I received a traffic citation tonight.

"Neutral Observer" none wrote

If there is absolutely, positively a clear prohibition against bikes
on the sidewalk, only then was it an illegal order.

27-49-212 (d) says: [ "Sidewalk" means that portion of a street
between the curb lines, or the lateral lines of a roadway, and the
adjacent property lines intended for the use of pedestrians.]

One might argue that by definition a bike is a vehicle and not a
pedestrian, but "intended for use" is not the same as 'restricted for
the exclusive use of...".


Contrary to popular opinion, bicycle use of sidewalks is generally not
prohibited at the state level. Some may, but that is more often a
municipal issue covering business districts and child infested
communities. In fact, some (many??) states in the 'other vehicles' or
'rules of the road' sections include language like 'wherever a usable
path for bicycles has been provided adjacent to a roadway, bicycle
riders shall use such path and shall not use the roadway'. Which in
fact and in deed means sidewalk.

Not necessarily. In some places in VA, for instance, that rule exists. But
for a sidewalk to be defined as a "usable path" means of a particular width,
and signed as such.

[nothing to do with Arkansas, but...]
Newport News, VA
Sec. 10-31
(a) No person over the age of fourteen (14) years shall ride a bicycle
upon any sidewalk in the city unless such sidewalk is at least eight (8)
feet in width and designated for use as a bicycle route, path or way...

And sadly, a few jurisdictions have gone so far as to rebuild a sidewalk to
meet those criteria.

[snip]

Dont be suprised if they drop the charges if you make the right waves.


Good luck.


Overall excellent advice.

Pete

"Pete" wrote:

Contrary to popular opinion, bicycle use of sidewalks is generally not
prohibited at the state level. Some may, but that is more often a
municipal issue covering business districts and child infested
communities. In fact, some (many??) states in the 'other vehicles' or
'rules of the road' sections include language like 'wherever a usable
path for bicycles has been provided adjacent to a roadway, bicycle
riders shall use such path and shall not use the roadway'. Which in
fact and in deed means sidewalk.

Not necessarily. In some places in VA, for instance, that rule exists. But
for a sidewalk to be defined as a "usable path" means of a particular width,
and signed as such.

Agreed. It would also depend on the how sidewalk is defined in the
statutes and if there was a separate bike/side path definition. As
is, a sidewalk is a usable path adjacent to the roadway.

The proper term to describe what happened to you is "harrassment". You were
an upstanding citizen operating your vehicle legally, and you were illegally
detained. IANAL, but my guess is that you might have grounds for a civil
action against the department.

Whether you want to do that is your choice, but the mention of it when you
file a complaint might be useful.

"WBtobal" wrote in message
...
Dave,

If all you say is accurate....and I have no reason to believe it isn't,
then
yes you should fight the ticket. Get a lawyer that "wants" to handle the
case
(try to find one that cycles)....and hope you get a judge that isn't
related
to, or as mentally deficient as the cop who cited you.

Fight it *and* register a complaint about that bad cop. He needs to be fired
before he really wrecks someone's life.


Shayne Wissler

Quite an experience. I'd be pretty annoyed if I were in your shoes. I say
continue being polite and fight it.

You'd be a huge hazard to pedestrians walking at night on the sidewalk. That guy
was so outta line. Musta been a rookie.

Yet, as you may be aware, in many parts of the country a shortage of police
officers exist. They have a dangerous job and are poorly paid. I know I want
more of them (though hopefully not throwing their weight around like this young
man) in my neighborhood. So I hope you can be forgiving and that the police
department "educates" this young man to your satisfaction. Two cents.

G'luck.

"dlakey" wrote
Hello fellow bikers.

I had a most interesting experience tonight. I was commuting home from work.
It is approximately 3.6 miles from work to home. I was about a mile into my
commute home at 9:30PM riding in the right half of the right hand land of a
5 lane road. I usually average about 15 mph on my commutes. Speedlimit in
this area is 40mph I believe. I have reflectors on both front and back of my
bike, I have a cateye headlight on and a blinking tail light. I am wearing a
helment. I hear this PA come on behind me saying, "get off the road, that's
what sidewalks are for." Well my first reaction is that this must be some
kid who has a PA hooked up in their car. Well I look back over my shoulder
and notice it is a police car. Well at this point I'm thinking what the
hell? I go ahead and pull over to the sidewalk and stop thinking he is going
to stop too so I can ask him what the hell. Well he takes off and goes on.
Well I have read these boards enough to know that the sidewalk is not the
safest place to be. I also know the laws here in arksnas enough to know that
I have a right to the road. Well I go ahead and pull back out into the road
and try to catch up to the officer to ask him what the hell he is talking
about. Well at this point he has gotten so far ahead I can't see him. About
a mile farther down the road I see the blue lights behind me. I go ahead and
pull over into the parking lot of a restaurant. He get's out of his car and
I can tell right away he has a serious attitude. Hell he was just a kid. I
wouldn't be suprised if he wasn't young enough to be my son. Well he
certainly didn't show me any respect. He get's out of his car and tells me
"I warned you once to get out of the road, now I should just throw you in
the car and haul you down to jail." I'm like whoa, what is this guys
problem. Anyway, I maintain my cool, and in a very sensible way try to
explain to him that my understanding was that a bicycle had as much right to
the road as any other vehicle. He proceeded to tell me that this was
absolutely not the case, and if you were going to be on a bike you had to
either be on the sidewalk, or over in the grass if there wasn't a sidewalk.
I tried to tell him that my understanding of the law was that you had to
have a reflector front and back and a headlight on the front. And ride on
the right side of the road. He tells me I am wrong. I ask him if he could
provide me with the particular law that backs him up. He tells me he doesn't
have to do that and out there on the road he IS the law. I ask him if there
is any one to appeal HIS decisions to he says NO. At this point he says he
is just going to let me go with a warning. I guess I should have just let it
go at that. Well I wanted to know what his name was so I asked him very
nicely what his name was. Well this was apparantly the wrong thing to do.
He's like "That's IT!" He get's his little cell phone out and calls up the
station and starts asking them what he can cite me for. Well after talking
to one person and not coming up with anything, she passes him to someone
else and they finally come up with "Failure to obey a Police officer." Which
just reinforces what I said all along, there was no law which said I
couldn't ride in the road

I'm sorry for my monoparagraph there but I am still somewhat upset about
this whole thing. I never did smart off to him. I maintained my cool the
whole time. The road was 2 lanes each direction with a turning lane in the
middle typical of a business district.

So is it true that the cops make up the laws while they are on the road??

Should I fight the ticket?

Thanks in advance for your advice

Dan

"Rivermist" wrote in message
news
Please please please... fight that ticket. Citizens, whether cyclists
or
not, cannot allow police to run rough-shod over us like that. You were
treated terribly.


You should fight it on as many levels as you can. Check with the ACLU.
The supression of your rights is a serious crime. It doesn't seem right
to me that a cop can overturn the law (and nation-wide convention) at his
whim.

In article ,
says...
The proper term to describe what happened to you is "harrassment". You were
an upstanding citizen operating your vehicle legally, and you were illegally
detained. IANAL, but my guess is that you might have grounds for a civil
action against the department.

Whether you want to do that is your choice, but the mention of it when you
file a complaint might be useful.

IANAL either, but I don't think you could show damages in this case
beyond the cost of the day off to fight the ticket in court. Small
claims court maybe, but probably nothing more.

--
Dave Kerber
Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

Neutral Observer none

wrote in part:

If there is absolutely, positively a clear prohibition against bikes
on the sidewalk, only then was it an illegal order.

---snip---

I don't know the Arkansas statute but here in Illinois the standard is not "any
order except an illegal one", it's a "lawful order". Those are not the same
thing.
As a police officer it would clearly be wrong for me to stop a motorist at high
noon on a bright sunny day and tell them, "You must turn on your headlights. If
you don't, I will cite you for disobeying a police officer.". Such an order
would not be illegal but it would be extralegal and therefore not a "lawful"
order. Unless there was a specific situation he failed to mention- a crash,
road closure, etcetera- the order the OP disobeyed was not a lawful order.

Dont be suprised if they drop the charges if you make the right waves.

The OP doesn't need to go to anywhere near the lengths you suggest or even make
too many waves. The ticket will likely be tossed out of hand.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 23:53:51 +0000, dlakey wrote:

So is it true that the cops make up the laws while they are on the
road??

Of course not.

Should I fight the ticket?

In your place, I would.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | And what if you track down these men and kill them, what if you
_`\(,_ | killed all of us? From every corner of Europe, hundreds,
(_)/ (_) | thousands would rise up to take our places. Even Nazis can't
kill that fast. -- Paul Henreid (Casablanca).

On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 07:52:00 +0000, David Kerber wrote:

I think you'd get it thrown out in a heartbeat by any honest judge, but it
might not be a good idea to **** off the officer if he routinely patrols
that section of road. Tough call as to whether or not to fight it.

I don't think it's a tough call at all. The law is clear, the cop was
wrong, and according to the story got belligerant when his "law" was
questioned.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Enron's slogan: Respect, Communication, Integrity, and
_`\(,_ | Excellence.
(_)/ (_) |