— By Jack Morse (@jmorse_) |
As promised, the officers of SFPD Park Station have begun a targeted campaign against cyclists who use popular bike routes like The Wiggle and the Panhandle. The campaign seeks to ticket cyclists who treat stop signs as yield signs, a practice commonly known as the “Idaho Stop.” In response to the police crackdown, a group of cyclists plans tonight to shut down The Wiggle for the second time.
Much like with the first “stop-in,” tonight’s protesters hope to demonstrate the effect on traffic of having every cyclist come to a full and complete stop at stop signs along the route. By fully complying with the Park Station’s demands, cyclists hope to show how absurd they are.
When SFPD Park Station Captain John Sanford announced plans this past July to increase ticketing of cyclists and pedestrians, he was quickly accused of intentionally misconstruing enforcement guidelines that had originally been intended to support pedestrian and cyclist safety. A community organization known as The Wigg Party staged a July 29th “stop-in” on The Wiggle in response to the announcement.
Tonight’s stop-in, which is not being organized by The Wigg Party, starts at 5pm. The ride begins at Duboce Park, and ends at the Park Station. The arrival of cyclists at the station is timed to coincide with the station’s 6pm monthly community meeting.
Comments (21)
Don’t believe Chief Suhr has launched a war on cyclists? Last year he set up a sting on the Wiggle on Bike to Work Day.
As someone who drives for a living, cyclists (and pedestrians) are the least of my dangers. Go after the biggest risk of danger and death: reckless drivers.
“protesters hope to demonstrate the effect on traffic of having every cyclist come to a full and complete stop at stop signs along the route. By fully complying with the Park Station’s demands, cyclists hope to show how absurd they are.”
What’s absurd is assuming that 1,000 bikers always all take the same route at the same time. That logic would suggest we shouldn’t have traffic laws or stop signs for cars because there are sometimes traffic jams. It also assumes that riders cannot ride more than one abreast.
If certain riders along the wiggle weren’t increasingly reckless, there would not be the need for stricter enforcement of basic traffic laws.
The absurdity is found in the denseness of individuals like yourself, who can’t seem to realize how protests serve in building awareness and attention, not practicality of the commute. Keep up! Punish those “certain cyclists” you mention, not the whole!
Ha Ha Ha on you. I had nothing to do with this either. See, I’m on a bike.
dearest cycle people (urg…)
please abide by the law OR focus on changing it..
until then our police captain is gonna keep on bookin you as his job is to enforce the laws in the book .. and BTW stop bitchin about it… you’re boring and repetitive …
and if you want something different to happen … focus on changing the law - NOT on our police captain for dong his job … he’s a good man…. d0ing his job … enforcing the laws in the book …
Dong.
You know that police don’t enforce all kinds of laws right? Like how SF is a sanctuary city? Or how they do absolutely nothing about stolen cars? Or how they ignored pot smokers for years? Maybe take a stroll around the 16th Street BART station and see how many crimes you can count while officers just stand there?
And what’s your point? Are they cracking down on all cyclists for infractions like missing lights? No! It’s a time-limited crackdown to try to get it through the heads of some cyclists to cycle more responsibly. It’s the same thing as when the cops decide to “crack down” on double-parking for a period of time. Nothing wrong with trying to get some more responsible behavior out of the cyclists (esp the ones that commute only during the summer months).
Your argument would need the following data to make sense–compare all the tickets given in a single day in SF and break out the percentages for cars, cyclists and pedestrians.
Statistics you say. only about 26% of the district citation were for the 5 violations that cause the most injuries. That is far from the goal that 50% of the citations should be for the dangerous activities.
that the public asked for through the elected officials.
Statistics you say. only about 26% of the district citation were for the 5 violations that cause the most injuries. That is far from the goal that 50% of the citations should be for the dangerous activities.
that the public asked for through the elected officials.
Source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/park-station-captain-ends-controversial-bicycl…
(Sorry for repost, I didn’t know how or didn’t upload the image correctly
I was actually ROBBED as I sat there waiting for the bus one day, a cop not 20 ft. away who just literally looked the other way….I was held by one guy with my arms behind my backas his cohort went through my pants pockets, robbing me of the last $20 I had to my name. Of course, being homeless at the time, I guess I didn’t deserve any help from “the man”….it was not only frustrating, but scary as these two a-holes were just laughing as they robbed me, darin gme to try to do anything, my yells for help going w/out any response from ANYONE, people just stepped around us as this happened…
Yes, cyclists, you’re not allowed to bitch but this tool is!
just hours after your stupid, mal-informed, sycophantic comment, the Park Station captain gave the cyclists what they were asking for.
PROTEST WORKS
Shhh- don’t tell the lazy armchair interweb activists that they, too, can influence change
Going through a 4-way stop at full speed when cars and pedestrians in every direction are already waiting each other’s turn is not “treat[ing] stop signs as yield signs.” That sort of thing is for when THERE IS TRULY NO ONE THERE TO BE INCONVENIENCED. If that is what most cyclists were doing we WOULD NOT BE THERE TO SEE IT AND THEN COMPLAIN ABOUT IT as they would be going when no one was there to inconvenience
Ugh, riding through 2 crosswalks in the wrong direction to make effective left turns or “box turns.” Ugh, riding between a car trying to turn right and the curb even when the cyclist is waaaaaaayyy behind the car as it is trying to wait for cross traffick and pedestrians before it turns (and ciclists turning the tables to talk about being ‘right-clipped’ which would pretty much kill them and demolish their bikes unless drivers have somehow to lightly clip bikes, but in any case sure as hell can’t be called that when the car is already stopped to try to turn). Ugh, repositioning themselves at intersections by riding around in a 10-foot circle, confusing Pedestrian Me greatly in the procoess.
I know I’m forgetting a zillion. Oh yeah, having cyclists yell at me in person and online when I point these things out
Oh yeah I forgot, feeling oh-so-entitled enough to ride in the wrong direction down one-way alley streets and then making lefts on to major streets from them, like Sycamore onto Mission. WOW, you have really got to be kidding me. What in the hell would be the yell from cyclists if cars did that ALL THE FRIGGIN’ TIME.
See this all the time too. But the bike geeks can never admit they ever do anything wrong. “It’s cars fault!!1! I just wanna ride however I want fuck the cops man lets get some pizza tattoos…”
Anyone else ever notice how bike culture has all the worst traits in common with car obsessives? Fetishizing objects, making sure their objects look perfect, taking photos with it, being part of a “culture,” fashion to show you are a part of that culture…
Think twice before you make fun of that mulleted dude driving a Camaro guys…he is more like you than you realize.
Easier to just make fun of ignorant turds like you. Mullet dude gives way less fucks than your dumb ass.
One day last week I was almost hit twice by assholes on bike, one blew through a stop sign while turning a corner and came so close while I was in the crosswalk I could feel the wind. The other one almost hit me while running a red light on 17th and S. Van Ness, both times when I yelled at them I was flipped off.
This epidemic of almost hits has got to stop. Scum was soo close to being hit. TWICE Kick the Campaign into high gear immediately to get these crazy bicyclists into SUV’s as fast as possible.