wet, get pneumonia and shiver for days before I would call Mrs. Rantwick. I'm stubborn like that.

Now if you had called her, she might have driven to Texas to help you out. She's nice like that.

I found this a delightfully charming comment. Well done, dear Rantwick!

Anonymous said...
I am trying to figure out sir, why would you continue doing this activity when you know you are going to be arrested or cited for it? What are you trying to prove?

PM Summer said...
@Anonymous: Why? Because A) He needs to get somewhere, B) He doesn't have a car and uses a bicycle for transportation, C) Under Texas law (the Transportation Code), a bicycle is a legal vehicle, and the operator of a bicycle shall be granted all rights, and be subject to all duties, applicable to the driver of a motor vehicle.

Thanks PM! That was what I would’ve said!

Dear Anonymous; Since when does a freeborn citizen need to justify acting in a lawful manner? I say this to show that I am magnanimous in entertaining your question.

I suppose I also have this quaint and romantic idea that the law will be respected. I therefore decline to be a road sneak. I will not retreat into the shadows as though I am unclean, but assert the simple dignity of my rightful place on the public road.

Can you say that you actually have a right if it is unexercised because of duress? I have the certainty that I have no practical right to freely travel on the public road on a bicycle for a time. But because this is a natural right that does not descend from the whims of men, nor from man’s government, I am certain this right will be restored to me.

I intend to KNOW when that happens. Therefore I continue this activity.

Anonymous said...
Wow! This has been a grand adventure indeed!On one hand, I'm glad that you were treated with care in your incarceration(s).On the other hand, I don't think I could be as rational being confronted for doing that which is completely legal AND being hauled off to jail.I hope the Judge(s) find you innocent (or would that be guilty?) of your legal actions.I have to shut up now as the semantics are starting to give me a headache.(This is JTGYK over at bike forums...for some reason Blogspot doesn't like me commenting under AIM)

Anonymous said...
jtgyk againNote that I was not the first Anonymous commenter nor do I share his views

Thank you JTGYK, I’m glad you stopped by. It is a little like a trip through the looking glass, isn’t it?

Rantwick said...
"operating a bicycle on the roadway"! Unbelievable. Here's hoping the judges hearing your case show the same sense as the first one you mentioned in this post.Carry on! You continue to impress me with your civil writing about being treated so unfairly.

I must admit, Dear Rantwick, after that charge was leveled at me, I am more inclined to believe your dwarf attack was not something you made up.

The Big Fella said...
This is quite the serial you have posted! If you have to establish the "ChipSeal Bicycling Legal Defense Fund," I'll be happy to contribute . . .As a fellow bicycling Texan, thank you for standing up for our legal right to be "granted all rights, and be subject to all duties, applicable to the driver of a motor vehicle." While I'm proud of your conviction (pun unintended), I'm saddened by the necessity of it.

Nice to “meet” you Big Fella! Thank you for the offer! (And Keri and Eliot too!) I may yet require some help, but if so, it will be reluctantly.

Anonymous said...
If you really think your rights were violated shouldn't you report that to a federal agency like the FBI?

Principled Pragmatist said...
Get a lawyer. Somebody's head has to roll for this kind of blatant abuse of police power.When you're told what the charge is, the reasonable expectation is that it be a violation of some law. If there is no legal violation, that's unlawful arrest!

Whoa! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

To Anonymous; I doubt suing for an abuse civil rights will get me to where I hope this can go- and besides, the Feds are not really needed to right this wrong. If I were to be convicted, and lost on appeal, perhaps. But even then it may not be the wisest course.

Principled Pragmatist; Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the enthusiastic support! But I am not sure this is deliberate abuse of power beyond my musings in my last post. I think that the Officers in question are sincerely doing their duty to advance what they believe is in the interest of public safety.

WonderBiker said...
PP, I do not think it was a blatant abuse of power. Rather, it seems more to have been a blatant display of stupidity.

Glad you stopped in, WonderBiker! These officers are merely reflecting the windshield view of most Texans. Because bicycles are never driven on the roadway in our area, it must be illegal…

Principled Pragmatist said...
Arresting someone and keeping him in jail for a charge of "riding a bicycle on a roadway", or even for "impeding traffic", is certainly stupid, but it's also abuse of power, and it seems blatant to me, especially the obviously trumped up first charge.Arresting someone must be taken very seriously - a free society cannot tolerate unlawful arrests, and the only recourse is to have serious repercussions (like getting fired) for anyone who abuses the extraordinary legal power of arrest.The ACLU might be interested in this case.

The hapless Ellis County Deputy Z gave me a poorly considered ultimatum, and so he painted himself into a corner. He pretty much had to follow through on his threat to arrest me, thus the contrived charge. Sadly, the die was cast when he ordered me to drive on the shoulder. I would’ve slept less in my own bed than I did in jail had I obeyed him.

Anonymous said...
Given your arrests and that tickets have been issued, I would suggest that an alternative avenue would to find a high-quality civil rights attorney who could weave what on the face seems to be a deliberative attempt to violate your civil rights. I do not live in Texas, but I assume that there is in fact specific state civil rights. Sounds to me that the local bike advocacy groups should investigate that angle not merely more legislation.

Folks, I understand your anger. Revenge sounds sweet. It may even be possible. (ChipSeal, in astonishment, considers arguing a case that sounds a lot like Doohickie’s rejoinders about courtesy! He has to breath into a paper bag for awhile.)

I could raise a holy stink, and make life miserable for some people, and maybe put some lawyer’s kid through college, but I will cut off any possibility of partnering with local police in a civility campaign. It would be great for me, but a tragedy for my community.

Consider the sage words of Keri Caffrey:

Ultimately, these incidents are a manifestation of the bigger problem — what
Steve Goodridge describes in America’s
Taboo against Bicycle Driving. The problem must be tackled from a number of
directions. We are working very hard to
build a mutually-beneficial relationship with law enforcement and to create a
program that will give them knowledge of the laws and help them understand how
we protect ourselves on the road. But law enforcement officers are a part of our
general culture. They’re people. They’re just as influenced as anyone else by
the biases of the society in which they live.
The fundamental rule of the
road is First Come, First Served. The distorted rule of the culture
of speed is All Life Yields to Faster Traffic. When the roads are governed
by FCFS, pedestrians and bicycle drivers are people using public roads. When
governed by the culture of speed, they are merely objects in the
way.
As
has been noted here before, the culture of speed causes some police to
enforce traffic
flow vs safety. Worse, they often don’t even realize that their concepts of
protecting safety are stealthy manifestations of traffic flow management (i.e.
the notion that speed differentials and lane changes cause safety problems
resulting from the presence of a slow vehicle rather than the incompetent or
aggressive behavior of faster drivers).
… We have work to do. We need grace, understanding and cooperation. And we need those in law enforcement to be our allies.

Before this happened my local police had no need to listen to a local cyclist about Texas’s slow moving vehicle laws. Scofflaw cycling is the proper way of operating in their minds, and is universally ignored. They will now have to speak to me about SMV law while under oath! I will be able to present to them (and a jury!) a cyclist’s view of the roadway. I can show them why it is safer for a cyclist to operate following normal traffic rules. Right now they don’t understand, and convinced by our culture that bicycles are toys, they are not interested in seeing it differently.

This is an opportunity. I want to make the most of it.

Rantwick said...
"Are they twisting the law to enforce their opinion of what they think would be a wiser choice on my part?"Yep.I wrote a post about you... check it out if you can stay out of jail long enough; I'm eager to know what you think of it, or would correct in it.

I am mortified to reveal to you that I failed to load it onto my flash drive, and so I have not yet read it. But if you are reading this post, I am also reading yours! Expect an e-mail soon.

Anonymous said...
Bates and only rides a bicycle...did you ever work at a med lab in Dallas?

Him? No, not me. He’s the handsome Bates of Dallas. I’m the ugly one.

Repercussions

2010-01-26T06:00:00.000-06:00

The Ennis police have given me a ticket for “impeding traffic”, and a ticket for “park bicycle on sidewalk/impede traffic”, and they have arrested me and thrown me in jail for “impeding traffic”.

A Ellis County deputy has arrested me and thrown me in jail for “Operating a bicycle on the roadway”.

All of these “violations” occurred on four lane highways. Besides being absurd on the face of it, what does that mean for operating a slow vehicle on a two lane road without shoulders?
I have seen the freeway at rush hour. It looked like a whole passel of impeding was going on then!

They have convinced themselves they are right

As I mentioned before, the Ennis police have a fancy electronic citation system. You can enter suspect data on a wireless hand-held device from at least 20 yards away from the patrol car. It has a menu of violation titles. It accepts an electronic signature with stylus on its screen. There is a printer to provide the suspect with a copy. Very high tech. You can see one in Officer Hudson’s hand in his picture.

When I was given a ticket last October, they had no bicycle specific entries on their menu, to their frustration. Other than the general description of my crime, (Impeding traffic) I do not actually know what particular statute I am supposedly in violation of.

But last Wednesday, they seem to have added the curious hybrid crime description of "park bicycle on sidewalk/impede traffic". [1] If this means that they think I am guilty of violating the law under TTC Sec. 551 then they are laughably misapplying the law.

But even more troubling is that this new entry on their menu may signal that this pernicious idea has been institutionalized across the Ennis police force. (That a bicycle may only operate on roads where they can keep up with powerful modern automobiles.)

A 911 plebiscite?

I also find it disturbing that anonymous complaints can result in the harassment of a law abiding citizen, even to the point of having him arrested. Again and again officers who have made a traffic stop on me have explained that they had been getting a lot of complaints. And this concerns me how? Dispatchers are getting annoyed, therefore my right to freely and lawfully travel on the public road is to be suspended? Really? (Is there a prize for being the most annoying cyclist?)

An opportunity to inform the general public of basic traffic law is being squandered. It may really be true that the most powerful force in the universe is apathy.

Why are 911 operators not telling complainers that in Texas, bicycles have as much right to be on the road as anyone else, and they have the obligation to be alert and to avoid them? How hard is that? They could write it out on a little card and just read it to them. Heck, if they ask me to do it, I’ll write out the cards for them.

They seem to have determined that I am the problem, and that if they can keep me from using the public road, they won’t have to field all the complaints from those with a windshield view of the world immersed in their culture of speed.

Considering all the resources deployed to make the phone calls stop, wouldn’t assigning a single police unit to escort a bicyclist be a better solution? I don’t think it is necessary, but my rights wouldn’t be violated and the phone calls would stop.

Using the law to enforce their opinion

Police officers may believe that I am exercising poor judgment, but what they are doing is accusing me of a crime.

Are they twisting the law to enforce their opinion of what they think would be a wiser choice on my part?They can’t understand why I won’t use, what to them from their view through a windshield, is a perfectly good place to drive: On the shoulder.

I do not have to justify my refusal to drive on the shoulder to anyone. Use of the shoulder is optional for bicycle drivers under Texas law. Use of the public roadway is an explicit right. It is none of their concern where I drive as long as my actions are lawful.

They implore me to drive on the shoulder, but during both of my arrests, officers commented that I ought to get in and out of police cars on the passenger side because it is “safer”. They don’t really think the shoulder is a haven either. But such absurdities are what we must put up with when we tolerate and enable incompetent motoring.

Was I really released from jail?

As it stands now, I am in under threat of arrest any time I travel, for slow vehicles like bicycles will, by their nature and in the strictest sense of the word, impede all other more powerful vehicles. How can I get to work? The grocer? Make appointments? Make any plans considering I could be jailed simply for using the public road? For leaving my driveway on a bicycle?Am I being subjected to a de-facto house arrest?

Don’t be alarmed

There is nothing for you to fear. Ennis is a long way from where you live. None of this trouble would befall you even here, if you were careful to keep off the roadway. You would only be relinquishing your right to operate your bicycle on a public road. You’ll probably never even miss it when it’s gone!

The City of Manor kicked bicycles off of their local road. It is best that you keep quiet about it, you wouldn’t want your local community to get a similar idea! You never ride in Manor anyway.The city of Anna Texas successfully met all legal challenges when they banned bicycles on a local road. The prospect of bicycles not being allowed on any road in Texas is not that far distant into the future anymore. That future is here now. What are we going to do about it?

Perhaps we ought to spend our energy on passing a three foot law! That sounds like a productive use of our time and resources! It hasn’t helped cyclists a lick in any state that has passed one to date, but we can do it better, right? If that dastardly governor hadn’t vetoed it, why none of this would’ve happened to me. Let’s spend the next six years trying to pass that worthless tripe.

A general education campaign would be a waste of time. There is no evidence that Texans are ignorant of basic traffic law. It is so much more productive to enlighten a Texas legislator than it is to enlighten a Texas driver lost in a culture of speed. I encounter the latter far more often in my travels than the former.

If your notion of what bicycle advocacy is cannot see opportunities outside of legislative offices in the state capitol, then tear down the laws that are so easily twisted by those with a windshield view of the road. Work to remove language that micro-manages lane position.

Clarify that impedance is a crime only if four conditions can be proved: The vehicle in question is reasonably capable of traveling faster. The operator has the skill necessary to operate the vehicle at a faster speed.Conditions are such at that time and place that it would safely permit a faster speed. Faster traffic was unable to overtake the slow vehicle safely.
If any one of those conditions cannot be proved, the impedance is legal.

Demand that the Texas Maximum Speed law (TTC Sec. 545.351) be vigorously enforced.

Demand that the Prima Facie Speed Limits (TTC Sec. 545.352) be enforced.

What I will do

I am going to continue to operate my bicycle in a legal manner.

I will write critical phone numbers on my arm with indelible ink.

Before I leave my home, I will alert the police to expect a load of 911 calls because I will be traveling in the area.

I will vigorously defend myself against the scurrilous charges in court.

I will continue to seek channels and lines of communication with the local authorities to improve their understanding of the rights that slow moving vehicles enjoy under Texas state law.

I will continue to impugn the best of intentions and motivations to my local police officers. I will not presume that it is a personal vendetta against me. I am committed to the belief that they are diligently performing their duties and doing what they sincerely believe is the right thing to do.

[1] I wasn’t aware that parking one’s bicycle on the sidewalk in Ennis was illegal. I suppose I’ll just have to take my bicycle inside with me.

A Tale of Two Jails

2010-01-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

Click-clack click-clack click-clack: The sound of a prisoner walking…

in cycling cleats.

The unusual sound caught everyone’s attention. Bright clothes and black tights. There was going to be no blending in for me!

Waxahachie is the county seat, and this was a large facility in the midst of becoming bigger. Construction activity was evident everywhere. Booking was going slower because of it. Entry doors that could previously be operated electronically and remotely were having to be operated manually, tasking an officer to deal with it and reducing the personnel available for processing.

In-cell intercoms were likewise not working, and more officers had to be assigned to stand outside some “remote” cells for prisoners protection. Should there be a medical crisis, let’s say, the prisoner would be unable to communicate his distress. Fewer officers again for processing.

My handcuffs were immediately removed. “Sit on that bench;” the officer pointed down a passageway. I was determined to follow directions as closely as possible. I would just quietly blend into the background, that was my plan.

Click-clack click-clack click-clack, I noisily walk over to the bench.

I am in a good mood. I in no way feel I am in legal peril. As an adult, my clean living has never occasioned a trip to jail, and I was fortunate to avoid police contact in my youth. (When I may have deserved some jail time.) So it is in a spirit of adventure and discovery that I am approaching this.

If you, my dear reader, find my dreary blog interesting, you likewise must be living the healthy but mundane life of a law abiding citizen. No wild and reckless behavior from you! You don’t run with a shady crowd. As a pillar of your community, you are no doubt a stranger to your local constabulary, instead of a first name familiarity like a scofflaw like me! I am therefore confident that my jailhouse experience will be both of interest and foreign to you.

I soon discover that there are two classes of prisoners, and which class you fall into will determine to a great extent your treatment. The dividing line is 24 hours.

For those who are unable to arrange bail, or are charged with a more serious crime where they are likely to be held longer than 24 hours, and those who are doing time rather than paying fines- they are one class.

They are held in mysterious cells upstairs and they have been issued striped uniforms.
My cell mates are nearly all to be held for less than 24 hours. They have in some way come in contact with police and been found to have warrants issued for their failure to respond to some traffic ticket in their past.

We have our own clothes but our shoes are taken from us, and we are given Groks to wear. Perhaps now I can blend into the background! (Why do they call me twinkle toes? Haven’t they seen a man in tights before?)

In my cycling clothes, the halls are a wee bit cool for me, especially because of my crampy legs. The cells were comfortably warm for me, but for me alone. Other prisoners complained about it.
During booking I was told that my bicycle was at “station 2”. I was told this a few times. It turns out that my bicycle was not handled in a standard way. I was also told that the charges against me had been changed to “operating a bicycle on the roadway”. It is Saturday as I write this, and I still find that charge astonishing.

Booking is going slow. First priority is inventorying property. I suppose it needs to be done in the prisoners presence. Once that is done, I am taken to a drunk tank cell. It is clear later why. It is big and it has a phone available to use. Most cell phone numbers are accessible for free. I haven’t memorized a cell phone number, ever! If you expect to be thrown in jail later, try to remember to write critical phone numbers on your arm in indelible ink before you leave home. (This is really good advice. You may want to take a moment to write that down.)

Everything in the cell is cement. The walls, the benches. There is a stainless steel sink and free-standing toilet. I keep reminding myself that most jails other countries are far more harsh than this, and I am again glad to be an American. We have been given a “mattress” and a wool blanket. Both make the hard cell easy to tolerate. I’ve had worse when camping in the woods.

This is a cell that needs a jailer to keep a vigil on, but it is really temporary for all of us. We are brought out one at a time to get our fingerprints and photograph taken. I ask how I can get a copy for the blog. That was a first for that officer. Alas, they don’t want to share. Considering the charges leveled against me, I am sympathetic to their position. I was then returned to the cell.

I had overheard talk of a nurse coming in. There was one guy who had been injured earlier that day, and another guy was clearly not feeling well. I had assumed they were why a nurse would be needed.

Each of us had to be interviewed in turn by this nurse. I enjoyed that part. As I said, I was in a up mood. But one of my life philosophies is that I have a duty to my community to be cheerful. We all have troubles and difficulties, and being sour and complaining does nothing to brighten a space shared by others, whether it be at the office, during mass transit or in the county jail. If I am down and out of sorts, bringing others down won’t make it better, and I have a duty to act in ways I may not feel at the time.

So here is this nurse. Her interaction with prisoners is different than the jailers, and serving us is likely a an excursion away from a local hospital. She wasn’t used to happy prisoners and she didn’t have the automatic barrier the jailers must have to perform their duty. She asked a bunch of medical history questions and gave us a TB test injection. (ChipSeal carefully examines his arm. Nope, no reaction.)

“Do you have any sexually transmitted disease?”, She asks. “No”, I say; “Do you know where I can get one?”

“Have you hit your head recently?”

“No, but a lot of people have suggested that I have it examined!” That is sort of how it went.

I am returned to the large holding cell. There are seven of us in there. Three respond to me, three keep to themselves.

Was it Bella?

One guy is injured. His story remained consistent, but the size of the dog changed over time. Here is his story: He and his girlfriend decide to walk down to the park. On the way, walking in the roadway, they are attacked by a dog. His injuries are more severe because he was concerned about protecting his girlfriend.

The dog has bitten him severely on both hands. One bite has opened a vein and he is bleeding, but he is able to control it with direct pressure. He walks a half mile or so to a hospital for treatment.

Because it is a dog bite, the authorities are required to be notified. The police show up to write a report. They run his name and discover there is a traffic ticket warrant for his arrest!

He moans that taking a walk turned out to be a lousy idea. We decide he was actually “bitten” three times. And we nicknamed him “lucky”.

We are trooped out as a group, and are randomly put in smaller holding cells. (“First three in this cell.”) I am pleased to discover that none of the introverted guys are with me. It is a smaller cell, and quieter, warmer. Room for three on the floor. Our conversation winds down and I am left to my thoughts while they sleep.

I spend my time carefully going over all of the events of the day. I am determined to get some good blog posts out of this. Not realizing I would be spending time in the Ennis city jail, I am glad I did. I doubt I would’ve remembered the guy parked on the sidewalk or Trooper Jackson’s name and our conversation.

We are served breakfast at four in the morning. Good. I hadn’t eaten since noon the previous day. A single serving package of Frosted Flakes and a small carton of low fat milk! A total of 230 calories. I decide to count blessings rather than sheep as I drift to sleep.

Nothing notable happens until the judge arrives. Those of us arrested on something other than traffic ticket warrants are brought to the bench I was first instructed to sit on. Seven of us wait for the eighth prisoner to be brought to us. After a bit we proceed without him.

The Judge merandizes us as a group, then brings us forward one at a time to hear our plea, and the setting of a bond etc. Those of us waiting are close enough to hear most of what is said.

When I approach his raised dais, he opens a folder, and then looks up in surprise. He says; “Are they serious? Operating a bicycle on the roadway?”

“Yes sir”, I say, “It is akin to be charged for walking on a sidewalk.”

The other prisoners and two of the jailers standing by laugh and comment at this point. The judge leaves for a few minutes. When he returns he has more information.

“You were on Hwy 287?” “Yes sir” “How do you plead, son?” I say; “I am not sure how to plead. The charge is a description. I was operating on the roadway, but it is not illegal to do so. I intend to fight it though.” “Well son, I don’t blame you.”

He started the process for me to be released on my own recognizance.

Lunch too!

This was “served” at about 11 o’clock. It was more substantial, two sandwiches of baloney, cheese and mustard. It was food, and I suppose nutritious, but they wouldn’t be able to price it low enough to sell them at a profit in the real world, if you get my drift. There was an 8 ounce cup of punch. I give my oatmeal bar to Lucky.

Soon they come to process me out. I sign forms about receiving back my stuff . I sign a form releasing them from indemnity if the food makes me sick. (I’m kidding about that!) I am given a pink carbon copy of a form with instructions to call a particular court to get a trial scheduled.

I am told to get my shoes on. I am thinking of the “slippers” I have in my back-pack that I wear in stores and such, but they didn’t want me to do that. It will be back to clickity-clack for an exit.

I don’t have any pockets on my person. I set my pink paper down and get to putting my cycling shoes on. There are eight people who will be going out the door in a group, and they are waiting for me. I am feeling a bit rushed. I get it together, grab my bag, and I clatter off to freedom.

Where is Station 2?

We are led to an exit into a underground parking lot that is under construction. I spot a bench near the door and I head that way. I want to get out of my cycling shoes.

There is a distinguished guy there finishing a smoke. He is in his mid-fifties. I ask, “Is that a public bench?”

“Sit down”, he said heartily. As I dig my slippers out of my bag and put on my spare sweater, I ask him where Station 2 is. He gives me a funny look. I tell him they took my bicycle there.

“Why that’s over near Maypearl, you won’t be able to walk all that way! Hold on a minute.” He gives me instructions to walk around the building, go in the front door and to talk to a secretary there.

I put my gaiter neck scarf on and follow his directions. Maypearl! That’s eight miles in the wrong direction! Nuts.

There is a light mist falling, but it is around 55 degrees, so I am thankful for that. I open the front door to the sheriff’s office.

The guy who directed me here is standing in the middle of the lobby, talking on the phone. It turns out he is Sheriff Johnny Brown! The top dog in the organization! The elected lawman himself! He is stomping around the office, trying to find out about my bicycle, barking orders into a cell phone!

The Sheriff Brown tells me that they will be bringing my bicycle to me. “Be here in about twenty minutes!” he barks. I wonder whether I voted for him.

I begin to sort through my stuff more carefully, and I realize I left my pink paper inside the jail. Nuts. I reckon it would probably take twenty minutes just to get a unit to Station 2, and about the same just to load my bike into it. I decided I had about an hour to wait. I’ll go back and see if a jailer would get my pink paper for me now.

He did, and he even smiled when I thanked him. (It had been rumored that they were not allowed to do that.) This is another example of one of the many courtesies that were extended to me. I am thankful for all of them.

Safely secured in my backpack, I become concerned about it and the other documents (like my ticket) surviving a rain swept trip home. When I get back to the front office, I request a waste basket liner. It is Sheriff Brown himself who brings me one. I am astonished.

A uniformed deputy walks in. “Are you Mr. Bates?” I allow that I am. He explains that he was the lieutenant on duty the previous night, and that he intervened to have my bicycle taken to Station 2 rather than the vehicle impound lot. He thought it would be taken better care of in his men’s care at Station 2, and I was spared any impound fees. I am very grateful.

A pickup, with a bed cover, pulls up outside with my bicycle. This is some guy’s personal vehicle! They tried to put the front wheel back on, but the brake pads thwarted them. Flip that brake release when you are arrested! My bike is unharmed. I sign a property release form.

This narrative will now skip to my arrival at the Ennis city jail.

Inside the Ennis City Jail

Once down the stairs, Officer Watson removes one half of my handcuffs and secures me to a ring in the wall.

Sgt. Sifuentes brings my bicycle in and stows it in a small room off to the side. I sincerely thank him for being careful with my bicycle, but he is unresponsive. Did he think I was being sarcastic?

My property is inventoried, and no steroids were found.

My mug shot is taken. I hold a message board up to my chest. I again ask to have a copy for my blog. He takes away the message board and says he will take another picture. I turn to give my right profile, as was done in County lockup, and he tells me to face the camera. Huh? No profile shot? I teasingly accuse Officer Watson of taking an extra picture so he can display it on his blog!

Officer Watson carefully erased the information on the message board before turning to the task of taking my fingerprints.

With that it was time to remove all I was wearing save my base-layer shirt, tights and socks. Even my glasses. I worry some that I will be warm.

In the next room, they have a three cell jail. I am given a “mattress” and a wool blanket, and placed in the last cell. It was about eight feet wide, perhaps twelve feet deep and a high ceiling. There was a two and a half foot wide bench extending front to back on the left, and a free standing toilet. There was no sink or water in the cell, which is different than the county lock-up.

There was a phone in the back of the cell, but alas, the phone numbers I wanted to call were in the property room. And it was plenty warm, but not hot.

As their only prisoner, it was very quiet. I assume I was monitored, but without my glasses I had no way to scope out a camera.

I spend the hours thinking out my legal defense, going over the events to help remember them for my dear reader’s benefit. I also “write” the outlines of some blog posts. It is in that cell I decide to write that teaser post.

Between October and Christmas, I developed a list of questions to ask Officer Watson when given the opportunity to question my accuser. With those questions in mind, I consider how I would change them for my stops on Hwy 287. (The October ticket was on the 30 MPH four-lane in town.)

I am very familiar with not only chapter 551 Operation of Bicycles Mopeds and Play Vehicles, but also most of chapter 545 Operation and Movement of Vehicles and some of chapter 541 Definitions. I thought a lot about what they say. My confidence in my legal standing grows.

Dinner!

Lost in thought, I am startled when keys rattle in the lock on my cell door. I hadn’t heard the officer approach.

He hands me a Burger King double cheeseburger from their dollar menu, and asks if I would like some water. He brings me an 8 ounce cup of water, locks the door and retreats out of sight.
I like the food in Ennis’s jail better.

After thoroughly enjoying the hamburger, I return to my meditations and sleep lightly.

I am surprised again by an officer bringing me breakfast. A Burger King biscuit and sausage sandwich and a cup of water. I ate it slowly, savoring it as well. The officer told me a judge would see me in a few hours. I wondered what the weather was like outside.

The judge, when he came, came in a rush. He seemed agitated. I think he was rushed for time. Perhaps I managed to annoy yet one more person!

He releases me on my own recognizance, with my promise to see him in the coming week. I am eager to do so.

Processing out goes quickly, and I had the happy surprise of the return of my cycling cap as described earlier.

My bicycle and I are brought upstairs to sign release of property forms, and I am released. I take the opportunity to take Wednesday’s ticket to the court clerk and enter a plea of not guilty, as long as I am right there.

I then done my clothes and pack my stuff inside a plastic bag inside my back-pack. I belatedly notice that I don’t have my cycling shoes with me. I petition a passing Ennis police detective if he could retrieve them for me. He cheerfully did. Again I am thankful.

Never was I treated in any way by any officer in any capacity in a harsh manner. These officers are doing most things very well, and they are to be commended. Other than this little slow moving vehicle dispute, they have acted in an exemplary manner.

Nice Meeting You Again, Officer Watson!

2010-01-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

On Thursday, January 14, at about 2:30, I again set out to travel home from Waxahachie. I was looking forward to a shower, calcium supplements, a balanced and adult sized meal, and coffee. (Mmm, coffee!)

A light rain began falling as I proceeded. I was concerned that I would be able to maintain my core body temperature if I got soaked. I was wearing an athletic breathable fabric undershirt and two cotton based sweaters, as well as tights, shorts and toe covers. Oh, and a neck gaiter. I wished I had my hat.

I wondered what an experienced all winter cyclist like Rantwick would do in my situation. (An hour long drive home with inadequate clothing.) I decided he would call Mrs. Rantwick! But alas, I couldn’t find anyone to loan me a cell phone with international access, so I abandoned the notion of calling her.

The wet conditions really concerned me. Texas automobile drivers seem to have no knowledge whatsoever about the maximum speed law. (Known as the Basic Speed Law everywhere outside of Texas.) But on the previous day, I had noticed that it had been a long time since the shoulders of Hwy 287 had been swept. Crossing that minefield, with my vision impaired because of my glasses and poor traction, it was an equally daunting prospect. Remember, the vast majority of my solo crashes have been in wet conditions.

I drove on the roadway.

The police pulled me over within a few yards of where they stopped me the previous day.
And who should step out of the Ennis Police unit? None other than Officer Watson!

“We have to stop meeting like this, Officer Watson.” I quipped.

“Mr. Bates, you are under arrest;” he said. “for impeding traffic.”

I asked if I could turn off my taillight. He gave his permission, and I flipped my front break release as well.

He asked me to remove my back pack, and I asked if I should take off my gloves and put them in as well, and that was OK with him too.

He took me around to the passenger side of the car and put me in the back. There was a little more room here than there was in the Ellis County cruiser, but not much. Before he put me in, I invited him to remove my front wheel when he stowed my bicycle to make it easier.

Sgt. Sifuentes showed up as backup as Officer Watson wheeled my bicycle to my door and opened it to ask me for directions on how to remove my front wheel. Thank you, sir!

Because of all the computer and radio equipment in the trunk space, my bicycle would not allow the trunk lid to close. Using his initiative, Officer Watson used a trash bag to keep the lid partially shut. Thank you, sir!

We had a friendly conversation on the way to the Ennis PD jail. Officer Watson was curious about me going to jail the night before, and he talked a little bit about a previous job he held, a point in common between us.

As I exited the vehicle, I warned Officer Watson of my concern about walking on hard surfaces in my cycling shoes. As we went down a flight of narrow cement stairs, his steadying hand was comforting, and perhaps even necessary. Thank you, sir!

I will jump over the part of being booked and my second night in jail until tomorrow, except for some comments about what happened when I was processed out:

There were some surprises! I discovered that they had examined the contents of my seat bag. Perhaps they expected to find a syringe and EPO in there!

But when I opened the plastic property bag, there was a strange small paper bag inside, tagged with my name. Looking inside, I found that my hat had been returned to me! How cool is that?

Someone had to go a substantial distance out of their way to return it to me. To a different department too. It was a small thing, just a simple cycling cap. But I reckon it as a big deal. That was really nice.

So free again, I proceeded to impede traffic all the way home.

You Are Under Arrest!

2010-01-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

Checking over my shoulder, I merge onto the roadway and head for home. Within seconds, Red lights are flashing and I am again pulled over, even though I have broken no laws.

As deputy Z* got out of his cruiser, I turned off my taillight and double checked that my water-bottle was closed. I should have thought to flip my brake release levers, but I missed that one.
“Turn around and place your hands behind your back.” With those words my liberty was suspended. I was now a prisoner of Ellis County Sheriff’s office.

Deputy Z put me in the back seat behind the drivers seat. There was no more than four inches between my seat and the back of the front seat. I had to twist sideways to find a somewhat comfortable position. The tight confines made finding a “safe” position for my ever-threatening-to-cramp legs. My cycling cap was dislodged and fell to the floor. I forgot about it when I got out of the car. This was the unit that would take my bicycle to impound, and when my bicycle was returned to me, my hat was not with it.

It was a small thing, that hat, but useful. It was the only adjustment I made with my clothes for the return trip. I went to Waxahachie bare headed, but because dusk was approaching, I wanted to retard some of the heat loss going home.

The thin and light hat is very flexible, especially when combined with skull caps and beanies, helping to keep things just right over a wide range of temperatures. There are too many pressing needs that are ahead of a new hat, so I won’t be replacing it very soon.

Deputy z began trying to fit my bicycle into the trunk. I tried not to think about it. I finally couldn’t stand it any more and I shouted at him to take the front wheel off. He came forward and opened my door to hear what I was fussing about. I calmly asked him to take the front wheel off.

He retreated to the back of the car again. I heard voices. Another unit had arrived.

The door on the passenger side was opened. A new deputy, who I regret that I failed to remember his name, asked me to get out on that side of the car. “It’s safer than on the traffic side.” He said.

I couldn’t just slide over, because there was a center post that left zero inches between the seats. My legs were still threatening to cramp, and now I had to twist and turn and worm my way across the seat. I asked him to grab my shoulder and help, and once this deputy got permission, it went much better.

This deputy had me stand on the side of the road, off the shoulder, and he patted me down. I didn’t have many places to secret contraband in my long tights! He was soon joined by another Ellis county police unit. That made ten police cruisers that contacted me that day- ten police units to suppress the Hwy 287 crime wave!

It was decided among the three that Deputy Z would take my bicycle to impound, and the deputy who helped me out of the car would take me to jail. He took charge of packing my bicycle into the car, and he wisely abandoned the idea of using the trunk. I was standing a few feet away from him, as he began to put it into the back seat. I suggested he put it in with the derailleur on the other side.

“What’s a derailleur?” he asked. “The drive train. Put it on the other side, it will go in easier.” I resigned myself to losing several available gears on the ride home due to a bent derailleur. Sigh. (My bike was undamaged in the end- Thank you, sir!)

(As I re-read this description, I can see that my dear reader could get the idea that I am being derisive of this deputy. I really think it is commendable of him. He didn’t understand, just as you and I once didn’t, and he has the self-confidence to ask a “stupid” question. Now he knows, and my instructions were clearer as I adapted them to better fit his bicycle knowledge.)

He turned the bike around, with the front wheel removed and began gingerly working it into the car. “Make the pedals parallel to the ground.” I suggested. “And turn the handlebars sideways.”
He responded magnificently and it was put away smoothly. Then he put me in front seat of his cruiser (My crampy legs were grateful!) and buckled me in.

Now as we are driving back to Waxahachie, he begins pumping me with questions, and I smelled a conspiracy to get me to say things to be used “in a court of law”. I got real careful in my answers, to only speak about the law, not motivations.

But I think he was genuinely curious, as he allowed he was crash investigation specialist. When I mentioned the legal basis for using the roadway by section address, he immediately pulled up chapter 551 on a internet connected laptop between us. With it displayed before us, we discussed the language of the bike specific laws. And we discussed some of the things that make shoulders hazardous to travel on for a cyclist. I don’t know if he was persuaded, but he listened intently and asked good questions.

I will set aside most of the interesting things that happened in the Ellis County Jail for a future post, but a couple need to mentioned now.

During processing, I was informed that the charges against me had been changed. (I don’t remember the original charges because the new charge is so astonishing.) I was arrested for: “Operating a bicycle on the roadway.” Wow. That is sort of like being arrested for walking on a sidewalk!

I also want to make clear that there were many courtesies extended towards me, most done without my requesting them. There is nothing that I can complain about over my treatment, and much that I have to be grateful for. I have a lot to say about this later as well.

So I have been ticketed twice for operating legally on a public road, and even arrested for it, having my liberty physically suspended for a period of nineteen hours. (Although I did sort of ask for it!) I am becoming anxious to present my case before a judge. I cannot guarantee that there won’t be more crime waves breaking out on Hwy 287.

* Sadly, I do not remember this deputy’s name, although I am sure it began with a “Z”. I normally have trouble remembering names, and this had been a busy day. In my defense, I expected his name to be on my paperwork, and it is not. But I have the right to confront my accuser, so I will see him again.

Perilous Journey

2010-01-22T14:41:00.002-06:00

Wednesday January 13, 2010

I rolled out of my driveway at about 2:30 on a trip to Waxahachie. It was warmer than it had been in days, even though it was cloudy. The weatherman had predicted a high of 55 degrees, but it was already warmer than that. Rain was scheduled to start the next evening. I had some extra pieces of warm clothing in a small back-pack, just in case I was caught out after dark.

Raining buckets

Turning right onto West Ennis Avenue, I found that traffic was unusually light. Up ahead, on the right side of the road is a Jiffy-Lube station setback from the road about two hundred feet.
Their parking lot/driveway has long unobstructed sight lines for my travel lanes. As I approached that driveway, a delivery truck, the size of a rental truck, speeds down the driveway and onto the roadway in front of me. (Yes this scofflaw driver failed to stop before crossing the sidewalk, tisk tisk!) There was never a chance of our colliding, and there was no traffic behind me at all. At least, no chance of the truck colliding with me. His cargo, however, that is a different matter!

He had turned away from me enough so that when he crossed the sidewalk I was able to observe his roll-up back door slide open! And out slides a plastic five gallon pail of some unknown liquid, and it slides directly at me! Yikes! I prefer dogs over pails, all things considered…

I successfully dodged that pail, and I watch as two more crash to the pavement up ahead. Astonishingly, none of them broke their seals. The pail behind me had rolled around onto the shoulder, but the ones up ahead came to rest in the suicide left turn lane and the passing lane, respectively.

I quickly do a shoulder check, and see that there is only one automobile approaching, and it is being steered in my lane. The operator seems to be slowing to maneuver around me, and I fear they may not observe the gray colored pails in front of me in time to avoid them and me both. I raise and lower my left arm as though I am attempting to fly with one wing to alert them. (It can in no way be described as a Keri wave.)

The communication has it’s desired effect, the automobile driver slows to about fifteen miles and hour and carefully maneuvers around all the obstacles. I stop and carry the pail out of the travel lane and onto the shoulder of the road. Jiffy-Lube employees are collecting the others. Traffic was so light, no other vehicle came by until after I had continued on my way.
Crime wave reported on Hwy 287

Traveling west on Hwy 287 is uneventful outside of the usual geese. As I approach Ennis city limits, two Ennis police cruisers pull around me and stop in a cross-over ahead of me. Both officers get out and I recognize Sgt. Sifuentes.

The other officer (Perhaps Officer Hudson? I am not sure, but I think so.) shouts something to me, perhaps imploring me to drive on the shoulder, but a platoon of traffic makes it impossible to hear them. I proceed on my way.

Nothing else unusual happens while on Hwy 287. But while I am transitioning from Hwy 287 to Business Route 287, State Trooper Jackson pulls me over.

In response to my question as to why he pulled me over, he tells me they had been receiving a lot of calls about me.

I ask him if he had observed any illegal behavior on my part, and he claimed he hadn’t. I complain that he was out of line in pulling over a law abiding citizen on the flimsy evidence of Texas drivers who know little about traffic law.

He agrees with me, and asks that I be careful and releases me. I counter that he should advise his dispatchers to tell those complaining about me that we have the right to travel on the roadway. I ask him if I could take his picture, and he agrees, noting that he is taking mine with his dash camera.

My experience with state troopers has shown that they, as a group, they are far more familiar with the slow moving vehicle statutes than any other police force I have had contact with.
Outside of his poor decision (In my opinion.) to pull me over, Trooper Jackson was exemplary in his professional demeanor. Other than the circumstances, I am glad to have met him.

Funny comment in town

I was the first in line at the red light at Business 287 (Main St.) and Hwy 77 in downtown Waxahachie. Ahead of me, at the business on the right corner, they are doing some construction project inside, and one of their work trucks is parked on the sidewalk- in order to be close to the side door.

A fella is holding the door open for the passage of the workers trooping to and from the truck. As I proceed through the intersection on the green light, I overhear him say to someone inside the building; “Hey, look at this cyclist riding in the middle of the street like a car!”
I wish I had managed to say; “Yeah, and look at the guy who parks his truck on the sidewalk!” I had a good chuckle over it anyway.

The perilous trip home

While traveling homeward along Business 287, within a mile or so of Hwy 287, a state trooper pulls up beside me on the shoulder, and paces me. We have a conversation that way, traveling abreast.

He suggests a different route for me, and at first I misunderstand his meaning. After a bit, I see that he is suggesting that the next time I ride this way, I go north on Hwy 77, follow the service road to where it ends, and then enter Hwy 287 about three miles before I would on my present route! He thought it would be better for me because the road surface would be a lot smoother. Finally, advice I can use!

It would be out of my way some, but the upside would be I would get to annoy many more motorists! Hwy 77 is nice but busy four-lane, compared with the light traffic and bad surface on Business 287’s two-lane.

Needless advice, but with emphasis

As it is past five o’clock, traffic is considerably heavier now on Hwy 287. Typically, many geese sound their annoyance as they overtake me in the open lane to my left, and occasionally on the shoulder to my right.

In the distance ahead, I see a pick-up pull onto the shoulder and stop. I don’t think much about it at the time.
As I eventually approach, the driver hops o

ut of the cab and steps up to the edge line of the right lane. He is middle aged wearing a hard hat and heavy boots.

He gestures wildly pointing to the shoulder. He is very animated and has an angry countenance on his face. I edge over to the left a bit, and eye him warily.

He shouts; “Get on the shoulder! Quick! The police have been called and they will be here any minute!” He hops up and down. As I think back on it, I can easily imagine him saying “Goll durn it!” and “Tar nation!”. If you imagine him as Yosemite Sam, you will have a good image of who he reminded me of.

I belatedly think that I should’ve said; “I can’t! There is a truck parked on the shoulder!”
If I have any wit at all, it is a slow wit!

Civilization saved: The police arrive at last!

Yes, another traffic stop.

Officer Hudson of the Ennis PD approaches me, but I am distracted, leaning over my handlebars in pain.

As I set my left foot down, all of my left quadricept muscles cramp, and I am trying not to scream.

Officer Hudson speaks to me and I ask him to support me as I fear I will topple over, and I tell him about my distress. My right quads, feeling left out, join in the fun and I am not really aware of all of the things going on around me for the next two hours or so. (It was only a minute or two, but you get my drift.)

The usual questions are asked; “Why don’t you drive on the shoulder? How could it be safer on the road? You’ll get run over out there!”

Back-up arrives to make sure the crime wave on Hwy 287 is properly dealt with. From his Ennis police car steps Officer Watson. He comes up as I finally dismount from my bike. He and I exchange pleasantries and have a short conversation.

Officer Hudson writes me a ticket for the crime of: “Park bicycle on sidewalk/impede traffic”. Evidence of progress in their electronic ticket program. They didn’t have a bicycle specific impeding traffic entry back on October first. You can see the wireless device in his hand in his photograph.

I ask Officer Hudson if I can take a photograph of him, and he agrees. I warn Officer Watson that he may wish to step aside if he wishes to be out of the frame.

I am again pleased by the professionalism and demeanor of our Ennis police officers. Their conduct as a whole is commendable. I have no reason to think that there is any personal animosity towards me.

I remove my back-pack to stow away the ticket I have just received, and Officer Hudson and Officer Watson leave the scene in the direction of Ennis.

As I zip up the back-pack, I look up to see an Ellis County Sheriff’s police cruiser pull up to me.
With the opportunity to double-down on yesterdays teaser, I will make you wait yet another day to find out what happened!

(Yes, ChipSeal has descended into blatant cheap tricks to boost traffic to his blog! He really IS an annoying cyclist, isn’t he?)

While Minding My Own Business…

2010-01-19T17:11:00.002-06:00

As I zip up my back-pack, I look up to see an Ellis County Sheriff’s Police cruiser pulls up to me.

I am on the shoulder of Hwy 287, and I am about to continue on my way home. It is dusk and I turn my rear light on as wait to see what this deputy wants to say to me.

“We’ve been receiving a lot of calls that you have been riding on the roadway.”

“Yes” I say; “In the middle of the lane, just like all the other vehicles.”

He says; “No, you have to ride on the shoulder.”

“Are you saying I can’t drive on the roadway?”

“I’m saying you have to drive on the shoulder.”

I tell him; “That would compromise my safety. I am going to drive home on the roadway.”

He says; “Your not listening to me, you have to ride on the shoulder, or I’m going to arrest you.”

I say, “Because that is an unlawful order, and it will compromise my safety, I am going to drive in the lane.”

With that, I check for traffic, mount my bicycle and merge onto the roadway.

Tomorrow, I will tell you what happened on that day.

2010-01-07T14:43:00.000-06:00

Since I live about 170 miles north of the City of Manor, I can only fantasize about protesting in person their bicycle ban. But I have some ideas about how to make some noise about it if I lived in Austin.

I would drive my bicycle up to the edge where bicycle use is prohibited. I would dismount and take off my cleats and socks. I would then cross the road to walk to the end of manor’s jurisdiction facing traffic. I would use the roadway as a pedestrian for the length of the banned portion of the road, and then remount to continue on my way.

I would not walk on the shoulder, as that would be far too hazardous for me do in bare feet. (I define the word “tenderfoot”)

I would do it as often as I could. I would be especially keen to do this during rush hours. I would recruit my friends so we could do it in groups.

This would be a passive-aggressive gambit. I want to legally obstruct the traffic flow to the extent that the local travelers would rather I be riding my bicycle than walking it.

Because it is a public road, it is open to every form of traffic, except that of bicycles, which are banned. Pedestrians are traffic according to the Texas Transportation Code. (TTC) [1]

I would expect that the police would be called. If they did not show up by the time I traversed the banned section, I would call and complain about pedestrians on the road myself! (In an especially whiny tone of voice, by the way.)

Police Contact

If the good citizens of Manor have arranged to get bicycles off their precious road, they will no doubt feel wronged if a cyclist can walk upon it. Complaints to the local constable may ensue, and it will be good to establish the legality of pedestrian use of the road early with them.

On the road, as a lawful pedestrian, I would end any interaction with police as soon as possible. Outside of giving them my real name and address, [2] I would not give them any other information. I would ask a lot of questions, and write down the answers. I would write down their name. I would ask why they were stopping me. What law am I in violation of? Can I read the ordinance they are accusing me of breaking? Is our conversation being recorded? What is the procedure of obtaining a copy of this recording?

I would continually ask to be allowed to continue on my way. For example;

They might ask you where you are going. Answer: “That away.” Point up the road. “Can I be back on my way now?”

They might ask you where you are coming from. Answer: “From back there.” Point back down the road. “Can I be back on my way now?”

They may ask you what you are doing out there on this road. Answer: “Traveling on a public road. Can I be back on my way now?”

If they ask you why you didn’t use an alternative road, I would say something like “I chose to use this public road, as is my right, is it not? Are we done here?”

An alternative answer to any of those particular questions would be to answer with a question like this; “Did you stop me for that purpose? To ask where I work, where I am going, where I am coming from, to find out why I am here? May I continue on my way then, please?”

They may say that you are free to go, and then ask you if they could talk to you about it. Take the opportunity to leave. They simply want to tell you to stay out of the way, blah blah blah. A safety lecture. There is no upside for you, and you will be tempted to lower your guard and say things that are not in your best interest.

Provided they don’t make up a law, they will have no reason to give you a citation or a warning. They will settle for a stern safety lecture. I would promptly complain to the officer’s supervisor over this. Stopping a lawful pedestrian under the penalty of law (You have to stop or be subject to arrest.) to be given a safety lecture is an abuse of power.

If I lived a reasonable distance from Manor, (And I had an automobile) I would often drive through that section well below the speed limit. There is no minimum speed limit. [3] The Maximum Speed Limit law [4] should be employed to justify your slower speed through there. [5] Be familiar with the Slow Moving Vehicle laws of Texas and be in compliance with them. [6] Be sure your automobile is current with registration and insurance, and that all lights are in working order.

If you are subject to a traffic stop in your automobile, only answer questions that are pertinent to your stop. For example; “Why are you driving so slow?” (“They banned bicycles on this road due to its condition, so I am just being reasonable and prudent for a road that is in such bad shape.”)

“You have to keep up with other traffic!” (I am required by law to drive in a prudent manner and with due care. I am not responsible for the reckless behavior of other drivers. Why are you allowing them to operate in such cavalier manner at this time and place?)

“You are holding up traffic!” (I am traffic. I am traveling as fast as is safe for the current conditions and potential hazards. The other traffic is violating the maximum speed law of Texas. I would think that your beef would be with them!)

“You have to drive faster through here!” (Are you instructing me to operate my car at a faster speed than I am comfortable with?”) [7]

Not A Cause For Austin?

I hear Austin has a vibrant cycling community. Well connected and engaged in advocacy issues. Perhaps they are OK if a community near them bans bicycles from an otherwise public thoroughfare. They wouldn’t ride there anyway! After all, Manor has no three foot ordinance to protect cyclists, and there are no bike lanes that extend all the way to the City of Manor. It would be impossible to ride there on a bicycle!

What good is there in having a three-foot law when you are not allowed on the street in the first place? What’s the use of getting more butts on bikes when they can only ride to destinations connected with a MUP? Why is this not an issue with you? (Queue the sound of crickets)

Other Things To Do

The City of Manor has a website and a facebook page. Call, write and e-mail them asking when the “temporary” ban will be lifted. Ask them when the road repairs will be completed.

Request that the local news media follow the issue.

Show up at Manor town meetings and request time to petition the town officials about the issue.

Publish pictures of the signs and the “damaged and dangerous” road.

Cyclists and bicycle advocates of Austin; Don’t you think it is about time to make some noise over this? Or are you content to leave well enough alone, hoping they will ban bicycles on your street last?

[1] Sec. 541.301. TRAFFIC. In this subtitle "traffic" means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles and streetcars, singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel.

[2] In Texas, one must give to a police officer who requests it his real name and current address. You are not required to carry ID, and in this situation I would not. However, if you do not produce evidence that satisfies the officer that you are telling him who you are truthfully, he can detain you until your ID can be confirmed. When you are operating a motor vehicle on a public road, you must be able to produce a driver’s license at any time.

[3] Sec. 545.363 (c) If appropriate signs are erected giving notice of a minimum speed limit adopted under this section, an operator may not drive a vehicle more slowly than that limit except as necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.

[4] Sec. 545.351. MAXIMUM SPEED REQUIREMENT. (a) An operator may not drive at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the circumstances then existing. (b) An operator: (1) may not drive a vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions and having regard for actual and potential hazards then existing; and (2) shall control the speed of the vehicle as necessary to avoid colliding with another person or vehicle that is on or entering the highway in compliance with law and the duty of each person to use due care. (c) An operator shall, consistent with Subsections (a) and (b), drive at an appropriate reduced speed if: (1) the operator is approaching and crossing an intersection or railroad grade crossing; (2) the operator is approaching and going around a curve; (3) the operator is approaching a hill crest; (4) the operator is traveling on a narrow or winding roadway; and (5) a special hazard exists with regard to traffic, including pedestrians, or weather or highway conditions.

[5] As you can see in the footnote above, (b)(1) one cannot drive faster than prudent for potential hazards that may exist. One hazard present is road surface conditions so treacherous as to necessitate the banning of bicycles. It is reasonable to expect that motorists could encounter pedestrians on the road as well, a condition (c)(5) in the statute above, in light that cyclists cannot ride their bicycles there.

[6] Sec. 545.051 (b) An operator of a vehicle on a roadway moving more slowly than the normal speed of other vehicles at the time and place under the existing conditions shall drive in the right-hand lane available for vehicles, or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, unless the operator is: (1) passing another vehicle; or (2) preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

Note the word “or” in the above statute. If you are in a motor vehicle, and you are on a laned roadway, as the road in question is, you are in compliance with this statute if you are in the rightmost lane available. If the roadway is unlaned, then the “curb or edge of roadway” part applies.

Sec. 545.363. MINIMUM SPEED REGULATIONS. (a) An operator may not drive so slowly as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.

By driving slower than other traffic on the road, you are claiming that, in the first place, the road is too dangerous for bicycles according to the City of Manor and their posted highway signs. Prudence would dictate that automobile operators should use extra caution on a road whose surface is in such bad shape.

Secondly, it would not be unreasonable to expect to encounter a pedestrians on this road, as cyclists would be afoot and there is no sidewalk. A special hazard, a pedestrian, may exist.(See Sec.545.351 (c)(5))

[7] Traveling at the posted maximum speed limit is only allowed when conditions are perfect. Anything that would mar that perfection will demand a slower maximum speed limit than the posted speed limit. Perhaps the Officer could explain to a judge how a road who’s surface is too dangerous for bicycles to safely traverse is simultaneously the perfect road conditions for a car, thus allowing the posted maximum speed limit to prevail?

What To Do About Manor

2010-01-06T14:35:00.003-06:00

The City of Manor (Near Austin) has seen fit to ban bicycles on a road through their city. There is no reasonable alternative road for the destinations provided by that road- hence it’s popularity by local motorists and cyclists alike.

They claim the ban is for the safety of cyclists due to surface hazards present on the road, and it is only a temporary situation. I believe that the excuses used to ban bicycles are being employed to camouflage the real purpose of the ban.

If the real reason were for the protection of cyclists, then motorcycles would also be banned, they would have petitioned to lower the posted speed limits, and they would have moved to fix the road. The City of Manor has done none of these things.

It seems to me that Manor residents are upset that they had to share that road with slow vehicles, most (If not all) of whom were from out of town. In short, the public roads in Manor have ceased to be public.

The hard questions that are put to city officials are stonewalled or given the run-around. When questioned about road repair timelines, it has become apparent that the term “temporary” can only be understood as being accurate in a way a geologist could use it.

If Texas cyclists had an advocacy organization that was interested in preserving the liberties of their constituents, it would have been engaged with resolving this encroachment on them by now. But since no advocacy group has seen fit to take up the cause, I must sadly conclude that such an organization has yet to be formed.

Pay No Attention To The Costs

2009-12-24T06:00:00.001-06:00

Country Club road has a sharp turn near the airport property.

It is a trap that catches incompetent drivers.

It caught another one the other day.

After destroying the gate, the motorist fled in his red vehicle.

This is part of the hidden costs our society pays in exchange for tolerating low driving competency. The costs are somewhat random and most often fall on the innocent, like this gate owner.

We protect the perpetrators of these injustices because it might hurt their feelings to point out that they are a menace to our ordered society. Their victims are faceless and without a voice.

This gate owner may have been eyeing the prospect of buying a new suit. Perhaps now he will be unable to afford it. If this were so, the tailor is also a victim of this drivers inability to keep his automobile on the road.

The dislocation of resources from wealth creating activities to replacing the premature losses of property is one of the hidden and unnoticed costs of these unskilled drivers. Our whole community is poorer for it.

They are a destructive force in our midst much like a runaway fire.

We need to find ways to identify the incompetent drivers and keep them from getting behind the wheel until they can demonstrate a higher skill set before they are unleashed on the public again. Our attitude toward their behavior needs to viewed with more alarm than the present compassionate coddling.

Oops!

2009-12-23T12:08:00.002-06:00

In a footnote in this essay, I said that I thought it could be argued that a cyclist in Texas only had the rights as driver of any other type of vehicle when he was operating on the roadway, and these rights [1] did not extend to operations on the shoulders.

I made those statements hastily, and I have spent some time considering it anew, and I was wrong.

Sec. 551.001. PERSONS AFFECTED. This chapter applies only to a person operating a bicycle on:
(1) a highway; or
(2) a path set aside for the exclusive operation of bicycles.

All well and good, but what does "highway" mean?

Sec. 541.302. (5) "Highway or street" means the width between the boundary lines of a publicly maintained way any part of which is open to the public for vehicular travel.

I am now convinced, after ruminating on it for some time, it means in a more plain way this: "Public maintained property with a roadway, from fence line to fence line".

This definition is structured this way to exclude publicly maintained property such as a high voltage power line’s right of way or parks and recreation areas.

I therefore retract my public speculation that our road rights end at the edge of the travel lane.

[1] Sec. 551.101. RIGHTS AND DUTIES. (a) A person operating a bicycle has the rights and duties applicable to a driver operating a vehicle under this subtitle, unless:
(1) a provision of this chapter alters a right or duty; or
(2) a right or duty applicable to a driver operating a vehicle cannot by its nature apply to a person operating a bicycle.

Something I'm Wondering About

2009-12-20T08:00:00.001-06:00

If cycling two abreast is rude behavior and a crime against humanity, why are we then expected to travel two abreast with an automobile?

That is, if it is bad behavior and wrong to cycle side-by-side with another cyclist within a travel lane, why is it then expected that we should ride side-by-side with all motorists within the lane? Who is being rude in that circumstance?

It Is Hard To Plan For Traffic Stops

2009-12-18T13:07:00.006-06:00

So when I was done with the things I had to do in downtown Ennis, I headed out to Waxahachie for an appointment I had there. With a 18 mile trip before me, I figured that an hour and a half would be plenty of time.

I figured wrong.

This happened on Tuesday December 16.

I took Hwy 287; a four lane road with a center median and all the look of a limited access freeway except for all the driveways and cross streets. No signal lights for ten miles. Sixty five mile per hour posted speed limit. A shoulder of varying width from six inches to ten feet. A rumble strip straddling the transition from a resurface job, which in practice meant that the inside of the rumble strip was a couple inches higher than the outside edge. An occasional right and left turn only lane. Twelve foot wide travel lanes. Real smooth pavement on the roadway. [1]

My appointment was at three in the afternoon, and I rolled out of downtown Ennis just after one thirty.

As is usual when I take the lane on a road with a shoulder, I was frequently honked at. Isn’t the freedom of expression great? It makes it so much easier to spot the idiots!

What was unusual is that about half of the commercial trucks chose to identify their IQ! That is way high in my experience. As a percentage, maybe five to ten percent of private vehicles honked. The usual number chose to pass me on the right on the shoulder which is a crime in Texas. [2]

The First Stop

After a few miles. A State trooper’s vehicle passed me. He slowed and used a crossover to wait for me. As I passed his location, he got on his PA system and said; “For safety’s sake, will you please ride on the shoulder?”

I emphatically shook my head no and continued on my way.

When traffic permitted, he pulled onto the roadway and displayed his lights. I stopped and waited for him. [3] I regret that I am unable to remember his name.

“It’s dangerous to ride out there” he said.

“It’s even more dangerous on the shoulder.” I said. “Do you think drivers are so incompetent that they will run over objects in their path?”

“That’s what the rumble strips are for- to protect the idiots from themselves!”

He then painted a preposterous scenario. He said that if someone panicked and traffic backed up then I would be guilty of impeding traffic.

I pointed out one of Texas’s laws in the Texas Transpiration Code (TTC) and we discussed it for a while. I am reluctant to share it here until after my ticket is resolved with the city of Ennis. I see no point in helping the DA in convicting me by pointing out statutes I will defend myself with.

He then asked me for my ID. Good for him! He didn’t ask me for a driver’s license! I promptly began digging into my backpack to get it.

He asked me where I was going. “That away”’ I said, indicating down the road. He didn’t pursue the issue, as it was really immaterial to the traffic stop. [4]

Handing him my ID, he said that he would be writing me a warning.

“What is the charge?” I asked.

“Impeding traffic.”

“Will you be citing the section of the transportation code?”

“I’ll have to look it up for you”

As he returns to his vehicle, I pull out my camera. His dashcam is taking pictures of me, I am taking pictures of him.

About then another police unit pulls up. Officer XXX of the Ennis police department gets out and walks up to me.

What’s he saying to you?” he asks, indicating the trooper.

“He thinks I should be riding on the shoulder.”

Sergeant Joe Sifuentes informs me that Ennis police are getting a lot of calls complaining about me. Then, deciding the state trooper has things under control, wishes me a Merry Christmas and leaves.

The Texas Trooper returns and says that he can’t find the statute he was looking for, and he tells me I am free to go. He urges me to ride on the shoulder where he believes I will be safer. I thank him for his concern and wish him a Merry Christmas, and at the next gap in traffic, I merge onto the roadway again.

I found the State Trooper’s demeanor to be exemplary. He was polite, friendly and professional. Nonetheless, I think he felt it was his greater duty to enhance traffic flow rather than to expect road users to follow the rules.

The Second Stop

Soon enough, business 287 peels off of Hwy 287. It becomes a narrow two lane 55 MPH shoulderless chipsealed road for about two miles, and then it changes into a 30 mph narrow two lane residential road. It was on this residential part when a Waxahachie police officer pulls me over.

This young officer seemed to be in his mid twenties. He asked me to step off the roadway so he could talk to me safely rather than standing in front of his cruiser in view of the dashcam.

“Are Waxahachie drivers so incompetent that they can’t avoid a pedestrian on the street?”

I think this question derailed his agenda. He took a moment to get started again.

“Are you coming from Ennis?” I nod in affirmation. “We have been getting a lot of calls about you, they say you are wandering all over the road.”

“I wasn’t wandering at all, I was riding in the center of the lane, just like they were.”

“Your supposed to ride on the right half of the lane.”

I deny that his understanding is correct. “You should refresh your memory. The part you want is section 551.103.”

This rattles him as well, and he is now clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. He quickly ends the traffic stop, and I again resume my trip. Alas, I am too late for the meeting and my trip was for naught.

I strike up a conversation with someone while I rest, and perhaps get too involved in it, as it is dusk when I begin my return leg. I re-trace my path onto business 287. Only a couple of idiots identify themselves.

I turn on my rear blinky just before I merge into traffic on Hwy 287.

Another ten miles of serial rudeness ensues.

The Third Stop

As I exit Hwy 287 onto the business 287 near Ennis, I am again pulled over for a traffic stop. It is Sergeant Joe Sifuentes again! He doesn’t even bother to get out of his cruiser. He is polite and professional, but he is responding to the urging of dispatchers. I doubt he would've pulled me over on his own initiative.

He too proposes a preposterous analysis. He asked me why all those cars were taking evasive action, changing lanes, slamming on their breaks and swerving onto the shoulder? I said it was because the drivers were incompetent and impatient.

No, he said, it was because of you! I denied that it was my fault that they were passing me illegally; On the right and on the shoulder. Who’s fault was it then, he asked, incredulous at my reply.

I said that I had no power to steer an automobile. Those motorists have a legal duty to observe my right-of-way.

He then asked me for my name and such, as he needed to write a report of the stop so they have a record of my behavior in case something were to happen to me.

I laughed out loud at this. “So that I can be blamed if someone runs into me?”

Just at this point, our communication broke down due to an unfortunate collection of events. I spoke something to him and laughed again. He said something to me at the same time (cross-talked) and so I did not hear what he said, and some traffic passed by further muddying the sound for each of us. But he got angry that I laughed, thinking I was reacting to what he said.

I was realizing at that moment that his “windshield view” common sense was going to prevent him from ever believing that being legally in the way was safer than being out of the way on the shoulder. I was laughing at the absurdity of my attempting to convince him. Sadly, it caused him to harden his attitude toward me.

“Will you be laughing when someone runs you down?” He asked sharply.

“Do you ride a bicycle?” I asked him. He said he never does. I said; “I have ten thousand miles on that very bicycle right there, ridden in just this same way, and I am still here to talk about it. In this conversation, one of us is an expert at cycling and the other one is not.”

After a few more sage words of advice for me along the lines of the futility of being right but dead, he returned my ID and I continued on my way.

Reflections About These Events

Ignorance about most traffic laws is widespread in my community, and when it comes to bicycle specific traffic law the ignorance is even more acute.

It is first made apparent by the honking. For example, on the two lane near Waxahachie, a motorist a fair distance back honks at me. Short and polite: Honk-honk. After a moment, again: Honk-honk. And then, when I don’t disappear into thin air (It is hard to know what this motorist expected, as we were traveling on a ten foot wide lane- he would have had to encroach onto oncoming lanes no matter where I was laterally in the lane!): HONK hooonk hoooonk!

Many honk at me while sailing past me, unhindered, in the left lane. Perhaps they are expressing joy at finally coming across someone who is driving on the public road in a lawful manner!

In my presence, many many traffic laws were broken. But it was me, one of the few legal drivers, who was pulled over.

The State Trooper pulled me over on his own initiative, perhaps with genuine concern for me. I am sure that when he initiated his stop he was certain I was breaking some law, and he may have even had one or two in mind that failed to pan out.

The traffic stop by the Waxahachie police and the stop (Two stops?) by Ennis police were in response from phone calls dialed in to 911 lines. But once my behavior was observed, neither attempted to cite me for any offence. They just tried to convince me to ride where I believe it to be a compromise of my personal safety, for the purpose of enhancing the convenience of automobile drivers.

Mind you, I had no choice to opt out of the lectures. I had to stop under penalty of law. Bicyclists are just out for a lark anyway, right? It is folks in automobiles that are going somewhere important.

None of the illegal driving by licensed motorists were cited. Sergeant Joe Sifuentes even notes that he saw such behavior himself. He ignored all that, and pulled me over instead, even though he had not observed any unlawful behavior on my part.

Two officers commented that their departments had received many calls from motorist complaining that I was driving my bicycle in a legal manner. Why did that require a response by a patrol officer? Once the officer observed my driving, why did they continue with the stop?

Why couldn’t dispatchers tell motorists that bicycles are allowed to drive on the roadway?

The reason is that the whole of them are ignorant to what Texas law says. Because bicycle driving is uncommon, it is assumed that it is uncommon because it is illegal.

The result is that law abiding citizens are delayed, harassed and abused by law enforcement and by mistakenly outraged motorists. Meanwhile, the Texas Bicycle Coalition spends it’s legislative activities trying to pass new laws that are a simply a re-statement of current law.

Perhaps our bicycle advocates could work to change the real discrimination we Texas cyclists face. You know, something that would actually make Texas better for their constituents. (I know, I’m making crazy-talk again.)

Conquering the Frontiers of Ignorance

Perhaps our local police could become familiar with bicycle specific law if they are going to do something about scofflaw cyclists, and if they intend to respond to the uninformed opinion of angry Texans on the other end of a phone line.

I’ll even help them with a heads up for where to look:
Sec. 551 with a special emphasis on Sec. 551.103 (a)(4)(A) – I would suggest you read that part two or three times.

You should also become familiar with these sections which are important to understand when you are dealing with slow vehicles on the public road: Sec. 541.301, Sec. 545.002, Sec. 545.051, Sec. 545.058, Sec. 545.060, and Sec. 545.363

Ignorance can be defined as not knowing what you don’t know. One is not doomed to remain in ignorance forever. Those statutes there can start you on your path to enlightenment, if you want it.

[1] I am using the legal definition of the word “roadway”. From the TTC:
Sec. 541.302. (11) "Roadway" means the portion of a highway, other than the berm or shoulder, that is improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel.

[2] Sec. 545.058

[3] Note to SteveA. I watched to see if he was pulling onto the shoulder before I crossed the edge line. As I did later as well.

[4] In Texas, one is required to tell a law enforcement officer his real name and his current address. We are not required to produce ID of any kind, but the officer is allowed to detain you until your identity can be confirmed. When you are operating a motor vehicle, you must be able to produce a driver’s license on demand.

Thoughts From My Youth

2009-12-16T06:00:00.001-06:00

I grew up in Southern California, in a house on a hill that overlooked Interstate 10. `

We could hear the tires as endless streams of traffic flowed by. The freeway was like a living thing. It sang a loud and busy song during rush hours, and a lonely and mournful one before dawn that was punctuated by gaps of silence. The sound of the freeway was a background presence that ebbed and flowed across our days.

I would often wonder at the ceaselessness of it. Where are all those people going? Each vehicle representing one person or more, caught up in their own activities, thinking their own thoughts, each being pressed by their own individual, and yet also collective concerns. It filled me with wonder, and knowing that I was only observing a mile or so of the freeway, the thought of it quickly became too big for me to wrap my mind around.

“Our” part of I-10 was at the foot of a grade. They widened and improved the freeway when I was about ten years old, expanding it from a six lane to a eight lane freeway, and an extra slow lane on the uphill parts on each side of the hill.

With all those lanes to choose from to go over the hill on, nearly every truck grinding up that hill would collect two or three automobiles behind it. They would be unable to find a big enough gap in the next lane to merge into so that they could go around. It seemed surprising to me, because it was so consistently common.

The grade shouldn’t have been a surprise to any of them, because it was visible to travelers for more than three miles during their approach to it. Just as it is now, there was no concept of “stay right except to pass”. Every lane was “available” for the motorist to choose from. So why were so many drivers caught behind slow trucks in the rightmost lane?

Some of the hapless motorists were caught out attempting to pass traffic on the right. They had overestimated the trucks speed and were unable to reach the gap in the next lane they were aiming for. Their own aggressive driving backfired on them.

Most, however, were just not paying enough attention to avoid being in the right-most lane at the base of the hill.

Were the drivers of the cars in the second lane being rude to not merge left and provide a gap for the trapped motorists behind the trucks? Do they have some obligation to help them out of their jam? Should there be an expectation that they do so?

In short, what is the obligation of a lawful traveler on the public street to make it easier to for faster traffic to overtake him?

There is the legal requirement to maintain one’s course and not speed up then being passed, but is there some other unwritten moral obligation? What is it, and who gets to determine what that moral obligation is? What is the principle behind such a notion?

MOTORISTS NEVER THINK

2009-12-15T06:00:00.002-06:00

…about where they should position themselves within a lane.

Most traffic lanes are designed to accommodate a single line of vehicles. Motorists rarely have more than a few feet of lateral movement available to them within that single travel lane. It never occurs to them to consider where in the lane they ought to be laterally, their only concern is that they remain within the lane itself.

Many states have codified it into law. Texas demands that a driver “shall drive as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane”. [1] So with only being required to keep it between the lines, few if any auto drivers have thought about where they ought to be within that lane.

Motorcyclists and bicyclists have broader choices about what it means to travel “entirely within a single lane” than automobile operators. Many common traffic hazards can be avoided with proper lane position for such narrow vehicles. On the other hand, improper lane positions can increase the hazards they are exposed to.

People who only drive automobiles would never think that it would be proper or safe to share any travel lane side-to-side with a truck, with another car or even with a motorcycle. And yet they expect to share the lane side-to-side with bicycles all the time.

SHARING THE LANE

Because our streets, roads and traffic laws are based on the principle that a travel lane is for a single line of vehicles, “sharing the lane” means, in most instances, that you travel behind the vehicle in front of you until it is safe to pass.

To enhance traffic through-put, slow vehicles are required to use the rightmost lane then available. That is, to form a single line of vehicles in the right-most lane. There is no motor vehicle, anywhere, that is required to share a lane side-by-side with another vehicle other than the bicycle.

It is against the law to share a lane side-by-side with a motorcycle.

Singling out bicyclists as a vehicle that must share a lane side-by-side with other traffic was obviously an attempt to make motoring more convenient. But the lane sharing law has exceptions, lest the rule imperil cyclists.

Many conditions exist that make sharing a lane side-by-side dangerous for a cyclist. It is often things like debris, potholes at the side of the lane, parked cars and the like. These sort of things can make what appears to a motorist as a wide lane to actually be narrowed for the cyclist, that is, making it a narrow lane.

The share the lane side-to-side rule cannot be interpreted to compromise a cyclist’s safety.

WHAT IS A NARROW LANE ?

A narrow lane is a lane that is too narrow for a large vehicle and a bicycle to share side-by-side, or two small cars to travel down together side-to-side. A lane that is wide enough to share when the speed of both vehicles is slow may not be safe to share side-by-side at higher speeds.

The slower moving vehicle has the right to refuse to share the lane side-by-side if that driver deems it unsafe. It is always the duty of the faster vehicle to overtake the slower one in a safe manner and with due care. Even if the bicyclist chooses a lane position that encourages overtaking within the same travel lane, it is the passing vehicle that is at fault if the cyclist is hit or is caused to fall.

NARROW LANE POSITIONS

Perhaps you are a motorist, and you are wondering what are some of the considerations that go into why a cyclist chooses the lateral lane position he does. Or perhaps you are thinking of riding a bicycle on the public streets, and this is all new for you. Here are some of the things we are concerned about as cyclists when deciding where to ride in the travel lane. It has been adapted from the Texas Motorcycle Operators Guide.

In some ways the size of a bicycle can work to your advantage. Each traffic lane provides a bicycle with three paths of travel; The right tire track, centered in the lane and the left tire track.

Your lane position should:

• Increase your ability to see and be seen.
• Avoid others’ blind spot.
• Avoid surface hazards.
• Protect your lane from encroachment from other drivers.
• Communicate your intentions.
• Avoid wind blast from other vehicles.
• Provide an escape route.

Select the appropriate position in the lane to maximize your space cushion and to make yourself more easily seen by others on the road. In general, there is no single best position for riders to be seen and to maintain a space cushion around them. No portion of the lane need be avoided–including the center.

Position yourself in the portion of the lane where you are most likely
to be seen and you can maintain a space cushion around you. Change
position as traffic situations change. Ride centered or on the right tire track if vehicles and other potential problems are on your left only. Remain centered or in the left tire track if hazards are on your right only. If vehicles are being operated on both sides of you, the center of the lane is usually your best option.

INTERSECTIONS

The greatest potential for conflict between you and other traffic is at
intersections. An intersection can be in the middle of an urban area
or at a driveway on a residential street–anywhere traffic may cross
your path of travel. Cars that turn left in front of you, and cars on side streets that pull into or across your lane, are the biggest dangers.

There are no guarantees that others will see you. Never count on “eye contact” as a sign that a motorist will yield. Too often, they look
right at a cyclist and still fail to “see” him. The only eyes that you can count on are your own. If an automobile can enter your path be ready to avoid them if they do. Good drivers are always “looking for trouble”– not to get into it, but to stay out of it. For bicycle drivers, that means ignoring traffic behind you and concentrating your attention to where the dangers lie- ahead of you.

Increase your chances of being seen at intersections. Ride in a lane position that provides the best view of oncoming traffic. Provide a space cushion around you that permits you to take evasive action.

As you approach the intersection, select a lane position to increase your visibility to motorists. Be where they are scanning for traffic. Select the right-most lane for your destination. If there is a right turn only lane, for example, ride in the center of the right-most through lane. Watch out for oncoming left turners who will be inclined to “shoot the gap” in any traffic in the lane next to you. Cover your brakes to reduce reaction time.

BLIND INTERSECTIONS

If you approach a blind intersection, move to the portion of the lane that will bring you into another driver’s field of vision at the earliest
possible moment. For example, on a street with curb side parking, move to the left portion of the lane–away from the parked car–so the driver on the cross street can see you as soon as possible. Remember, the key is to see as much as possible and remain visible to others while protecting your space.

CONCLUSION

Many cyclists ignore these precepts without coming to harm. Which helps illustrate how safe cycling in a prudent and lawful manner really is.

Proper lane positioning will make a trip on a bicycle less stressful and more relaxing. You will be amazed at how courteously you will be treated by motorists when you claim your rightful place on the public road.

[1] Sec. 545.060.(a) An operator on a roadway divided into two or more clearly marked lanes for traffic shall drive as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane and may not move from the lane unless that movement can be made safely.

Unrepentantly Rude

2009-12-14T14:16:00.000-06:00

When I travel on the public roads, I am a chronic obstructionist. I am always in the way of others. I hold them up. I delay them. But so what? That’s what happens when I am riding in an automobile. It happens all the time. On every trip.

You do understand that I am talking about traveling in a automobile, don’t you? Curiously though, no one thinks it is rude when I obstruct them, when I am in their way, holding them up and delaying them when I am in a car!

My style of cycling, however, is described as rude. I ride my bicycle in the center of the street, the same place everyone else travels on the public road. You know, in the lane. And I do it in a rude way! Faster traffic has to change lanes to get around me! Ha!

I admit it. I am a serial road ruder.

When it comes to speed limits, I am an underachiever. Around here, they are not set low enough for me to break them. In fact, I often am not aware of what the speed limit is. (Or gasoline prices, but I’ve been told it’s rude to point that out as well.)

I commonly ride my bicycle on roads where the posted speed limit is fifty five miles an hour, and sometimes on a road that is posted at sixty five miles an hour. Not that motorists consider a mere speed limit a restraint on their behavior! **

If there were a minimum speed limit, I would violate that one. But there isn’t, so too bad for you. Boo hoo!

I am a social anarchist. I single handily smash down social norms and rip up social contracts!

Failing to meet the expectations of others to yield my right-of-way to them is a public scandal!

I arrogantly act as though my business on the road was as important as those of the motorists! (Oh what a cheeky fellow I am!)

I obstruct traffic while I use the very roads that gasoline taxes were used to build! I am without a doubt an unapologetic, selfish, free-loading prick!

I expect that I will be hearing from you the next time I take to the road. But if you wish to avoid being a hypocrite, stay out of the way of faster traffic. Pull aside when they approach, won’t you?

** Hey, y’all seem free to express your criticisms about how I drive my bicycle. Ain’t the freedom of speech fun? I get to comment on your competency as a auto driver!

You are operating in public, you know. Did you think I wouldn’t notice your barely adequate skill? I would say that the biggest contrast between your driving and mine is that I drive my vehicle lawfully.

Slow Vehicles and Lawful Lane Position

2009-11-30T11:26:00.003-06:00

The following is a guest blog from Bob Shanteau.

The current slow moving vehicle law is discriminatory in the following way:

ARTICLE III. DRIVING ON RIGHT SIDE OF ROADWAY

OVERTAKING AND PASSING USE OF ROADWAY11-301.

Drive on right side of roadway exceptions

(a) Upon all roadways of sufficient width a vehicle shall be driven upon the right half of the roadway, except as follows:

1. When overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction under the rules governing such movement;
2. When an obstruction exists making it necessary to drive to the left of the center of the highway; provided, any person so doing shall yield the right of way to all vehicles traveling in the proper direction upon the unobstructed portion of the highway within such distance as to constitute an immediate hazard;
3. Upon a roadway divided into three marked lanes for traffic under the rules applicable thereon; or
4. Upon a roadway restricted to one-way traffic.

(b) Upon all roadways any vehicle proceeding at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic, or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, except when overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction or when preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road, alley, or driveway.

(c) Upon any roadway having four or more lanes for moving traffic and providing for two-way movement of traffic, no vehicle shall be driven to the left of the center line of the roadway, except when authorized by official traffic-control devices designating certain lanes to the left side of the center of the roadway for use by traffic not otherwise permitted to use such lanes, or except as permitted under subsection (a)2 hereof. However, this subsection shall not be construed as prohibiting the crossing of the center line in making a left turn into or from an alley, private road or driveway.

The reason for this discussion about clarifying UVC section 11-301(b) appears to be confusion over the phrase: "any vehicle proceeding at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic, or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway", in particular the meaning of the word "or" in that phrase. Note that it is only necessary to satisfy one of the conditions in order to comply with the law (otherwise the word "and" would have been used). Let's call the conditions A and B:

Condition A = driving in the right-hand lane then available for traffic
Condition B = driving as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of roadway

On an unlaned roadway, condition A cannot apply, leaving only condition B. So the driver of a slow moving vehicle on an unlaned roadway who drives as far to the right as practicable is in compliance with UVC 301(b).

On a laned roadway, the right edge of the roadway usually coincides with the right-hand lane then available for traffic. The exception would be for a right-hand preferential lane, such as a bike lane. If there is no preferential lane, then the right side of the right-hand lane coincides with the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, in which case Condition A and Condition B are not mutually exclusive. In fact, on such a roadway Condition B is a subset of Condition A, meaning that by meeting Condition B you also meet Condition A.

So the driver of a slow moving vehicle on a laned roadway who drives in the right-hand lane then available for traffic is in compliance with UVC 301(b). If that driver were also required to drive as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of roadway, UVC 301(b), Condition A would not even have been necessary.

In fact, that is exactly the case for UVC 11-1205(a):

ARTICLE XII.OPERATION OF BICYCLES, OTHER HUMAN-POWERED VEHICLES, AND MOPEDS11-1205.
Position on roadway
(a) Any person operating a bicycle or a moped upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:
1. When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.
2. When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
3. When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, parked or moving vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge. For purposes of this section, a "substandard width lane" is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
(b) Any person operating a bicycle or a moped upon a one-way highway with two or more marked traffic lanes may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of such roadway as practicable.

By not containing Condition A, UVC 11-1205(a) deprives slow moving bicyclists of the same right to use the right-hand lane as other drivers. That is, someone driving a vehicle slower than other traffic in the center of the right lane, even though it would be practicable to drive further to the right, is in compliance with UVC 11-301(b), but a bicyclist who does the same thing is in violation of UVC 11-1205. In 1975-76, when I helped write the exceptions that became law in California and later became UVC 1205(a), I thought that we were establishing that bicyclists had the same lane rights as other drivers, but now I realize I was mistaken.

This lack of equality in the law's treatment of the operators of vehicles and of bicyclists is one of the things bicycle advocates ought to focus on. The most straightforward way of eliminating the inequality is simply to repeal UVC 11-1205, in which case bicyclists would be subject to the same slow moving vehicle law (UVC 11-301(b) or the equivalent) as other drivers.

If one argues that bicyclists should be required to move to the right side of the right lane in order to facilitate faster traffic for no other reason than that they are riding bicycles, then that would be the same as saying that bicyclists should not have the same road rights as other drivers and that there is no such thing as "driving your bicycle".

When I used to advocate for separating bicyclists from other traffic with bike lanes, I used to think that way. But I abandoned that way of thinking when I decided to drive my bicycle instead.

Robert M Shanteau, PhD, PE

Consulting Traffic Engineer (I became a traffic engineer over 30 years ago through bicycle advocacy)

Expert Witness

Member, Institute of Transportation Engineers

Member, Society of Forensic Engineers and Scientists

President, Monterey County Bicycling Advocacy Group

Ex-secretary, California Association of Bicycling Organizations (1973)

Ex-president, Santa Clara Valley Bicycle Association [Now Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition] (1972-1974)

Ex-president, East Bay Bicycle Coalition (~1978)

Publications:

"Are Sidepaths Included in the Definition of Class I Bikeways (Bike Paths)?" presented to the California Bicycle Advisory Committee, August 2, 2007

"Meeting the Challenges of Sidepath Intersection Design", presented to the California Bicycle Advisory Committee, October 6, 2007

"Proposed Revisions to the Caltrans Highway Design Manual to Address Sidepaths", presented to the California Bicycle Advisory Committee, December 6, 2007

"Detecting Bicycles and Motor Vehicles Using the Same Loop Detector", presented to the California Department of Transportation Electrical Systems Branch, October 16, 2007

Dr. Shanteau's Blog

Texas Maximum Speed Law Explained

2009-11-26T23:00:00.007-06:00

In my continuing quest to roll back the frontiers of ignorance, and bring understanding and light to the masses, I present to you Texas’s "maximum" speed law.

The Texas maximum speed law consists of three parts. An overall definition –part (a), a two part more specific definition –part (b)(1) and part (b)(2) and then five specific examples where slower speeds would be necessary.-Part (c) 1-5 We shall look at all of this in turn.

Part One

Sec.　545.351 (a)　　An operator may not drive at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the circumstances then existing.

When the term "operator" here is used, it is a reference to the vehicle the person is using. [1] Thus, this statute applies to drivers of automobiles, bicycles, horses, motorcycles, delivery trucks and ostriches. How fast a operator can go varies due to circumstances, and the operational capabilities of the vehicle under consideration, and even the skill of the operator himself.

A prudent speed for one type of vehicle may be far more or less than another type of vehicle. Say a 1976 Jaguar XJ6C compared to 1985 Yugo GV, for example.

A particular speed that is prudent for one driver may not be the same for a different driver in that very same vehicle. Perhaps the route is more familiar to one than the other. A prudent speed at night is different for that same trip in daylight.

Reasonable does not mean "common" or "normal" by the way. You don’t have to go very far on the public way to witness common behaviors that are anything close to reasonable, in the light of what this section of the law demands.

It is not reasonable to expect your automobile will be able to stop fast in snowy conditions just because you have four wheel drive.

Thus one is expected under the law to act in a reasonable and prudent manner.

Part Two

Sec. 545.351 (b)(1)　　An operator may not drive a vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions and having regard for actual and potential hazards then existing;

This part is very similar to part one, but with the addition of a qualifier for "reasonable and prudent" that goes beyond current conditions. One must also act with regard to hazards. One must drive slow enough to allow for hazards that could potentially exist.

Again, reasonableness is at play here. In the wee hours of the morning it is reasonable to find a polecat when crossing a creek bottom, but it would not be reasonable to drive with the expectation you would have to avoid a meteor.

Sec. 545.351 (b)(2)　　An operator shall control the speed of the vehicle as necessary to avoid colliding with another person or vehicle that is on or entering the highway in compliance with law and the duty of each person to use due care.

This informs those who wish to lawfully use the public road, that one may not go so fast that you would be unable to avoid crashing into slow vehicles on the roadway.

And this portion of the law introduces a new standard of conduct; That public use of the streets imposes on each of us a duty to exercise due care.

Due care refers to the effort made by an ordinarily prudent or reasonable party to avoid either causing property damage or physically harming another person, taking the circumstances into account.

When operating a vehicle on a public street, we need to be sure our vehicle is in working order. We need to be sober and alert. We need to avoid distractions so that we may properly pay attention to our driving. All of this is part of exercising due care on the public way.

Part Three

Sec. 545.351 (c)(1)　An operator shall, consistent with Subsections (a) and (b), drive at an appropriate reduced speed if the operator is approaching and crossing an intersection or railroad grade crossing.

I wonder how the phrase "appropriate reduced speed" interacts with the posted speed limit? In other words, you MUST slow down when approaching every intersection, to a speed that is appropriately less than what is posted. Traveling at the speed limit is not a reduced speed from the maximum posted speed limit. Unless one wishes to argue that reasonable and prudent speed (consistent with due care) is faster than the posted speed limit!

Sec. 545.351(c)(2)　　An operator shall, consistent with Subsections (a) and (b), drive at an appropriate reduced speed if the operator is approaching and going around a curve

Sec. 545.351(c)(3)　　An operator shall, consistent with Subsections (a) and (b), drive at an appropriate reduced speed if the operator is approaching a hill crest

Sec. 545.351 (c)(4) An operator shall, consistent with Subsections (a) and (b), drive at an appropriate reduced speed if the operator is traveling on a narrow or winding roadway;

I will group these three in one section because my comment addresses them all similarly.

Together, these three clauses mean that operators must not drive so fast that they cannot stop in the distance that they are able to see ahead of them. As you drive, imagine that up ahead, just beyond the point that you can see, there is a stationary obstruction in the road (perhaps a log, or even worse, an injured child). You cannot drive so fast that you cannot stop before reaching the object. It does not matter whether the hazard is hidden due to a curve in the road or the crest of a hill, you must be able to stop. It also does not matter if the posted speed limit is higher than the prudent speed or if your autimobile is capable of handling the road at a higher speed. You simply cannot lawfully drive faster than you can see. [2]

Sec. 545.351 (c)(5)　　An operator shall, consistent with Subsections (a) and (b), drive at an appropriate reduced speed if a special hazard exists with regard to traffic, including pedestrians, or weather or highway conditions.

Now most of us are good at recognizing inclement weather as a condition requiring reduced speed in order to be prudent, and potholes and downed trees seem self evident. In fact slow traffic being a condition that requires slowing down goes without saying. But look again at what Texas law says is included in "traffic"! Yes, pedestrians.

The maximum speed at any particular place is the speed that the slowest vehicle present is traveling. I think its important to emphasize that the posted speed limit is the maximum speed ever allowed under perfect conditions, with good sight lines, no intersections or traffic conflicts. Drivers must go slower than the posted speed limit for any conditions then existing at that time and particular place that mar that perfection. In fact, the posted speed limit under this statute is too fast if even the potential for a hazard is present!

Such conditions include but are not limited to weather, surface conditions, pedestrians, nightfall, animals and slow or stopped vehicles. If, for example, there is a stopped bus in the lane, the safe speed at that point is zero! If there is a front loader or horse drawn wagon, it sets the reasonable and prudent speed. If there is a bicyclist, he sets the reasonable and prudent speed in the lane he is using at that location. [3]

I am positive that many of you will be shocked at the implications of this plain and straightforward reading of this law. Either this standard for behavior is outlandishly high, or we as a society have fallen a very great distance indeed!

During the holiday season, I am reminded of this sad state of affairs we are in when I again watch the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life. In one place in the film, a despondent George Bailey (James Stewart) drives through a snowstorm with the idea of suicide in his head. As he draws close to the bridge, he loses control of his automobile and crashes into a great tree. I am always struck at the scandal this causes. George Bailey stumbles away from the crash while the property owner is shouting after him; "Who’s going to pay for the damage to my tree?"

The injured tree, suffering a small gash at the most, will have little more than a scar. It is a small scene, and it goes by fast. But it is made clear that a crime has just happened. Good citizens are expected to keep control of their vehicle on the public street. George Bailey has broken yet another public trust.

This law was written in the spirit of that public trust, yet it is universally neglected. Today it would be a scandal if this law were enforced! It is not even deemed applicable when two people die when the maximum speed limit law is broken.

When civility returns to our streets, one part of that will be an awaking of this public trust, and an expectation of it’s observance by our fellow citizens again.

But the good news is, you can be a lawful operator without waiting for it to become fashionable! Yes you can -and ought to- obey this law now! You now know that it is both your moral and legal duty to drive with due care, and alas, you cannot undo the knowing of it.

You will be breaking the law if you travel at the posted speed limit in anything less than the perfect conditions. Think of the awful consequences of being a responsible motorist! You will have to leave for your various destinations earlier than before. You will experience less stress and anxiety. You will have less wear and tear on your automobile. You might even save on some gas.

On the other hand, you will annoy many of your stressed out scofflaw and irresponsible fellow citizens who routinely act without due care. They may say mean things to you. They may honk their horns. They may even try to communicate with sign language, if you get my drift. You could get your feelings hurt.

So there it is. The gauntlet has been thrown down at your feet. You can resolve to do the hard but right thing, or you can give in and continue to be part of the problem.

If you have stuck with this post so far, gentle reader, please go and read this essay too. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Now think about what you would rather have for your children to inherit. The culture of speed, or the culture of trust?

Then take a moment to dream. Dream big dreams. Dream that it can happen here.

Let the dream begin with you.
　
[1] Sec.　545.002.　 In this chapter, a reference to an operator includes a reference to the vehicle operated by the operator if the reference imposes a duty or provides a limitation on the movement or other operation of that vehicle.
The maximum speed law (Sec. 545.351) imposes both a duty to use due care, and a limitation on the movement (Speed, obviously) of vehicles. Therefore this statute applies to all things that are vehicles under Texas law.
Sec.　541.201. (23)　　"Vehicle" means a device that can be used to transport or draw persons or property on a highway.
This definition is rather inclusive, but it is narrower than the definition of "traffic";
Sec.　541.301.　　TRAFFIC.　 In this subtitle "traffic" means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles and streetcars, singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel.
There are some curious crossovers in the two definitions. Traffic includes herded animals, but if the herded animal is being used to carry property, it will now fit the definition of a vehicle. Put bells on your sheep, and they become vehicles!

[2] Adapted from Bicycles and the basic speed law by Bob Shanteau 12/31/2007 Concepts and phrases are his and used with permission.

[3] Wayne Pein, e-mail dated November 24, 2009 Adapted with permision.

2009-11-26T04:00:00.003-06:00

　
I have a lot to be thankful for. Beyond the obvious (but so normal we overlook it) like health and mobility, though perhaps I suffer from a touch of feebleness of mind! I have been reflecting this week on paying attention to good things around me.

So of course I thought of you.

After engaging in cycling issues on forums and commenting on bicycle blogs, I was invited by P.M. Summer to be a guest blogger on his CycleDallas blog. I hope I didn’t drive away very many regular readers of his!

His blog is bicycle advocacy oriented, and I desired to write a bit more personally than was proper as a guest on his blog, though I am sure P.M. would have tolerated it.

I was looking for an avenue of expression and for that end this blog has been very satisfying. But I was not expecting a new social network. I was not seeking a group of new friends. My what a wonderful surprise you have been!

I have met some of you in person (And to your credit, you hid your disappointment from what you found compared to your high expectations!) and others of you just online. Most of you are new friends to me this year, and the rest were just distant virtual acquaintances. There are so many of you! How abundantly I have been blessed!

I have tried to persuade you to my point of view, but I think my views have been re-shaped even more by you. For example, I have learned to appreciate "Dutch" style bikes, mixte framed bikes, the inadequacy of reflectors and "be seen lights". I now think that in certain circumstances, parking lot shortcuts are fine. You can be hardcore without ever riding in the rain to prove it.

I have lived 49 years without ever knowing that milk can come in bags. (I am nearly cosmopolitan now!)

I have been persuaded to slow down and sometimes even stop and get off my bike -Sacre bleu!- rather than focus on my average speed for the trip. You shared your world with me and so I purchased a camera to show you mine.

I have been schooled by your fine writing- winsome, inviting and inspiring. I long to do writing of similar quality. You have been unfailingly generous with your praise, time and advice. Thank you.

You make sport of me, and I of you, lest we think more highly of ourselves than we ought; But I have the highest respect for you, and I love you dearly. I am thankful to have such friends as you.
　

Honk Report From Ennis

2009-11-23T21:01:00.000-06:00

Four honks in twenty miles! And that is only counting the geese wanting to overtake, not the honks from annoyed motorists in opposing lanes.

On the route I needed to traverse today, I could have predicted two of them, because Texans think a cyclist ought not be in the travel lane if there is an improved shoulder. But the other two were extremely rare.

In chronological order:

First Goose; This fella had the bad luck to come up to me at place where he could not pass me safely in the 55 MPH signed speed limit road, shown here.

He stayed behind me and honked as if I were the one without the right of way. I guess he failed to remember the rule when he first got his driver's license that the faster traffic has a duty to overtake slower traffic in a safe manner in with due care. Perhaps he needs a refresher course!

Rather than passing me on the blind hill like many of his neighbors do, he waited until we got over the rise to pass me. He came up beside me on my left in the other lane, and slowed to set me straight about how to ride a bicycle. He had to occupy the opposing lane to do this because I was maintaining my position in the left tire track. If anyone cares, he was driving a recent model heavy duty red pick-up truck. Oh, and I spat in his direction as he began to overtake me. SOP. [1]

Middle aged red pickup driver: "You need to stay out of the road, someone’s going to run you over!" These words were not said in a angry tone, just a raised voice to be heard over the truck’s noise.

Middle aged bicycle rider: "So you admit that you are such an incompetent driver that you would run into a bicycle in the middle of your lane?" Yes, I really did ask him that.

Middle aged red pickup driver, after a pause; "It’s really dangerous to ride like that!"

I then studiously ignored him until he continued on his way.

I very rarely get honked at (Or even shot, for that matter!) on these two lane roads. That alone was unusual. But this fella, after being annoyed that I was causing him a trivial delay, adds 40 seconds or so to his delay by pacing me!

Silly goose!

Second goose;

On north Kaufman, traveling north, just after it is reduced from a four lane to a two lane, this goose honked multiple times. Then he passed me on the improved shoulder at this spot:

As he passed, I spat in his direction, SOP. As he re-entered the roadway, realizing that he had been insulted he slammed on his brakes, coming to a complete stop, and marking the road like this:

I avoided him and came to a stop beside him. This is the hardest position for a motorist to strike you with his car.

Rolling down the passenger window he communicated to me.

Angry automobile driver; "You can't ride in the middle of the road, you are in the way of cars!"

Calm and witty cyclist; [2] "You have a duty to pass slower traffic in a safe manner and with due care."

Angry automobile driver; "Your not supposed to be in the way of traffic!"

Calm and witty cyclist; "One of us here has operated in a legal manner, and the other one has not."

Angry automobile driver; "I haven't done anything wrong! Your the one breaking the law!

Calm and witty cyclist, as traffic begins to work their way around us on the shoulder; "You don't call a panic stop in the middle of the lane reckless driving?" I suppose it should be noted that his right front fender was crumpled as was his left rear fender. I suppose he could've used working anti-lock brakes. Just say'n.

This comment seems to get him worked up. The angry automobile driver then said, roughly translated; "I have a good mind to hurt you in a bad way and make sure you stay at the side of the road!"

The calm and witty cyclist said; "Four seventy-five ex eitch are."

Confused automobile driver; "What?"

Calm and witty cyclist; " Your license plate number, four seventy-five ex aitch are."

As he speeds off, I re-enter the traveled portion of the roadway and continue on my way.

After being so upset by my having delaying his trip that he broke the law by passing me on the shoulder, [3] he recklessly stops in the lane to spend over a minute "speaking" to me.

Silly goose.

Third goose; Now traveling south on north Kaufman, I ride into a construction zone where Kaufman's four lanes have been reduced to two. Another motorist honks like in a futile attempt to improve the situation. As the road expands to normal lanes I do not spit, being unsure of which driver following me had poor impulse control. I pull up to a stop behind them at the next light.

Silly goose!

Fourth goose; As I nearly complete the final part of my ride, on the 55 MPH signed speed limit two lane that connects to my driveway, while safely overtaking me in the oncoming lane, the elderly man honks as he goes by. Did he know about my SOP?

Silly goose!

It is uncommon that anyone ever honks at me on a two lane without a shoulder. Both honking and passing on the right are expected on a two lane with a shoulder. Four same direction honks and two opposite direction honks in twenty miles is considerably odd.

Two of them were sufficiently outraged by my lawful behavior to interrupt their trip to publicly chastise me. They were not satisfied with simply being ignorant of the traffic laws. In their certitude, they were determined to make sure everyone was aware of their ignorance!

[1] SOP: Standard Operating Procedure

[2] Hey it's my story, and I can tell it any way I like.

[3] He illegally passed on the right: Sec. 545.053.(a) An operator passing another vehicle shall pass to the left of the other vehicle at a safe distance.
He illegally traveled on the shoulder:
Sec. 545.057.(b) An operator may not pass to the right by leaving the main traveled portion of a roadway except as provided by Section 545.058.
Sec. 545.058.(a) An operator may drive on an improved shoulder to the right of the main traveled portion of a roadway if that operation is necessary and may be done safely, but only:
(1)　　to stop, stand, or park;
(2)　　to accelerate before entering the main traveled lane of traffic;
(3)　　to decelerate before making a right turn;
(4)　　to pass another vehicle that is slowing or stopped on the main traveled portion of the highway, disabled, or preparing to make a left turn;
(5)　　to allow another vehicle traveling faster to pass;
(6)　　as permitted or required by an official traffic-control device; or
(7)　　to avoid a collision.

He operated his vehicle in a reckless manner without due care: Sec. 545.401.(a) A person commits an offense if the person drives a vehicle in wilful [sic] or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.

Curiously, this is the statute he accused me of violating. To whom does it most accurately apply to? Sec. 545.363. (a) An operator may not drive so slowly as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.

An open letter to the City of Manor

2009-11-19T19:53:00.003-06:00

I have, this evening, sent another email inquiry to the stewards of the city of Manor Texas. I am making the email public because I am perceiving a certain amount of unresponsiveness from the city Fathers about this. I have asked some old questions that have gone unanswered, and I have added some new ones that are a bit more pointed.

The statements attributed to the city manager are alarming, and there is an unseemly odor to these proceedings. I hope that these questions will be answered to everyones satisfaction quickly and completely. Perhaps a little sunshine will help us all to see more clearly.

Dear Judge Haisler, the Austin American-Statesman has published an article about the bicycle ban in Manor. In it, the reporter quotes Phil Tate as saying:

"Enforcement will begin at the end of the month at the earliest, Manor City Manager Phil Tate said. Violating the ordinance will be a misdemeanor subject to a fine of up to $200, according to the ordinance.
The two-lane road is narrow, has heavy traffic and is in bad shape with huge cracks, Tate said.
The "City Council has found that prohibiting the use of bicycles on Brenham Street east of FM 973 to the City limits is necessary to protect the public from harm," the ordinance says.
"It's a poor place to be riding bicycles," Tate said. There are several other roads where bicyclists can ride, he said.
Tate said there are no immediate plans to repave or rebuild the road."

Naturally this is alarming to to those who are fond of the "public" part of public road.

1) Did this reporter correctly quote the good city manager?

2) If not, would you please clarify the situation for me? What he is reported to have said is at odds with our previous correspondence.

3) Is it the city's position that some roads are "too narrow and have too much traffic" on them to safely accommodate all legal vehicles?

4) Because pedestrians are not prohibited from this section of the road, do you anticipate that the shoulder-less road will accommodate cyclists walking through that section?

5) If the road surface conditions are as bad as some eyewitnesses have reported, why has the city seen fit to continue to allow motorcycles and other two wheeled vehicles access to this section of the road?

6) Is it the city's opinion that this road beyond their jurisdiction is also dangerous for cyclists, and have they alerted any other jurisdictions of such existing conditions?

7) What is causing the road outside your jurisdiction to be constituted a dangerous condition? (Is it a surface hazard as well or are cyclists simply annoying the local motorists by impeding their progress?)

An anonymous commenter left this message on my blog:

"I have some insight as to the condition of this stretch of road. On Aug 30 while riding with friends, I hit a large crack in the road about a yard long, 4 inches wide and about a foot deep. No shoulder. There were lots of these cracks or crevices. I suffered many injuries -- broken hand, torn hamstring, ripped face and mouth, etc.... (I was wearing a helmet, which got cracked.) It is extremely unsafe for bikes."

This new information has spawned a more questions.

8) To your knowledge, is the described road condition by Anonymous the reason for restricting bicycle use on that road?

9) Is Anonymous the only person who has been injured by this road hazard?

10) Is his description of the hazard accurate?

11) Is this particular road condition also a hazard for motorcyclists?

12) What steps are being planned or implemented to fix the problem.

13) What is the tentative time-line for those repairs and the estimated time of completion?

14) If road conditions present such a clear and present public danger to warrant the banishment of an entire class of vehicle, why are you waiting seven weeks from passing the ordinance to enforce it?

There my dear reader, we await a response. Are there any questions you have that have not been addressed in light of the information we have?

The Steps of the Dance

2009-11-15T13:15:00.005-06:00

Most of us use the roadway system as we do our common everyday electronics—we tend to take for granted what makes them function. There is a practical elegance to the way our streets and roads operate, and a greater awareness of it would make us all more civil, safer and cooperative citizens.

There are two overarching principles that are the basis of our uniform traffic code. These two principles lead inevitably to six basic rules of traffic that govern nearly all of our daily traffic experience.

While they are known subconsciously and perhaps intuitively, most folks who operate motor vehicles on our nations roadways are unfamiliar with this more formalized expression of these principles. Even so, they operate by them when following the traffic laws and the traffic control devices found on their way.

Here are the arch-principles and the six basic laws of traffic that follow from them.

Travel to the right

Early roads had no lanes, and the width of the entire road could be quite narrow. It became customary in the United States that traffic would stay to the right to reduce chaos, perhaps following established maritime law. Other countries developed a stay to left tradition. From this arch-principle flows these two basic laws of traffic;

1) Always operate on the right-hand side of the roadway, not on the left.

2) When approaching an intersection, position yourself according to the direction in which you want to go. Right-turning drivers are at the right, left-turning drivers are at the left, close to the center of the roadway, and straight-through drivers are between them, as conditions allow.

We practice this every time we take to the public road, but few of us have been exposed to the formalized stating of it. The second basic rule as stated presumes multiple lanes in each direction, but even on streets without lanes we turn right from close to the curb and turn left from the center area of the street.

First come, first served

The public space is a finite resource. How is it to be distributed to the public in a fair way? This arch-principle addresses that. It epitomizes the meaning of public in "public road". Everyone has the right to travel in the public space, and they have a right to a reasonable amount space in front of them, behind them and to their sides in order to travel safely.

3) When two operators are traveling in the same direction in a travel lane, the one behind the other must leave enough space to avoid colliding with the operator in front of him.

Most of us today think of this rule as part of the driver’s prime directive; "Thou shalt not hit things". But it is also a fundamental expression of the right of way on public roads. One cannot simply crash into slower traffic, we must overtake them when it is safe and to do so with due care.

4) When approaching a road that is larger than the one you are on, or carries more traffic, or faster traffic, or is protected by a stop or yield sign, you must yield to traffic on that roadway. Yielding means looking left and right until you see that no traffic is approaching so closely as to constitute a danger.

A person traveling down a road has "the right of way", meaning you can’t just pull out in front of someone and put them in danger. We must allow him access to a reasonable amount of space in front of him to avoid a collision. We operate under this principle all the time, and we have an expectation it will be observed by folks pulling onto the road in front of us. The law grants us the right of way, and the lawful operator respects it.

5) When intending to move your line of travel either left or right upon the roadway, you must yield to traffic in the new line of travel. Yielding means looking in front and behind until you see that both directions are clear, that there is no traffic approaching so closely as to constitute a danger.

We have the right to the space we are occupying within a lane of travel, and it should not be encroached upon.

6) When operating between intersections, drivers position themselves according to their speed relative to other traffic. Parked vehicles are next to the curb, slow drivers are next to them, while the fastest traffic is to the left, next to the centerline as conditions of the roadway allow.

This is the speed positioning rule. It implies that overtaking shall be done on the left, and passing on the right is discouraged. The fastest traffic should return to the right lanes when slower traffic has been cleared.

These six basic rules interact with one another. For example, it is unlawful in many states to change lanes within an intersection. Someone entering the roadway at the intersection may proceed into the lane someone is merging into, inadvertently violating his right of way.

The uniform traffic code, adopted in whole -or with few exceptions to the body of it- by the various states means that a person driving into an unfamiliar place anywhere in the country will be able to operate with little difficulty. The local streets and their working function will seem normal to him.

This system functions just fine without an explanation of the underlying principles; As a result, most people have never thought about, or clearly understood them, as long as the other traffic around them has similar operational characteristics.

What do you mean by traffic, anyway?

Our society has seen fit to divide "traffic" into three basic types; Pedestrians, human powered vehicles and motor vehicles. The vehicle laws make some exceptions and special rules for each class to reflect their differing operational characteristics on our public roads.

Motorists and cyclists must yield right of way to pedestrians crossing the roadway at a crosswalk, for example. [3] Cyclists are often restricted from using limited access highways because they are not capable of maintaining the minimum speed required for safe operation. People who wish to operate motor vehicles on the public way are subject to licensing and insurance requirements due to the potential damage and injury that the misuse of such vehicles can do to others.

Because motor vehicles are the overwhelming majority of traffic on public roads, people tend to think of "traffic" as only consisting of automobiles and the like. But most states define what they mean by "traffic" in the highway codes to include a much broader variety in modes of travel than just motor vehicles. (Because I am a citizen of Texas, and as I am most familiar with their codes, I will now be speaking less generally and more specifically of the Texas Transportation Code. [TTC]) The TTC defines "traffic" as; "pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles… singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel." [1]

I doubt most Texas drivers think of horse drawn wagons when they think of traffic! And yet, the law recognizes and allows for a horse drawn wagon to have the same right of way as an automobile, that is, a reasonable amount space in front of them, behind them and to their sides in order to travel safely on the public road.

The traffic laws apply to all these different road users as the nature of their vehicle allows. [2]

Thwarted expectations lead to anger.

Perhaps because motor vehicles are the most common form of traffic on public streets today, there is a popular expectation that people ought to proceed at or above the speed limit regardless of prevailing conditions.

The necessity of putting a limit on the maximum speed one can travel is almost entirely a creation of the automobile itself. As automobiles became more powerful, all societies determined that speed limits were necessary to protect the innocent public from the destructive power of such fast heavy vehicles. While an out-of-control bicycle can cause severe injury, it can never approach the damage potential of a 4,000 lb. vehicle.

But a maximum speed limit is just that; A cap on how fast a motor vehicle can operate on a public road in perfect conditions, for the purpose of public safety.

Certainly upon a moments reflection, one can describe dozens of conditions that would prevent operating at maximum speed; Inclement weather, poor road surface, blind corners and hills, animals on the roadway, construction activity, slow traffic, trains at railroad crossings, emergency vehicles and even traffic lights! These conditions and more inhibit our forward progress endlessly.

So is it any wonder that a motorist going about with an expectation of traveling at top speed is constantly frustrated and annoyed? Is not this foolish expectation a source of his angst?

This anger often finds a scapegoat when the impedance is non-standard traffic, like a cyclist. A few of our fellow citizens take advantage of their position of power and anonymity inside their automobile to bully and harass lawful travelers on our public roads. Incivility abounds.

Right of way and impeding others.

Not understanding the six basic rules leads to a misunderstanding of the difference between lawful impedance and unlawful impedance.

As we go about our daily travels, we are impeded at every turn. That is, someone using the public road manages to be in the way of faster traffic, forcing us to slow down to avoid hitting them. Nearly all of these conflicts are a lawful interruption of your forward progress. In fact, most traffic conflicts are so common we hardly consider them an impedance at all! That is, as long as the impedance fits your definition of traffic!

If it is an automobile in the lane ahead of you waiting for oncoming traffic before executing a left turn that is causing you to slow down and even stop, it is no big deal. But if it is a cyclist in the lane ahead of you, well, that is a horse of a different color! "Doesn't he know that the roads are designed for cars!" is an oft heard complaint. (Actually, most roads are designed so that trucks can operate on them. Should we be glad truckers deign to allow us to drive our cars on them?)

All operators of vehicles have the same rights and duties on public streets. Parking a vehicle in a travel lane would be against the law, (unlawfully impeding traffic) unless the vehicle was broken down and unable to move out of the way. Traveling unreasonably slowly can also be an illegal impedance, if the vehicle is capable of keeping up with the faster traffic around him. And this is the notion that creates allot of the animosity toward bicycles: Aren’t bicycles impeding traffic because they are moving so much slower than other traffic?

If the cyclist is traveling at a reasonable pace for a bicycle, then it not an illegal impedance. He is operating a slow vehicle, and one that drivers of fast vehicles must give way to as they would to any other slow traffic. You know, buses, farm equipment, street sweepers and the like. The automobile operator has the obligation to respect the cyclist’s right of first come first served, just as he would the driver of any other slow vehicle.

Doesn’t the operator of a bicycle have an obligation to stay out of the way of faster traffic?

Sometimes, but rarely. Most states require cyclists to ride as close to the edge of the roadway as practicable. (Yes, practicable!) This is a reflection of the unique characteristics of the narrow profile of a bicycle. It is the only vehicle on public roads that is required to share a lane side-by-side with automobiles in some circumstances. And it is the only vehicle that is directed by law as to where in the travel lane he must operate.

But because operating within the same travel lane side-by-side with faster traffic is often neither safe nor practicable, the law has made exceptions to those rules. In Texas, those exceptions include, but are not limited to, a condition of the roadway, pedestrians in the lane, surface hazards, parked cars, and if the travel lane is less than fourteen feet wide. [4]

It may not be obvious to the motorist why the cyclist is not operating closer to the edge of the roadway than he is, but that is really immaterial to his performance of his duty to use due care. If there is not enough room to pass a cyclist with reasonable safety within the lane, the faster traffic must change lanes to pass him. (It is illegal in Texas to straddle the lane.) [5]

One or more exceptions to the far-to-right rule is present on almost every road in Texas.

Motorists will often get extremely angry when two cyclists are riding abreast in a traffic lane, even though the travel lane is too narrow to allow a car and a bicycle to travel side-by-side. Before slandering the character of the cyclists in front of you, please consider whether you would be able to pass a solo cyclist without changing lanes.

Some have told me that a cyclist must ride on an improved shoulder alongside a roadway if one is available, but a careful reading of the statutes shows that this is false in Texas. A cyclist is permitted to ride on an improved shoulder, but this is not mandatory. [6] In fact, it could be argued that doing so removes a cyclist from many legal obligations and protections. [7] I am of the opinion that riding on the shoulder is more dangerous than operating in the roadway. [8]

Access to the roadway space is allocated on a first come, first served basis for every form of traffic. So if you see a cyclist in the travel lane ahead of you, don’t be afraid to touch your brakes. Calm down, it is really not that hard to pass a cyclist safely! Just treat them as you would any other slow moving vehicle. With but a moments delay, you will be speeding off to the next traffic conflict or red light in no time!

Acknowledgments. I am, as it has been said, standing on the shoulders of giants! The basic principles spring from John Forester, but I have added to his list of five the one about following distance.

Any clarity I have on traffic dynamics and impedance must be credited to Mighk Wilson, Keri Caffrey and Herman May who have done most of the heavy lifting for me.

Thanks also to P.M. Summer and everyone on the ChainGuard mailing list who have unlocked many mysterious traffic engineering concepts for me.

Footnotes:

[1] Sec.　541.301.　　TRAFFIC.　 In this subtitle "traffic" means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles and streetcars, singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel.
Sec.　541.201. (23)　　"Vehicle" means a device that can be used to transport or draw persons or property on a highway.

[2] Sec.　545.002.　　OPERATOR.　 In this chapter, a reference to an operator includes a reference to the vehicle operated by the operator if the reference imposes a duty or provides a limitation on the movement or other operation of that vehicle

[3] Sec. 552.003. PEDESTRIAN RIGHT-OF-WAY AT CROSSWALK. (a) The operator of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing a roadway in a crosswalk if: (1) no traffic control signal is in place or in operation; and (2) the pedestrian is: (A) on the half of the roadway in which the vehicle is traveling; or (B) approaching so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger.(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), a pedestrian may not suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and proceed into a crosswalk in the path of a vehicle so close that it is impossible for the vehicle operator to yield. (c) The operator of a vehicle approaching from the rear of a vehicle that is stopped at a crosswalk to permit a pedestrian to cross a roadway may not pass the stopped vehicle.

Sec. 552.005. CROSSING AT POINT OTHER THAN CROSSWALK. (a) A pedestrian shall yield the right-of-way to a vehicle on the highway if crossing a roadway at a place: (1) other than in a marked crosswalk or in an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection; or (2) where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided. (b) Between adjacent intersections at which traffic control signals are in operation, a pedestrian may cross only in a marked crosswalk. (c) A pedestrian may cross a roadway intersection diagonally only if and in the manner authorized by a traffic control device.

[4] Sec.　551.103.　　OPERATION ON ROADWAY.　
(a)　　A person operating a bicycle on a roadway who is moving slower than the other traffic on the roadway shall ride as near as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway, unless:
(1)　　the person is passing another vehicle moving in the same direction;
(2)　　the person is preparing to turn left at an intersection or onto a private road or driveway;
(3)　　a condition on or of the roadway, including a fixed or moving object, parked or moving vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or surface hazard prevents the person from safely riding next to the right curb or edge of the roadway; or
(4)　　the person is operating a bicycle in an outside lane that is:
(A)　　less than 14 feet in width and does not have a designated bicycle lane adjacent to that lane; or
too narrow for a bicycle and a motor vehicle to safely travel side by side.
　
[5] Sec.　545.060.　　DRIVING ON ROADWAY LANED FOR TRAFFIC.　 (a)　　An operator on a roadway divided into two or more clearly marked lanes for traffic shall drive as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane.

[6] Sec.　545.058.　　DRIVING ON IMPROVED SHOULDER.　(c)　　A limitation in this section on driving on an improved shoulder does not apply to: (3) a bicycle

[7] The rights and duties spelled out in the TTC only apply to operators of bicycles riding on a "highway". Sec.　551.001.　　PERSONS AFFECTED.　 Except as provided by Subchapter C, this chapter applies only to a person operating a bicycle on: (1)　　a highway; or (2)　　a path set aside for the exclusive operation of bicycles.
The TTC defines a highway as "Sec.　541.302. (5)　　"Highway or street" means the width between the boundary lines of a publicly maintained way any part of which is open to the public for vehicular travel." Which seems to mean from fence-line to fence-line, except for the part about "open to the public for vehicular travel".
The TTC defines a shoulder as; "Sec.　541.302. (15)　　"Shoulder" means the portion of a highway that is: (A)　　adjacent to the roadway; (B)　　designed or ordinarily used for parking; (C)　　distinguished from the roadway by different design, construction, or marking; and (D) not intended for normal vehicular travel."
I must conclude then that a shoulder is not a part of the highway, and so, under this interpretation, the rights enjoyed by a cyclist on the roadway may not extend to those riding on the shoulder.

[8] With the many distractions inside the cabin of the modern automobile, and the tendency of a distracted driver to drift to the right, I am more comfortable in the lane in front of the distracted driver where I am more likely to be noticed than on the shoulder and overlooked. There are many other reasons as well, but isn’t this one sufficient all by itself?

The Truth About Manor's Bicycle Ban

2009-11-02T21:17:00.006-06:00

Because the initial report was generated by a paper only local paper, confirming the the details of the reported bicycle ban on East Brenham Road in the City of Manor (Near Austin) has been difficult for those in distant parts of Texas that have been alarmed by the rumored event.

Yesterday evening, after dark, I sent an e-mail to the City of Manor asking for details and and a series of questions. To my astonishment, I received a reply back within ten minutes of my inquiry!

So in the interest of stopping false rumors and promoting the truth, here is Judge Haisler's reply:

I'm out-of-state right now so I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge (I'll double check when I get back to the office).

Manor only restricted bicycles on a small section of roadway along East Brenham due to the dangerous condition of the road (and a recent bicycle injury). Another blogger/magazine editor inaccurately published that Manor banned bicycles and we've been flooded with e-mails all day regarding this very issue. Below are the answers to your questions, please let me know if I can be of any additional assistance.

Best,Dustin

1) What is the history of this ordinance? Passed 10/21/2009
2) What is the reason for the ban? Only restricted on a small section of roadway along East Brenham due to dangerous road conditions
3) Is it to be a temporary ban or is it intended to be permanent? Temporary
4) When does the ordinance take effect? Now (To my knowledge)
5)What are the penalties for violating this law? Any city ordinance has a fine up to $2,000 by Texas law
6)How is an out of town visitor to be alerted to the new law? A sign will be placed on the affected road
7)What are the alternatives for folks who travel about operating the banned vehicles who would otherwise travel on that previously public road? Detour along Old Highway 20

Dustin Haisler
Municipal Judge

So there you have it folks! A temporary restriction due to hazardous road conditions.

A glance at Google maps shows that this would be a lovely road to cycle on. I do not yet know what the present condition of the roadway is that would compel local officials to fear for cyclist's safety. I will update this blog if I can find out more.

Those look to be ten foot lanes in a 30 MPH zone, but the speed limit increases to 50 MPH about a mile up the road.

Hats off to the good Judge Haisler who is obviously putting in extra hours to get the truth out on the record. I am happy to assist him in that noble effort!

A Major Step In Austin!

2009-10-31T11:42:00.011-05:00

Congratulations to the City of Austin - on Thursday, October 22, 2009,
Austin became the first city in the State of Texas to adopt a Safe Passing
ordinance! This means that Safe Passing will now be the law of the land in
Austin, TX.

Thanks to the Austin City Council, especially Mayor Lee Leffingwell and
Councilmembers Mike Martinez and Chris Riley, and city staff for working with
BikeTexas to make this a reality.

This is a major step, but it is only the beginning. BikeTexas intends to
work hard to duplicate this success in cities and towns all over the state
before the next legislative session.

So trumpets the Texas Bicycle Coalition. (TBC) With such wonderful successes, TBC is in danger of becoming irrelevant, because what they define as a success looks exactly the same as what went on before!

I know it is fashionable lately to pass laws without reading the actual text of the legislation, but words do matter. The devil, they say, is in the details.

Into the weeds

The city ordinance reads:

PART 1. Section 12-1-35 of the City Code is amended to read:
§ 12-1-35 VULNERABLE ROAD USERS.
In this section, a Vulnerable Road User means:
a pedestrian, including a runner, physically disabled person, child, skater, highway construction and maintenance worker, tow truck operator, utility worker, other worker with legitimate business in or near the road or right-of-way, or stranded motorist or passenger;
(2) a person on horseback;
(3) a person operating equipment other than a motor vehicle, including, but not limited to, a bicycle, handcycle, horse-driven conveyance, or unprotected farm equipment; or
(4) a person operating a motorcycle, moped, motor-driven cycle, or motor-assisted scooter.
An operator of a motor vehicle passing a vulnerable road user operating on a highway or street shall:
(1) vacate the lane in which the vulnerable road user is located if the highway has two or more marked lanes running in the same direction; or
(2) pass the vulnerable road user at a safe distance.
(c) For the purpose of Subsection (b)(2), when road conditions allow, safe distance is at least:
(1) three feet if the operator’s vehicle is a passenger car or light truck; or
(2) six feet if the operator’s vehicle is a truck, other than a light truck, or a commercial motor vehicle as defined by Texas Transportation Code Section 522.003.
(d) An operator of a motor vehicle that is making a left turn at an intersection, including an intersection with an alley or private road or driveway, shall yield the right-of-way to a vulnerable road user who is approaching from the opposite direction and is in the intersection, or is in such proximity to the intersection as to be an immediate hazard.
(e) An operator of a motor vehicle may not overtake a vulnerable road user traveling in the same direction and subsequently make a right-hand turn in front of the vulnerable road user unless the operator is safely clear of the vulnerable road user, taking into account the speed at which the vulnerable road user is traveling and the braking requirements of the motor vehicle making the right-hand turn.
(f) An operator of a motor vehicle may not maneuver the vehicle in a manner that:
(1) is intended to cause intimidation or harassment to a vulnerable road user; or
(2) threatens a vulnerable road user.
(g) An operator of a motor vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any vulnerable road user on a roadway or in an intersection of roadways.
(h) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that at the time of the offense the vulnerable road user was acting in violation of the law.

Well, it could've been worse! They could've repeated every section of the Texas Transportation Code! (TTC) They relented and only repeated some of them.

Even deeper into the weeds- comparing the new to the old

(b)(1) An operator of a motor vehicle passing a vulnerable road user operating on a highway or street shall: (1) vacate the lane in which the vulnerable road user is located if the highway has two or more marked lanes running in the same direction.

This is covered in the TTC by Sec. 545.060. (a) An operator on a roadway divided into two or more clearly marked lanes for traffic: shall drive as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane; and (2) may not move from the lane unless that movement can be made safely. and by Sec. 545.351. (b)(2) An operator shall control the speed of the vehicle as necessary to avoid colliding with another person or vehicle that is on or entering the highway in compliance with law and the duty of each person to use due care.

(b)(2)An operator of a motor vehicle passing a vulnerable road user operating on a highway or street shall: pass the vulnerable road user at a safe distance.

This is amply covered in the TTC this way: Sec. 545.053. (a) An operator passing another vehicle: (1) shall pass to the left of the other vehicle at a safe distance; and (2) may not move back to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the passed vehicle.

(d) An operator of a motor vehicle that is making a left turn at an intersection, including an intersection with an alley or private road or driveway, shall yield the right-of-way to a vulnerable road user who is approaching from the opposite direction and is in the intersection, or is in such proximity to the intersection as to be an immediate hazard.

How is this any different from the TTC? From Sec. 545.152. To turn left at an intersection or into an alley or private road or driveway, an operator shall yield the right-of-way to a vehicle that is approaching from the opposite direction and that is in the intersection or in such proximity to the intersection as to be an immediate hazard.

Oh, it changes the word "vehicle" to vulnerable road user. But bicycles ARE vehicles in the TTC, [*] and it is a violation of the TTC to strike pedestrians on the roadway as seen in 545.351. (b)(2) above.

(e) An operator of a motor vehicle may not overtake a vulnerable road user traveling in the same direction and subsequently make a right-hand turn in front of the vulnerable road user unless the operator is safely clear of the vulnerable road user, taking into account the speed at which the vulnerable road user is traveling and the braking requirements of the motor vehicle making the right-hand turn.

This provision, besides being overly wordy, is also redundant. Sec. 545.103. An operator may not turn the vehicle to enter a private road or driveway, otherwise turn the vehicle from a direct course, or move right or left on a roadway unless movement can be made safely. The biggest difference is that Austin's law applies exclusively to motor vehicles, but the TTC applies to all vehicles. Is that really a difference that matters?

(f) An operator of a motor vehicle may not maneuver the vehicle in a manner that: (1) is intended to cause intimidation or harassment to a vulnerable road user; or (2) threatens a vulnerable road user.

I am glad that these behaviors are now prohibited in Austin! But if they were already illegal, why was this language included in the ordinance? Does this give license to pedestrians and roller-skaters to intimidate or harass others? Or are motorists the only citizens in Austin that are restricted from being a bully?

(g) An operator of a motor vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any vulnerable road user on a roadway or in an intersection of roadways.

As before, Sec. 545.351. (b)(2)

What to make of all this

All of these provisions found in the TTC are available to protect cyclists in every city in Texas right now. The question really is, in the light of the above comparisons, why are our advocates spending time, energy and treasure in passing laws that mirror those already present but are not being enforced? Is this really the path to better cycling conditions on Texas roads?

So if the TBC is doing what is obviously not going to do anything meaningful for Texas cyclists, why are they doing it? Who benefits? Aside from TBC doing make-work and calling it a "major step" in order to spice up their fund-raising literature, what have they achieved of lasting benefit for Austin cyclists? I accuse the TBC of doing nothing of substance for those they claim to represent with such useless laws.

We need better advocates.

We need advocates that demand that the traffic laws already on the books be enforced by local police before writing and passing redundant legislation.

We need advocates that demand local district attorneys uphold all of the laws, as is their duty.

We need advocates that demand judges follow the law, as is also their sworn duty.

We need advocates that will work for cyclist's equality under the law. Now that Austin cyclist's ability to recover damages is contingent on their ability to demonstrate they were operating lawfully, (Paragraph h) will the TBC work to have bicycle traffic laws enforced too? Or does the TBC have no more responsibility for their actions once the laws they shepherd through legislative bodies are passed?

We need advocates that are willing to do the hard work of building broad-based and inclusive coalitions to change our social acceptance of inattentive driving. We are all stake-holders in a more civil public road, even if we are automobile drivers only. Besides the obvious economic benefits of fewer wrecks as expressed in property damage, broken bodies and broken lives, there would be more resources available for progress rather than just cleaning up the mess. Car insurance costs would decline. Less treasure and talent used in emergency rooms patching up the injured can mean more resources available for the sick. More faces around the dinner table.

We need bicycle advocates that address the root problem. We need advocates that can dream big dreams. We need advocates who understand that our streets are for people- all the people- and see that making our streets better for all of us make it better for cyclists too.

We need advocates who want to do big things. To make changes that will matter.

The Texas Bicycle Coalition thinks this new ordinance in Austin is a major step.

How pitiful our advocates are!

*The TTC defines a bicycle as: Sec. 541.201. (2) "Bicycle" means a device that a person may ride and that is propelled by human power and has two tandem wheels at least one of which is more than 14 inches in diameter.　

This is a subset of the larger category of "vehicle: Sec. 541.201. (23) "Vehicle" means a device that can be used to transport or draw persons or property on a highway.

Utah's Bleak Finances Are Even Worse Than Previously Thought

2009-10-29T15:45:00.000-05:00

What is a state government to do when it is facing revenues that are sixteen percent less than they had projected three months ago- and those projections supposedly factored in the Great Recession we are enduring?

Consider the words from this article:

Salt Lake County's mayor is now asking for a $13.4 million property tax increase, despite nixing a similar proposal from the county council months ago.

Peter Corroon said the county simply can't cut anymore after trimming jobs, wages, 401(k) contributions, open days at county outdoor pools and Sundays at 10 county recreation centers.

"At some point you have to say there are things we won't sacrifice," Corroon told KSL Newsradio in an interview Wednesday. "I said I won't sacrifice public safety and I won't sacrifice programs for our seniors and our children, so that's where we drew the line."

The 2010 budget would provide for the operation of the newly reopened Oxbow Jail and the Salt Lake County Fair.

Corroon said Salt lake County is now "in the eye of the storm" when it comes to the economic downturn. The 2009 county budget was $801 million. The proposed 2010 budget stands at $638 million.

If you were expecting some new bicycle facilities to be built for you in Salt Lake County, do you think they would've survived the one hundred sixty three million dollar budget cut? Yeah, I don't either.

More locally:

Texans continue to spend and buy less, as the state reported a 12.5 percent drop in sales tax revenue in September.
The decrease matches August’s decline, the largest this year.

The state comptroller’s office announced Friday (October 9, 2009) that it collected $1.47 billion in sales tax in September, compared with $1.68 billion in September 2008. The collections are for sales made in August.

Note, Texans enjoy being relieved of any state income tax.

One theme I have noticed in all of the news is a continued mantra that the bottom is in, we will be up and out next year. I believe this is wishful thinking in the face of contrary evidence.

It was reported today that last week alone, there were more than half a million folks who lost their jobs. The four week average of new job losses is more than five hundred thousand pink slips handed out each week.

The government hands out a report today that trumpets the economy grew last quarter, but the internal data shows that disposable personal income decreased in real terms quarter over quarter by 7.4%! That is an enormous swing in purchasing power and not in the right direction.

Other claims of new housing starts and exports in the report seem to be false as corroborating data (Sales at Home Depot and Lowe's, and truck/train freight and port activity show no corresponding improvement.) cannot be found. Swings of twenty percent quarter over quarter seem implausible as well.

The American consumer is in hibernation, and I do not yet see any sign of spring. There is way too much of everything in the economy except for debt.

This elected officials are hearing the siren song of the headlines and subsequently engaging in hopeful denial. They hope that if they can hunker down the revenue stream will improve and they can avoid the painful choices that must be faced. The truth is, they will not be able to to put it off any longer.

Houston is bankrupt. That city is broke. They will never be able to pay all of their obligations. They now have no alternative to bankruptcy court to unload them. Each Houston citizen owes five thousand three hundred thirty eight dollars. For comparison, each California resident owes two thousand five hundred twenty eight dollars each. (Their financial peril is somewhat different, as states have no recourse to bankruptcy court.)

In fact, municipal budgets throughout this country are so strained by pension obligations alone, they may not even be able to fund infrastructure maintenance projects like filling potholes. (Not that anyone would notice a decrease in service!)

So if painting lines on the streets, painting sharrows in the door zone or paving long narrow recreational playgrounds is what you are advocating for, how can you do to remain relevant in this environment?

May I make a few suggestions? Work to make traffic laws equitable for all vehicles on the public way. Get rid of far-to-right laws and discriminatory mandatory bike lane laws. Either repeal mandatory helmet laws or make them mandatory for all who operate any kind of vehicle on the road.

Demand that the laws that already exist be enforced. In Texas, the due care clause of the maximum speed statute. (Sec. 545.351) Enforcement of illegal lane position by motor vehicles. (Sec. 545.060) The safe passing law already on the books. (Sec. 545.053[a][2]) Demand accountability from our police, district attorneys and judges for failing to perform their sworn duty to uphold these laws. And yes, demand enforcement of scofflaw cycling behavior. [*]

In these difficult times, can we do nothing about the daily carnage on our streets? Can we not form coalitions with interested parties to change the general incivility on the roadway? What civic group is so callous as to not be a part of such a movement? What insurance company likes paying so many claims? What medical or religious group would back away from such an effort that would benefit everyone in out community? Don't lobby the legislators, start a media campaign!

Bribe the new cyclists on the streets with gifts like lights or helmets for attending bicycle skills seminars. A skilled newbie is more likely to enjoy cycling and stick with it. More butts on bikes and all that.

Or maybe you have even better ideas! Good, because the old way of asking for special treatment and infrastructure won't advance anything for a while.

* I find it astonishing that so-called advocates think that asking for crackdowns on the most dangerous behaviors on public street by cyclists is bad form. I thought you were the ones who really cared about your constituents well being!

Interactive Blogging II

2009-10-27T11:14:00.007-05:00

A note to my readers: This blog entry has nothing to do with cycling. I do not foresee this blog wandering off of the bicycle road (As it were) on a regular basis. We will return to regular programming momentarily.

Where this conversation stands now. Feel free to jump in!

I started it out this way:

I took a walk the other day with my dog, Shawlee, and I came across this unusual sight. In fact, I had walked away from it when I began to wonder about it.

So I turned back and took a few pictures of it.

How did this happen? We had many hunters in the area while dove season was open, and we will have more again for duck season. Perhaps the ejected shotgun shell fell in such a way as to land on the tip of the branch, unnoticed by the distracted hunter. Pure chance.

Could this plant have grown from a sprout with this shotgun shell atop it, raising it ever higher as the plant grew? Pure chance.

What do you, my beloved readers think? What is the most likely scenario what explains how this came to be? My favorite theories presented here, or something altogether different?

Rantwick: "I like your theories much better than mine. Somebody found that rusty casing on the ground and jammed it on the branch just for the heck of it."

SteveA: "Not being a romantic like ChipSeal, my theory is a hunter set it on the branch, meaning to put the spent shell back in his pocket. Distracted, he walked away - and there it will remain until a strong wind blows it off.

Or perhaps it was left there as a sign to us, by the Little Lame Prince, that he's still well."

Big Oak: : "I like the theory of the little seedling growing and lifting the expelled shell - further evidence that human's influence on the landscape is only temporary. But alas, that would not be at all possible since the origin of growth for woody plants would not survive very long being covered up as it is.

Some kid put the shell on the branch. However, this is your blog, and you, and only you, have the right to say which reason is which!"

ChipSeal: "Isn't it interesting that your minds immediately turn to purposeful actions by a sentient being as to having caused this simple phenomenon?

But if we exclude the possibility of a purposeful act, what is the best explanation for this shotgun shell being on the end of a twig?

For such a simple thing, isn't chance a reasonable way to explain how this could have happened?"

BABBLE Trip Report

2009-10-23T09:00:00.003-05:00

I have either cleverly waited to see what the other bloggers would say about BABBLE so I could have a unique take on the event, or I have been lazy and slow to get around to it.

It seems I had an earlier start for the event than most of the participants. I rolled out of my rack at four thirty in the morning with the aim of getting on the road at five thirty. I wanted to get to the nearest DART station to board the seven forty nine departure time to be sure I made the connection onto the TRE. Two hours and ten minutes ought to be sufficient to traverse the twenty five mile distance even if most of it would be in the dark.

It has been cloudy at night for the past ten days or so, and I was unsure which phase the moon was in. Alas, no moonlight to speak of. This lack of light led me to my first mishap.

It has been wet in this part of the world, so wet that standing water remains even today after five days of warm nice weather. The area between my doorstep and the driveway is a spongy, muddy mess. There is a "path" that will allow one to traverse it, even at the high water stage without filling ones shoes with water. But it is not a straightforward path. In addition, it was cold that morning, around 55 degrees. (It will be even colder soon, but it has been in the low eighties in the mornings until this month. We are all scrambling around trying to remember what clothing we are comfortable wearing in these temperatures. March seems so long ago...)

Because I don't want to pack my cleats with mud, I wear sneakers to cross the lawn and change into my cycling shoes on the driveway. In a lapse of judgment, I chose to carry my stuff outside without bringing a flashlight. I did not stay on the high ground very well! So it's back to the house to grab a towel to dry my feet before I put on my shoes and socks out on the driveway.

I hit the road late, closer to six than I would've liked. It is so dark I adjust my route on the fly, choosing a longer route, but one that avoids smaller secondary roads. I will be riding faster in the dark than I had planned, and I am worried about potholes.

It is daylight when I reach the Ledbetter DART station, and it is warmer, I am over-dressed. That gets fixed on the way to the TRE connection on the DART train.

On the platform of the TRE, I see four other cyclists boarding the train, and I join them- they look like they know what they are doing. At this point, even Keri has more experience riding the TRE than I do! It turns out this is the first TRE experience for all of us.

I am dismayed to find out that these three fixed gear cyclists are going to Fort Worth to join the BABBLE ride. I have visions of a critical mass style mob. Every one knows the fixed gear crowd is just a bunch of anarchists, right? If there are four of them on my train car, how many more will be showing up via different transportation?

I decide to make the best of it, and put my best foot forward.

This is Eric, who was egregious and generous.

This is Nate on the left and Alicia on the right. Their other companion wished to remain an enigma.

We got along quite well. I would later learn that they are advocates of vehicular cycling! Zounds! As the day progressed, I was very impressed at their bike handling skills and traffic judgment. I would be proud to ride anywhere with any of them. They are accomplished ambassadors for our sport.

The rail car was nearly empty save for the five of us, but all the train stations were crowded with football fans going the other direction.

When we exited the train, there are other cyclists getting off. I don't recognize any of cyclists, but I do recognize Frankenbike!

At the meet-up, we all basically do two things, take pictures and drool. As I look through my photos, I discover to my horror that I have taken picture after picture of the back of peoples heads. I imagine I am taking great photographs like Christopher does. Sigh. Believe it or not, these are the best I have, there are loads more that are even worse!

Once again, Christopher is out of step from the crowd! (He's the chap who's face you can see.) As you can see with this next shot, I am a genius for not getting ANY faces in the picture!

To the right is Richard, and with his back to me is Steve and Frankenbike. By looking at shadows you can see that I positioned the shot perfectly to completely obscure Christopher! Sigh.

Maybe if I move around I will get some faces...

While the adults were drooling, Rose waited patiently for her ride to start. "Giddy-up Daddy!"

Here is Rose and her father Ray, as Rose wonders what it would be like to sit on the trike.

Just around the corner from Colonel's Bicycles there was another football game scheduled, TCU and Colorado. I spotted this pedestrian, who goes by the name of Alexander, and he granted me permission to take his photograph and use his name on-line. Curiously, he is the only one in this post that has given me permission... Lady and Gentlemen, call your lawyers!

As I stopped to get Alexander's photo, the ride continued on without me, which didn't alarm me. there were fifteen of them (Counting Rose) and they were going at a moderate conversational pace. I'd have no difficulty catching up.

I sprinted up to the next signalized intersection I saw them at, and I expected to see them just up the way. No one in sight! So I start off up the street in the overall direction the ride had been heading and put my head on a swivel. How far could they have gone? I didn't tarry for long with Alexander!

Well, it turns out that Colonel's Bicycles was just around the next corner, and looking over my right shoulder I spot them them milling about parking their bikes as proceed through the intersection. So now I am riding away from the group in heavy traffic. (The TCU vs. Colorado game!) So I turn right into the gasoline station on the corner thinking I can cross the street at the other entrance to join them across the street.

There is a solid line of cars queued up for the light, and I realize I will have to go around behind them- even though they are backed up more than halfway up the block- did I mention there was a football game nearby? So I swallow hard and -Steve, Paul, Herman, Keri, I hope you are sitting down!- I ride the wrong way down the sidewalk! (ChipSeal blushes with the memory of it!) I reach the end of the line of cars and pull into the street behind them, and only then realize that there is a median curb there!

So I line up in the left lane intending to make a u-turn at the signal and then ride back to the Bike shop and the group about mid-block. I spot a sign as I am approaching the intersection that prohibits u-turns! Jeepers! Changing plans again on the fly, I execute a left turn (No Steve, I did not signal) proceed down the road to where I can make a safe u-turn so I can get back to the group. A tiny unnoticed drama, and I out myself on-line!

In this photograph, I manage two profiles and one face shot out of six people in the photograph. Really, I am pathetic at this! The ride paused here because the planned route included a very steep downgrade. It didn't seem that it was wise to route fixed gear folks and folks who had rod brakes down such a steep hill. We were all enjoying each others company so much, we hardly seemed to notice the pause.

We continued on down the Trinity multiple use trail (MUP). This was the most uncomfortable part of the ride for me. There were a few of the blind corners that seem to be so common for these sub-standard facilities. I was surprised at how many cyclists bomb down them at top speed. Taking the lane on hwy 287 seems safer to me than this narrow bi-directional MUP.

I had to devote far more attention to where I was positioned on the narrow path and oncoming traffic while on the MUP then when we were on the public streets. Not only is the MUP narrow for bi-directional travel, especially with club cyclists hammering toward each other with closing speeds of more than forty MPH. In many places there is a lip, or drop-off, that presents a "high penalty for failure" risk if one should wander off the edge. On the streets there are rules and far more space. (And perhaps, traveling on public streets is so familiar to me and the MUP unfamiliar, perhaps much of the work of being aware of hazards on the roadway are being performed on a more sub-conscience level for me.) I don't find MUPs relaxing at all.

I did manage to to have a sporadic conversation with Myles on the MUP, and it was good to get to know him.

At the restaurant, we were joined by Chandra at last, and and a few of the group chose to end their participation in the event then. There was plenty of bicycle parking due to a wide raised walkway with railing in front of the building. In spite of bicycles locked two deep along the railing, there was plenty of room for three deep pedestrian traffic. I chose to leave my lock at home, and relied on the generosity of Steve to share his lock. I was not careful to note who else shared with whom, but Steve and I were not the only ones who were sharing locks. This was a generous group indeed!

Inside jokes were shared all day, and finding Chandra's bike locked at the railing generated a memorable one. Steve and I were tempted to go through Chandra's handlebar bag as soon as we noted he did not have his "keep out" sign displayed! And of coarse we poked fun at Rantwick- proving that our group is not limited by geography or even international borders.

Of the many pictures I took in the restaurant, these two are the only ones that are salvageable. In the bottom photo, that is (Right to left) Chandra, Steve, Myles, and Paul. I have six more photos of this end of the table, taken while I held the camera extended over the center of the table at arms length, and ALL of them caught Myles in some sort of head movement that completely blurred his features. I'm sorry Myles, but this is the best of the bunch!

I would like to point out that I had inadvertently caught Steve making the the only blog post that was posted during the event! That is him doing the deed! Some of us are dedicated bloggers, but none of us hold a candle to Steve!

As the meal broke up, Steve offered to give a personal sightseeing tour of downtown DFW, and Candra and I eagerly accepted. We were full on ready to do the tourist thing! So after a bit, as the group made a right on their way to the Water Gardens, the three of us peeled out of the group, surprising Eric, who did a great job of avoiding conflict with me. Thanks for yielding for me Eric!

Now for someone who is a snow skier from Seattle, Steve sure knows plenty about Fort Worth! (I suppose he could've made all his narrative up on the spot!) That was great Steve, thanks!

We met up at the Water Gardens with the remaining remnants of the group, most of whom were making plans to further enjoy Fort Worth. Steve, Chandra and I rode back to the TRE station to head home on the same train, each of us getting off at different stops.

The wind that day was six to eight MPH from the north. Great for me on my way home from Dallas going south, but even more work for Christopher on his trip back to Sanger. Between waiting for connections with DART and a stop for liquid refreshment (Diet soda at a Taco Bell) I rolled onto my driveway just before sundown.

A more dissimilar group would be difficult to arrange. Each of us had a unique expression of the sport of cycling. We were all interested in each others style, without judgment. There were no hidden advocacy agendas. We weren't riding to protest lack of facilities or or the dominance of cars. We came to share time with others who love riding bicycles. To put a face and voice to the bloggers we have in our favorites folder. To see the smile we perceive in the words they post.

We had a lot of common ground before we met, and more now that we have parted.

Each of us knows, in our own unique way, that it is the journey that is as important as the destination. And we find joy in journey.

A journey made sweeter with the companionship of new friends.

What Rantwick Said!

2009-10-09T12:07:00.001-05:00

I find it hard to believe that anyone who sees my blog would be unfamiliar with that eclectic Canadian bicycle blogging genius known as Rantwick. His blogs are always a good read, even when he is only talking about automobiles. In fact, he can make not having anything to say interesting!

He once said; "Just give me smooth pavement, and I'll be happy to do the rest regarding my safety and access."

Amen, brother!

Around here, some roads are so bad, local governments go out of their way to deny responsibility for them.

Here is a case in point. Prachyl Road is so poorly maintained, it is now a hodge-podge of nearly interconnected filled in potholes. If you were to remove all of the "fixed" potholes, there would scarcely be any road at all!

The surface here resembles cobblestones, but without the uniformity afforded by them. It is a disgrace to whichever road department that thinks this is an acceptable level of maintenance for the long-suffering taxpayers of Ennis. Ellis county is officially denying any responsibility, and they have even put up a sign to make sure you know!

In the photos above, I took them from the same spot but pointing the camera in the opposite direction.

Operators of automobiles are often annoyed that they are not able to proceed at their desired speed on the main roads. They have told me to use more of the secondary roads to make their trips more pleasant.

The answer, of course is the same as this one posed to the motorists; "why don't you use those secondary roads?" Cyclists prefer the busy main roads for the same reason motorists do.

Secondary roads are not as direct between popular areas as the main roads are.

Secondary roads are poorly maintained, as local governments siphon away dollars dedicated to maintenance for other things.

Secondary roads have more stop signs and uncontrolled intersections and junctions. Often with an extra helping of poor sight lines to boot. They have lower speed limits for a reason.

You want me to ride off of the main roads? Make them more attractive to cyclists then.

I am not asking for special lanes and infrastructure. I am simply asking for better roads. I won't even mind if you use them too!

Gratifying

2009-10-09T11:24:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, while on the way into town, a came upon a Salmon cyclist traveling in the same direction I was traveling.

This fellow fit a common stereotype, which I shall describe, but I really do not know his actual circumstances. He was Hispanic, riding a cruiser style bicycle, and he was wearing street clothes. His seat was properly positioned, and his rear wheel had slight wobble.

Now I ride a high-end fancy racer style bicycle. I wear Lycra bicycle specific clothing. I was wearing a helmet. I should have been a snob and zipped by him without even a glance in his direction. (That's how it is done, isn't it?)

But then all the stereotypes fail.

I shout, but in a pleasant tone; "Hello! You should be riding over here." I point to my side of the street. I am riding about six feet from the curb.

It seems to take a moment for him to understand. I am slowing down and I am slightly ahead of him.

"Over there?" he asks.

"Yes, with traffic, it's safer."

To my surprise, he swings across the street to my side of the street, and he says "Thank you!"

Well!

I have a stop sign, and he is close behind me. I put my foot down to wait for him.

I try again to explain that it is for safety, and to follow the law. I do not know how much of that he understood, he would only say"Over here?" and thank you three or four more times.

So I continued on ahead, paying close attention to demonstrate best practices. I hope he will ride on the correct side of the road long enough to prefer it. If so, it will be better for him and our whole community.

This is the first time in my experience that an appeal to ride correctly was not received with hostility. It was quite a surprise, and gratifying as well.

And Now, For Something Completely Different...

2009-10-06T23:45:00.001-05:00

Some time in August, I noticed some strange paint on the road attached to my driveway.

Markings on the road are strictly regulated, lest traffic control devices become confused and non-standard. Uniformity across regions enhances public safety.

These curious marks appeared about every one hundred feet from the north end of FM 1722 to the bridge across Lake Clark. Surveying stakes and cryptic messages appeared at various spots. Something was afoot!

So one day, I spotted a survey crew doing what surveyors do, and I stopped to ask them what the project was. They said that it was the first step for adding shoulders to the roadway. Well now!

I took their pictures with their permission, but alas, those photos are trapped on my crashed hard drive. (I mention this not to whine, but for the opportunity to use "alas" in a sentence.)

So I ask myself, "Self, why would they want to put an improved shoulder on this road?"

One purpose of an improved shoulder is to protect the roadbed from eroding. An extra two to three feet of pavement beyond the normal travel lane will reduce the frequency of requiring repairs. Could this be the reason shoulders are being considered for this road?

As you can see, there is evidence that a shoulder would be helpful on this road to preserve the integrity of the travel lanes.

In conversation with one of my neighbors, they reckoned it was because of the four or five drive-off wrecks that occurred in the past few years. I know for certain that two of them were a result of DUI and another involved a teenage driver. There has been considerable evidence of automobiles leaving the roadway without wrecking as well.

So the theory they propose is that shoulders are needed to make it easier for incompetent drivers to stay out of the ditches. I hope this is not the motivation to add shoulder to this road. We need to get incompetent drivers off the road, not further along it. We need to expect that automobiles be steered with at least enough skill that the vehicle stays within its lane. It is expensive and wrong to accommodate the incompetent.

As a society, we have the wrong attitude about near-misses. When we drop a tire off the edge of the road, when we just miss side-swiping another vehicle, when we inadvertently swerve into the oncoming lane, these should be warning flags. We should see them as a bright red sign that we have a skill deficit that needs to be addressed.

Also, we ought to be ashamed.

We should pride ourselves in the skillful and safe handling of an automobile.

We should scorn those around us who fail to demonstrate such skill. We should despise those who fail in their duty to exercises due care. Those who have poor driving ability and poor judgment, why do we tolerate it? If we make the roads safer for them, will the roads be safer for us?

An awful lot of people have died this year in automobile wrecks. More than an awful lot of people have been injured in automobile wrecks. The amount of property damage inflicted by automobile wrecks is greater still.

We have tried to make our roads idiot proof. How high must the cost be before we admit that idea is a failure?

We need to look in a mirror. We need to prize superior driving ability in ourselves. We need to stop seeking a hardware solution (Safer roads, cars and devices.) for a software problem. (That stuff between the ears.) We need to have the courage to face the ugly truth: It is not the roads that are dangerous, it is us.

It Is More Important To Me Than to Them

2009-10-04T16:20:00.003-05:00

SteveA says this is my advantage in getting my ticket resolved in my favor. Passion.

I stopped in at the Ennis Police Station see what the procedure is for getting clarification as to the Texas Transportation Code (TTC) statute that I have been accused of violating. It is hard to tell, because there is no "impeding traffic" section in the TTC.

I spoke with a Ennis Police Department (EPD) officer who was also exemplary in his demeanor. After he explained what steps I had to take next, he indulged me with a wide ranging conversation on police work, the law, some of the forces that affect an individual officers discretion in enforcing the law, police priorities and such.

He demonstrated good professionalism by being careful not to imply advice for my particular situation, and he and I avoided talking about Officer Watson's conduct, other than my making it clear that I was impressed by his low-key non-confrontational style. (I was complimentary about Officer Watson.)

I was disheartened by some comments made by this officer. I have had very few hassles from police in all of my Texas travels on two-wheels. I had thought this was due to the clear simplicity of Texas law. Texas has codified one of the least restrictive bicycle laws in the nation. It is something all Texas cyclists should be grateful for. (It would no doubt be better with the far-to-right language removed.) Cyclists enjoy unusual liberty in Texas.

When I tried to express how police priorities place traffic flow issues above safety, and it would be in EPD's best long term interests to crack down on scofflaw cycling, he told me that the community and officers feel that enforcing bicycle law was "harassment" and lead to many formal complaints. (Every formal complaint must be investigated, documented, and adjudicated, eating up a tremendous amount of resources and man hours.)

And then, when speaking about operating a bicycle on public streets, it became clear that none of them think a bicycle should be on any public street. He insisted that bicycles, for example, must ride on the shoulder of the road, "just like slow cars are required to" to avoid impeding traffic. Sigh.

As I will show below, this is an understanding from our speed dominant car-centric culture, not something derived from the TTC. The idea of public roads accommodating none-motorized traffic is crazy-talk. When they think of road use, they are thinking in terms of private automobiles equals public use. I guess they don't remember how "traffic" is defined in the TTC: "In this subtitle "traffic" means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles and streetcars, singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel."

When someone is riding their bicycle on a public road, they are traffic. They are in fact "normal and reasonable" traffic.

So if his perspective is true, I would be hassled at every turn except for the the low priority placed on enforcing bicycle law! I thought it was because I work so hard at riding in a lawful manner.

The TTC has a lot to say about driving and riding on the shoulder, but it nowhere requires using it, and it most certainly discourages it's use.

First, some definitions.

"Highway or street" means the width between the boundary lines of a publicly maintained way any part of which is open to the public for vehicular travel. Sec. 541.302. (5)　　
"Improved shoulder" means a paved shoulder.　Sec. 541.302.(6)
"Laned roadway" means a roadway that is divided into at least two clearly marked lanes for vehicular travel. Sec.541.302.(7)　
"Roadway" means the portion of a highway, other than the berm or shoulder, that is improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel. If a highway includes at least two separate roadways, the term applies to each roadway separately. Sec. 541.302.(11)　
"Shoulder" means the portion of a highway that is:
(A)　　adjacent to the roadway;
(B)　　designed or ordinarily used for parking;
(C)　　distinguished from the roadway by different design, construction, or marking; and not intended for normal vehicular travel. Sec. 541.302.(15)　

Naturally, because politicians wrote it, it is a little confusing. Their definition for "highway" appears to include the entire right-of-way from fence-line to fence-line. The definitions for "roadway" "laned roadway" and "shoulder" clearly state that shoulders are not intended to be used as travel lanes.

Sec.　545.058.　　DRIVING ON IMPROVED SHOULDER.

　
(a)　　An operator may drive on an improved shoulder to the right of the main traveled portion of a roadway if that operation is necessary and may be done safely, but only:
(1)　　to stop, stand, or park;
(2)　　to accelerate before entering the main traveled lane of traffic;
(3)　　to decelerate before making a right turn;
(4)　　to pass another vehicle that is slowing or stopped on the main traveled portion of the highway, disabled, or preparing to make a left turn;
(5)　　to allow another vehicle traveling faster to pass;
(6)　　as permitted or required by an official traffic-control device; or
(7)　　to avoid a collision.

(b)　　An operator may drive on an improved shoulder to the left of the main traveled portion of a divided or limited-access or controlled-access highway if that operation may be done safely, but only:
(1)　　to slow or stop when the vehicle is disabled and traffic or other circumstances prohibit the safe movement of the vehicle to the shoulder to the right of the main traveled portion of the roadway;
(2)　　as permitted or required by an official traffic-control device; or
(3)　　to avoid a collision.

(c)　　A limitation in this section on driving on an improved shoulder does not apply to:
(1)　　an authorized emergency vehicle responding to a call;
(2)　　a police patrol; or
(3)　　a bicycle.　　　　

There are three portions to this law: What circumstances allow travel on the shoulder to the right, (7 of them) what circumstances allow driving on the left shoulder, (Two repeats and one new one) and the vehicles that are not bound by this law.

Now the statement made separately by two EPD officers was that "slow moving vehicles must use the shoulder" to allow faster traffic to overtake them in a more convenient way. Is that what the statute says?

It does no such thing! In fact, even beyond the obvious permissive word of "may" rather than the compulsory word of "shall", it sets up a host of conditions that, to my mind, would be unusual enough to make driving on the shoulder legally quite rare.

The twin pre-conditions of necessity and the ability to do the maneuver in a safe manner that have to be present will wipe out most scenarios for doing this that I can imagine. In fact, the necessity clause nullifies the permission to allow faster traffic to overtake you easier! After all, don't those who complain about cyclists riding centered in the lane object on the grounds that it is rude to inconvenience others? No one has ever argued with me that it is a necessity to overtake slower traffic.

So yes, Steve, it is more important to me than it is to them, for it is my liberty to use the public road in a lawful manner that is at stake.

This, as you say, is my advantage.

Nice Meeting You, Officer Watson

2009-10-01T17:30:00.001-05:00

That is, if you are officer Watson. More about that later.

It was about 7:30 in the morning, Thursday, and I was traveling west on West Ennis Avenue after negotiating the angled parking area. Because of the dense traffic, I had to wait for a few automobiles to overtake me on the right before I could merge into the right lane. I was then the first person waiting at the light at Gaines Street.

I didn't notice that the car that pulled up next to me was a Ennis City patrol car.

The light turns green and I proceed through the intersection, and I then notice the patrol car because he has accelerated ahead of me. But he is obeying the speed limit, and that causes a larger than usual platoon of cars to form behind us. As we approach Clay Street the patrol car must come to a stop to yield to a vehicle waiting to turn left, and I zoom by him in the right lane. (This fact will be important.)

As West Ennis Avenue continues beyond Clay Street, the road's geometry abruptly changes. Both west-bound lanes make a ten foot jog to the right (In the intersection itself!) to make room for a suicide left turn lane that is created/terminated there. There is also the appearance of a varying width improved shoulder of between four and six feet that extends all the way to Waxahachi. The lane itself is about ten feet wide by my trained observation, but I will update this post with an actual measurement later.

I get about half way down that block before the first automobile overtakes me, and curiously, he honks. (Silly goose!) Then I hear the BLAAK of the police saxon, I do a head check and see flashing red lights behind me. Note to Steve: I moved to the right tire track, checked to see if the officer was on the shoulder, and then pulled onto the shoulder in front of him. I wanted to be sure he was pulling me over, not abusing his authority to get me out of the way.

As the Officer gets out of his patrol car, I put on my blogger journalist cap. I greet the officer with a question; "What time is it?"

He answers conversationally, checking his watch. I would like to note that this officers demeanor and tone was pleasant and un-confrontational through-out. He acted in every way professionally.

He asked me where I was going, and I foolishly answer, because I was so intent on reading his name tag for this post. I say foolish, because my purpose for traveling on that public road was none of his concern. Oh, there it is, above his right pocket, Officer Watson!

He says to me that I am impeding traffic. That back there (He must mean on the other side of Clay Street- he was pointing.) it is a 30 MPH zone and it changes up ahead there to a 45 MPH zone. I am not allowed to impede traffic at the slow speeds I am going.

I tell him it is doubtful that I would be able match the speed of the other traffic. But I am going to travel down the street in the travel lane. He is welcome to give me a ticket for any law he thinks I am breaking.

He says well, OK then. Can I see your drivers license? Any ID? (By Texas law, I am required to give any law enforcement officer my name and current address. I am not required to carry ID. An officer can, if he suspects that I am lying to him, detain me until my identity can be established.) He accepts my health insurance card and debit card, both without photos, as evidence enough, and goes to his patrol car to write the ticket.

I then remember my camera is in my bag, and so I haul it out to document the stop. Smile Officer Watson!

So he comes back and asks me to sign the ticket, and I ask what I am signing.

He says, for impeding traffic. I didn't impede traffic, I protest in a conversational tone.

"No, no", he says, "you are just promising to appear on that date." So I ask him what law I violated, and he blinks in surprise. (He thought he had just told me!) So I asked him what part of the law, could he cite it to me?

I figured he would have to cite the section of the transportation code he was accusing me of breaking in the process of writing the ticket, but apparently not. I am sure he is thinking of sec. 545.363 which applies to motor vehicles, not bicycles. But he missed that opportunity to avoid embarrassment. I tried Officer Watson. I am sure that there are many places in the Texas Transportation Code (TTC) that you know better than I do, but I am confident I know my way around the bicycle parts, and you clearly don't.

So we part ways without rancor, and I resume riding centered in the lane.

So I get home and examine the ticket.

I am again surprised that there is no section of the transportation code cited. Do officers just make up the laws they "enforce" as they go along? In this officer's defense, I think he is sincere in his understanding of the law, just sincerely wrong. He will be educated about it soon, it just would have been less expensive for him if he had a little more humility.

Under the heading "VIOLATIONS" it says "CITATION VIO 1: Impeding Traffic" That is all that it says.

Then I discover another surprise. It says "Issued by SGT PILLOW, Badge#620" Huh? Who is that? Does Sgt. Pillow put someone else's name tag on his uniform? I will have to investigate this.

Then, another surprise! The citation is for impeding traffic in the 300 block of West Ennis Avenue! Hah! How could I have been impeding traffic there, when traffic was passing me on the right?

Alright, some observations. This is an example of traffic flow maximization rather than safety promotion. When I see people on bicycles in town, they are invariably scofflaws. The ones who I see riding lawfully seem to me to just be riding that way by chance- should I observe them five minutes later they would be back to their scofflaw ways. Salmon, sidewalk, parking lot ninja and night ninja behavior is the order of the day. These are the practices that are far more hazardous than a cyclist following traffic rules. Yet that lawlessness not an issue for the Ennis police department. Safety is not a priority, smooth traffic flow is.

From the one hundred block of West Ennis Avenue to the end of the three hundred block, it is a very wide single lane road that automobiles routinely share side by side, making it a de-facto two lane road each way. This is to accommodate angled parking.

The rest of West Ennis Avenue is is made up of two narrow lanes in each direction, with the addition of a suicide center left turn lane from the five hundred block to the three thousand block. The question is, can a slow moving vehicle on a multi-lane road impede traffic? Further, the automobile that caused the patrol car to come to a complete stop when it was waiting for a gap in opposing traffic to turn left onto Clay Street, was it impeding traffic?

Yes, they were impeding traffic! In fact, we are "impeded" all the time! We are impeded by school buses loading and unloading children, trains, signal lights, folks preparing to parallel park... you get the drift. We are impeded all the time when we travel about on the public roads. The real question then is, are all those impediments to traffic illegal? Why not? What is illegal impediment of traffic?

TTC Section 545.363; " MINIMUM SPEED REGULATIONS. (a) An operator may not drive so slowly as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law."

"Normal and reasonable movement of traffic." Each word drips with meaning. What is traffic anyway? The TTC defines traffic as: "Sec. 541.301. TRAFFIC. In this subtitle "traffic" means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and conveyances, including vehicles and streetcars, singly or together while using a highway for the purposes of travel."

If the traffic this morning was a horse drawn carriage, and not a bicycle, would it be an illegal impedance? Obviously, to say that a vehicle traveling at a speed that is reasonable for that vehicle, but will cause other faster traffic to slow down is an illegal impedence would ban them from operating on public roads. This then would be the effect if the views of Officer Watson/Sgt. Pillow were the proper reflection of the law.

Furthermore, because I was traveling in the right lane, faster traffic was not impeded at all by me, because they had a dedicated passing lane next to the one I was using! Here is the reason I think the TTC is clear on this specific point. The whole of the statute regulating lane position and impeding other traffic is this:

"Sec. 551.101.　　RIGHTS AND DUTIES.　 (a)　　A person operating a bicycle has the rights and duties applicable to a driver operating a vehicle under this subtitle, unless:
(1) a provision of this chapter alters a right or duty; or a right or duty applicable to a driver operating a vehicle cannot by its nature apply to a person operating a bicycle.

Sec. 551.103. OPERATION ON ROADWAY. (a) a person operating a bicycle on a roadway who is moving slower than the other traffic on the roadway shall ride as near as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway, unless:
(1)　　the person is passing another vehicle moving in the same direction;
(2)　　the person is preparing to turn left at an intersection or onto a private road or driveway;
(3)　　a condition on or of the roadway, including a fixed or moving object, parked or moving vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or surface hazard prevents the person from safely riding next to the right curb or edge of the roadway; or
(4)　　the person is operating a bicycle in an outside lane that is: (A) less than 14 feet in width and does not have a designated bicycle lane adjacent to that lane; or too narrow for a bicycle and a motor vehicle to safely travel side by side.
(c)　　Persons operating bicycles on a roadway may ride two abreast. Persons riding two abreast on a laned roadway shall ride in a single lane. Persons riding two abreast may not impede the normal and reasonable flow of traffic on the roadway. Persons may not ride more than two abreast unless they are riding on a part of a roadway set aside for the exclusive operation of bicycles."

So, 551.101 means that a cyclist is "by his nature" unable to keep up with a motor vehicle, so he has no duty to obey the slow vehicle statute when he is traveling at a speed that is reasonable for cyclist.

And in Sec. 551.103 (c) that says two cyclists riding two abreast can be in violation of impeding traffic, but only if a travel lane is wide enough to safely share side-by-side with motorists and a single cyclist. If it is too narrow for a single cyclist to share, then riding two abreast is just as much an impedance as a single cyclist.

So as it stands now, I am charged with impeding traffic. Perhaps they will change it to improper lane position, seeing how there was that lovely shoulder over there I was ignoring.

I must give credit to some folks whose clear thinking and discussions have shaped this blog entry. My thanks to Mighk Wilson, Herman May, Keri Caffrey, AndrewP and fred_dot_u.

***An update! I found Sgt Pillow! I always write the blog and add the photos later. As I was cropping and manipulating my pictures in Picasa 3, I can see there is a person I did not notice during the traffic stop sitting in the passenger seat of the patrol car! Gee whiz!

I think my camera has distorted the features of Officer Watson. He seemed much leaner to me at the time of the stop. My apologies to him for any such distortion of his features.