Author: ArizonaBikeLaw

When Traffic lights Don’t Turn

“When Traffic lights Don’t Turn.”  I get calls and inquiries about this subject on occasion:  “What should I do?”  We address this in our Arizona Bicycling Streets Smarts booklet by John Allen (refer to http://www.azbikeped.org/chapter9a.htm — “If your bicycle doesn’t trip the detector, you have to wait for a car to do it, or else you have to go through the red light. Going through the red isn’t against the law, because the light is inoperative. If you ever have a crash or get a traffic ticket because a traffic light won’t turn green, it’s the fault of whoever installed the detector”).  It is my understanding that this is allowed under ARS 28-645. C.:  “The driver of a vehicle approaching an intersection that has an official traffic control signal that is inoperative shall bring the vehicle to a complete stop before entering the intersection and may proceed with caution only when it is safe to do so”.  Allen goes into more detail on traffic signal actuators here — “bicycle-insensitive traffic signal actuators are defective and illegal.”  LAB has some general information on the subject here.

Michael N. Sanders
ADOT Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator
Bicycle and Pedestrian Program

And here is what Bob Mionske says on the topic:

Once you have located the cut lines in the road and positioned your bicycle above the cut lines, what if the light has still not triggered? . . . It turns out that in every state, this is one instance where you can legally run a red light. . . . to be sure that the signal is defective (and to be able to demonstrate in court that you had sufficient reason to be sure), you should sit through the equivalent of one complete light-cycle –– about three minutes –– without the light being triggered.  If you still don’t get the green light, the light is defective, and you can then proceed through the intersection, yielding the right-of-way to any approaching vehicles (Bicycling & the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist, p. 42).

Is your ebike a play vehicle?

[UPDATE: Arizona STATE law was updated to explicitly define ebikes in 2018.
Tempe has updated their ordinances a couple of years ago (2019?) to explicitly include ebikes; and Phoenix did so in March 2022. So the article below, written in 2009 is here more for historical purposes.
HOWEVER many many other cities and towns have this “trap” in their local ordinances]

Original title: Is your motorized bike a play vehicle?

First, see Moped and Motorized Bicycles in Arizona for general background on Motorized Bicycles. Sort of unfortunately, every individual city or jurisdiction can have their own codes further regulating things. Continue reading “Is your ebike a play vehicle?”

Crashes are the Leading Cause of Death…

I found this image lurking on the NHTSA website. MVCs (Motor Vehicle Collisions) are always the leading cause, though the exact ages vary from year to year, e.g. from Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes as a Leading Cause of Death in the United States, 2000 “motor vehicle traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for every age 2 through 33”. Note that this ranking is all inclusive; thus it includes things like suicide, homicide, and so forth.

Just like everything else in life, there are some nuances that are worth understanding. The simplest distinction is between internal (think disease) and external (think any sort of accidental death; car crash, drowning, falling…). These distinctions are detailed in the technical report, e.g. Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes as a Leading Cause of Death in the U. S., 1997 (emphasis added):

“As a major external cause, traffic crashes are the prime cause of accidental death in the United States, and this has been true for many years. Thus, for persons of all ages, traffic crashes alone in 1997 caused almost one-half of all accidental deaths that occurred….  “

For example, from Exhibit 5 here are the top 5 causes of “accidental death” for both sexes combined. MVCs DOMINATE the rankings.

  1. Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes 42,340
  2. Falls  15,477
  3. Poisoning  10,163
  4. Other and Unspecified Causes (including suffocation which was #4) 5,207

…

MVC’s (Motor Vehicle Collisions) are so horrifically high, that they have even snuck into the debate over Universal Health Care in the US. It seems that “unnatural” causes of death (MVC being the prime category) are so high in the US that they have significantly depressed our life expectancy. By adjusting the life expectancy data for all the OECD countries (except Luxembourg), the US catapults from last to first place! This is all according to University of Iowa researchers  Robert L. Ohsfeldt and John E. Schneider.

 

http://idmeglobalalert.com/images/DeathCauses05.jpg

nhtsa 810936 Leading Causes based on 2005 data

 Updated for 2009 data

“Motor vehicle traffic crashes were the leading cause of death for age 4 and every age
11 through 27 (based on latest available 2009 data)”
Source: National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Mortality Data, 2009… quoted from NHTSA Quick Facts 2012.

Two Abreast heating up

It seems that the Pima County Sheriff’s department, in particular the Green Valley District, is out to get cyclists riding two abreast, see the discussion over at tusconbikelawyer.com.

In the commentary there, someone pointed out a link to an interesting Mionske blog/article regarding the quandary over obeying baseless orders of law enforcement.

But, back to Arizona — to recap the impeding stuff, it is important to know that Bicycles are not motor vehicles…, to understand Arizona’s general-purpose impeding statute does not apply to cyclists.

And for some general references see Two abreastness.

92-year-old jailed for DUI

I don’t normally like to comment on these far-afield stories but this one is particularly crazy.

It seems that 92-year-old Clifford Allen was convicted of his second DUI (second within six years,  one wonders if there are more?) this triggers some sort of mandatory sentence and landed him in the county lockup, when some sort of residential rehab fell through. Continue reading “92-year-old jailed for DUI”

Photo unit snaps GOP party chief speeding 109 mph

This is just too wild to not comment on. Never a dull moment here in Arizona with respect to photo enforcement! Two weeks ago the world’s first photo radar murder and now we have a politician (he’s not a legislator, he works for the party) *arrested* for criminal speeding and reckless driving.

How will this play with the County Attorney’s pronouncement (see Thomas says no to criminal speeding) that he will not prosecute any criminal case based solely on photo evidence? Continue reading “Photo unit snaps GOP party chief speeding 109 mph”

Negligent driver who killed 5 gets 1-year sentence

At this stage, with the investigation into Allen Johnson’s death still pending — there is understandably a lot of conjecture regarding what charges may be brought, or not brought, as the case may be.

I’ve seen this movie before, and the outcome is (almost) always the same — there are only two things that (reliably) bring criminal charges. They are DUI and leaving the scene.

If the exception proves the rule, and I think it does, take a deep breath and read the results of this quintuple homicide. This case gives one answer to the question: exactly what can a negligent driver do (besides the two aforementioned things) to get indicted for murder?

Laurie Roberts did a great job of bringing this story to light in her column (alternately see Laurie’s blog and entry on the same subject and the aftermath). A news story ran in the East Valley Tribune.

Roberts writes: “Then he did the smartest thing he could do. He hired Larry Kazan, the Valley’s go-to attorney for bad drivers – the ones who can afford him, that is”

The synopsis is, in case the links to those stories disappear: Robert Logan Myers III plead guilty to five counts of Neg Hom stemming from a collision where he was speeding and ran a red light colliding with a left-turner. In the deal where he got 1 year in jail (the nominal sentence would be 5 time 2.5 years), work release for 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, payment of restitution of about $451,000, 4 years of probation. No mention of his driver’s license — of course how would he get back and forth from jail every day without one?!

The outcome of this, albeit highly unusual prosection, makes me wonder if pursuing criminal charges, heretofore what I considered the “holy grail” of holding someone responsible is the way to go. There must be a better way. ??

Training the Brain To Choose Wisely

This piece appeared on page one of the Personal Journal section. It dealt mainly with alternative incentives for behavior modification in the workplace; e.g. paying employees to lose weight or quit smoking. Here are some excerpts with my emphasis added:

The human brain is wired with biases that often keep people from acting in their best interest. Now, some employers and insurers are testing ways to harness such psychological pitfalls to get people to make healthier choices…

Rather than encouraging good behavior with small or one-time payments, some health and wellness plans have begun enrolling employees in lotteries for a chance to win a bigger reward….

Such approaches stem from the field of behavioral economics, which challenges the conventional economic doctrine that consumers always act as informed, rational decision makers. Instead, behavioral researchers have found, people often exhibit irrational, albeit predictable, biases that lead them not to act in their best interests.

…Though the study is still under way, about 70% of the lottery group has completed the assessment, researchers say. That compares with 34% of those receiving the basic cash reward, and 43% of those getting an additional grocery card.

It seems to me the lottery incentive could be used by businesses as an incentive for bicycle commuting (to comply with trip-reduction efforts).

Some guys REALLY don’t like photo-radar

…but this seems extreme, even by the standards of photo-enforcement opponents. Police are looking for a suspect who shot and killed a worker inside a photo-van parked along the highway. “Phoenix police released witness accounts of the suspect Monday, which described him as a White male in his 60s, with a thin face, white hair and a white mustache. He smelled of smoke. The suspect’s car is believed to be a white and gray 1980s Chevy Suburban with a roof rack and black rims and tires” — AZ Rep 4/19/2009

suspected stupid criminals vehicle
suspected stupid criminal's vehicle

Video revealed the suspect’s vehicle, which was somewhat unusual, an older model, and two-toned paintjob plus the roof rack. An unrelated DPS officer recognized the vehicle as a former neighbor and boom…. “Police on Monday arrested Thomas Patrick Destories, 68, of Phoenix on suspicion of first-degree murder” … what a moron. His story is going to be he didn’t know anyone was inside. It’s people like Destories that gives all gun nuts a bad name. The suspense now is what will he be charged with? I would guess they’ll go for 2nd degree murder (see here for list; and scroll down to table) “manifesting extreme indifference to human life…”, which may slip down to manslaughter.

Sharrow / Shared lane marking (SLM)

Sharrow on downhill side of a Seattle street

For the latest from the 2009 MUTCD and sharrows/SLM/BMUFL (bikes may use full lane); see bicycles-may-use-full-lane-slm-mutcd-updates …

A marking that has gained some attention lately is the so-called Sharrow (a contraction of the words shared and arrow), more technically named a Shared Lane Marking (SLM). They are currently not part of the MUTCD and as such their use is still considered “experimental” which means any use of them requires a wavier. I am not aware of any usage anywhere in Arizona — if you know of any please leave a comment or email me a pic. Their use was suggested as a possible mitigation of the light-rail-bike-lane mess between 7th and 24th street. Continue reading “Sharrow / Shared lane marking (SLM)”

More Photo-enforcement in the WSJ

On the heels of last weeks “front pager” — Jenkins thows in his two cents in today’s column The War on Short Yellows. His punditry is undoubtedly astute: “One Arizona sheriff recently proved you could get elected by opposing speed cameras”. He should have stopped there, since his analysis of safety is lacking. Firstly, he either doesn’t know, or doesn’t let on, the scope of the problem. To put it simply, traffic collisions are the leading cause of unnatural death for all Americans (link to reference here)… this is a huge problem.

And the problem is even worse in Arizona; something he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about. Arizona rates (even after some fairly large improvements in recent years) far above US averages in both per capita fatalities, and fatalities per 100M VMT. So it should probably come as no surprise that the authorities in Arizona are trying out things like photo-enforcement. Which he, reflexively, believes is basically a jack-booted government gone wild.

He goes with the typical cannard — that supposedly the collisions prevented represent only a small fraction of all collisions. His exact stat was “Consider: Red-light running and speeding, the two main uses of traffic cameras, are implicated in fewer than 8% of accidents”.  He doesn’t reveal a source (possibly a talking point from the NMA?), I’m guessing it is 3% + 5%, and also guessing it’s the national causastion survey. In any event, the weakness is that these collisions are far more freqently fatal. Arizona has a particularly high fatal red-light running rate.

He even brings up Britian, yet he either doesn’t know, or doesn’t let on that Britian experienced a precitious decline in fatality rates through the 1990’s — coincident with the rise in photo-enforcement. Are the two related? One wonders, but Jenkins apparently doesn’t care or wonder. By the way, fatality rates are far below US rates (both per capita, and per VMT).

His solution? lengthen yellow lights. This would undoubtedly reduce violations. But unless the yellow is “short” (shorter than engineering standards) there’s no indication this would reduce collisions, though. And as to the other ten’s of thousands of deaths annually? Well he doesn’t even have a suggestion for that.

Is it safe to go to Mexico?

With all the negative press surrounding Mexican narco-violence lately , the following theme should sound familiar to azbikelaw readers:

Though the U.S. government says its records aren’t comprehensive, the leading cause of unnatural death in Mexico for an American tourist — by far — is car accident, according to State Department data…

—Is It Safe to Go to Mexico? Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2009

I could do without the “accident” — the preferred term is “collision” or “crash”.

2 elderly peds killed in Scottsdale

Investigation pending… but unimpaired (we assume the driver wasn’t impaired) drivers are rarely charged, regardless of circumstances.

Alfred Tillman, 82, and his wife Bernice, 80, were struck and killed by a pickup truck as they attempted to cross 90th Street near the bagel shop at 15768 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd… Investigators had not decided by late Friday whether the driver, Blake Allan, 39, of Peoria, would be cited in the deaths, Clark said…. Police say the Toyota pickup was southbound on 90th Street near Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard shortly after 7 a.m. when it struck the pair…The accident occurred in a 35-mph zone, and Clark said early indications were that speed was a factor in view of the length of the skid marks and the amount of damage to the truck.

— Deaths of elderly couple stun those who saw them regularly, The Arizona Republic, 4/10/2009

…

2007 Arizona claims enormous improvement in VMT fatality rate

I guess it takes a long time for the VMT state-by-state rates to trickle out — but they are all here. The numbers are close to, but not the same as, ADOT’s 2007 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts.

The VMT fatality rate for 2007 is 1.69 fatalities per per 100 million Vehicle Miles Traveled. Continue reading “2007 Arizona claims enormous improvement in VMT fatality rate”