Bicyclist Diversion Programs Around Arizona

In several jurisdictions around Arizona, bicyclists who are cited for an infraction can have their tickets dismissed by attending a bicyclist safety class. This is a win-win: the fines are either much lower (or none at all?!), and the bicyclist gets exposed to a training course. Various limitations apply, generally you can have no more than one ticket per year dismissed in this way.

Unlike the Defensive Driver Program [information on TSS Traffic Safety School and DDP/DDS Defensive Driving Program/School was moved to driving-school], which is enabled by statute, these bicyclist-specific programs are completely ad-hoc, and the rules and red-tape are very flexible and minimal. Here are the programs currently available in Arizona:

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which seem to be run out of the courts exclusively, and in fact the city attorney’s office tells me they have nothing whatsoever to do with civil traffic.
It appears the newer program (active as of Aug 2023) is run by TPD, and costs $50. It is a series of four or five ~5 minute TPD-produced videos where a narrator reads a slide, interspersed with a question between videos. At the conclusion you can enter your citation info to get credit; at some point you pay $50. Anyone can complete the training (for free); i have some issues with it which I’ll try to get answers to. I am very happy to see the emphasis on wrong-way riding, because it is indeed dangerous and illegal, but I do have a problem with their explanation, as detailed below.

There are a handful of tidbits of mis-information, which are contrary to law and in some cases contrary to best/safe practice:

The bike module; gave the usual short shrift to 28-815A, the bicyclist “as far right as practicable” rule:
Bikes – Intro “If you (cyclists) are in the roadway, you MUST use a bike lane when provided”; and “You must ALWAYS ride as nearly to the right hand edge as practical”, with the only exception noted is preparing for left turn,  and no explanation of what “practicable” (or practical, as the word on the slide says) might mean.

Firstly, Arizona has no mandatory bike lane use law; and second, 28-815A has numerous exceptions and a pre-condition, which are all for bicyclists’ safety; which mean it is both safest and legal to move LEFT and away from the right edge under typical conditions.
City of Tempe also has the misinformation about mandatory bike lane use posted on their city website which they refuse to fix or address.

And also in Bikes – Intro, the wrong-way cyclist depicted is violating 28-729 “right half of the roadway rule”, and NOT 28-815A as noted on the slide. I mention this because wrongly applying 28-815A is at the root of misunderstanding how bicycle traffic laws function. It’s a very bad sign when the police make this fundamental error.

This is a bit of a nit-pick but I’ll mention it:
Bike – equip: the explanation and “No” picture  of the hand on handlebar rule, §28-816. seems to be mis-explained. (the picture shows a guy riding no hands and holding a water bottle with his mouth — this is not illegal because nothing would “prevent” him from placing a hand on the handlebars).

This isn’t bikes, but I’ll mention it anyway: Regarding Pedestrian module: I don’t believe the statement “(to be an unmarked crosswalk it) must be compliant with the ADA” is true. There are unmarked crosswalks at every intersection pursuant to 28-601 def’n, there is no mention of ADA or ramps.

Before TPD took over the bike diversion program, it was handled thru ASU Police — not surprisingly there was no obvious mis-information in it as ASU Police have (several!) “PCIs” (IPMBA certified Police Cycling Instructors)(the older class ppt is linked below). I have no idea why it switched from ASUPD to TPD. As far as I can tell, TPD does not have, nor has it ever had any LCIs or PCIs. This, among other things, should be a red-flag when assessing the city’s “bike friendliness” LAB rating (gold!) but doesn’t seem to be even considered.

The older (up until 2020 or so?) program costs $40 + $15,  The class is given by administered by the ASU police department at ASU and is now online only (formerly was a classroom based program at ASU, perhaps through the mid 2010’s?); it applies to tickets issued anywhere in city of Tempe.[rates as of mid 2018: $50 + $18]
See comment below for the .ppt used in the older online class.

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Pima County now says, retrieved Sept 2015, (these links die a lot!) “Bicycle diversion classes are reserved for persons who’ve received a traffic citation while riding their bike. The City Prosecutor’s Office will dismiss a cyclist’s civil traffic citation if he or she submits proof of completion of the Bicycle Diversion Program safety class which is now being offered by EZAZ Traffic School. Call 520-207-3200 to register. Please note that there is a fee of $39 for the class. If you were cited into the Green Valley Justice Court…”.

Note this is a change, and as of sometime in 2015, instructors are no longer LCIs. And the class now lumps ped violators with bicyclist violators — which seems quite stupid and reflects a mentality that bicyclists are rolling peds.

Town of Oro Valley
According to this USDot “Mayor’s Challenge” flyer (the town was named a “small city winner” by USDot) as of spring 2016 … Oro Valley Court apparently has a bicyclist diversion program: “As part of the bicycle safety effort, the Oro Valley Court created a new educational diversion program for bicyclists who received bicycle traffic citations”.

City of Tucson www.tucsonaz.gov/prosecutor/Diversion/diversion.html and scroll down to BIKE SAFETY DIVERSION PROGRAM “the City Prosecutor’s Office will dismiss a cyclist’s civil traffic citation…” This is apparently FREE(!? no court fees, no class fee) [link dead as of Sept 2015; leaving here for posterity]

UofA and Pima County: jp.co.pima.az.us/BikeDiversionProgram.htm “you may be eligible to attend the County Attorney’s Bicycle Diversion Program” This is apparently FREE(!? no court fees, no class fee). By the way, I don’t know the ins-and-outs but apparently the UofA campus falls under county jurisdiction for some reason. [link dead as of Sept 2015; leaving here for posterity]

Flagstaff: No details, but a program was announced in an 8/2/2015 news story. Here’s a page on FBO’s site (the link to the form is dead)

 

Both of the Tucson and Pima ones seem to run completely out of the respective prosecutor’s office, as opposed to, say, Tempe where it is run via the municipal court. Here is a flyer with some general info from the Pima Co. Bike Ped program.

Related topic: License points for bicyclists?

See also do-points-apply-to-bicyclists for a controversy about whether or not driver’s license points can be applied to a person (who has a license) for an infraction incurred while riding a bicycle.