Category: bikelaw

Arizona already has a “Vulnerable User Law”

Executive Summary

Arizona already has a law that functions very much like a “Vulnerable User Law“, it is applicable in virtually all cases where a driver causes a collision resulting in a pedestrian serious injury/fatality; and in many cases where the victim is a bicyclist.

 

[ UPDATE: in 2018 the legislature increase penalities for the law referenced below; see 28-672, 675 & 676 ]

On March 3, 2012 bicyclist Sean Mccarty was riding in a bike lane in north Scottsdale when a motorist for unknown or unstated reasons swerved or drifted partially from Lane 2 into the bike lane, striking and killing the bicyclist. Possible criminal actions on the part of the driver such as excessive speed, or impairment were quickly ruled out by investigators, and the motorist was very quickly issued two traffic citations, 28-735 (the “three foot” rule) and another for 28-815D (driving in a bike lane prohibited); and paid a fine of $420 [1]. Very similar situations occurred in the fatal collisions of both Allen Johnson in Pima County, and Jerome Featherman in Green Valley. Continue reading “Arizona already has a “Vulnerable User Law””

Ride With Traffic

R5-1b (top) with R9-3cP plaque (bottom)
The most concise, least able to be misconstrued, message about which direction a bicyclist must operate, is “Ride With Traffic”, it’s the inscription on a R9-3cP plaque. But what is “with traffic”, or “the flow of traffic” or “the direction of traffic”? And why do we so often hear “ride right”, “bike right”, “Be a Roll Model: Ride on the Right” or some other clever-sounding catchphrase? Continue reading “Ride With Traffic”

Vulnerable user legislation in Wisconsin

Readers of azbikelaw might remember I am not a fan of vulnerable user laws for reasons stated in the main article. There’s no denying this has become a major rallying point among large majorities of bicycle advocates.

Whether you think this type of law is a good idea or a bad idea,  the interplay between a bicyclist group and a motorcyclist group in Wisconsin could be informative…

Jump to the Wisconsin materials in the main article.

Phoenix media blitz addresses wrong-way riding

[Update — a newer presentation of more-or-less the same material can be found at azbikelaw.org/ride-with-traffic ]

Phoenix last week rolled out a major media blitz to target wrong-way riding

bike-sign-2-tipsThey all struggle with the fact that the direction of riding on sidewalks, in Phoenix, is not regulated. In other words, it’s not illegal to ride counter-flow on Phoenix sidewalks. But they didn’t do a scrupulous job of noting the difference between legal counter-flow sidewalk riding, and the (always) illegal counter-flow street riding. Since the State of Arizona has chosen not to regulate riding on the sidewalk at all, and individual cites do, the topic is voluminous —  for much much more about sidewalk riding see sidewalk-cycling-in-arizona.

So some of the stories take odd turns, like the the notion that “…because riding a short distance against traffic sometimes might be safer, Wilcoxon says”.  Oh my. Continue reading “Phoenix media blitz addresses wrong-way riding”

McClintock Road resurfacing and left buffered bike lanes

McClintock Drive, Tempe. The left buffering necessitates a "criss cross" maneuver.
McClintock Drive, Tempe. The left buffering necessitates a “criss cross” maneuver.

[Mid-2018  southbound btw Southern and Baseline was restriped to add a 3rd southbound travel lane #restripe ]

[ONGOING still March 2017: There is a City of Tempe McClintock Project Page which is updated has has a long history section]

McClintock Drive resurfacing project, city of Tempe, AZ completed July 2015 — added left buffered Bike Lanes (LBBL) between Guadalupe and Broadway Roads, (the southbound side actually begins 1/2 mile north of Broadway at Apache) which incidentally crosses a major freeway interchange, US60. This is another in a series of “innovative” bicycle infrastructure projects recently completed in the City of Tempe. Continue reading “McClintock Road resurfacing and left buffered bike lanes”

Narrow Lane / Wide Lane

Knox Road, between Mill and Rural Road, City of Tempe. Example "choker".
Knox Road, between Mill and Rural Road, City of Tempe. Example “choker”.

Although you won’t find many arterial roads with wide lanes (where bicyclists generally must ride as far to the right as practicable), many collector roads around the Phoenix area have them.

Check out one-road-4-treatments for the full story, this addition pictured at right , Knox Road in the City of Tempe has both narrow and wide lanes.

Hardy Drive Streetscape project

new ped refuge island; Hardy Drive, Tempe

The Hardy Drive Streetscape project re-did this 30mph posted, low-speed collector street between University Dr. and Broadway Rd, more specifically, the project only affected bicycle infrastructure between 9th and 19th Street,  a distance of about 9/10ths of a mile. [google maps] The project was completed in early 2015 about the same time as the the University Drive Streetscape Project. Continue reading “Hardy Drive Streetscape project”

Arizona does NOT have a mandatory Bike Lane Law

[this will be a catch-all for issues relating to legal requirement to use bike lanes (BLs). This was moved from the article explaining When must I ride my bicycle on the shoulder?, because it was muddying that issue unnecessarily; after all BLs are not shoulders and shoulders are not BLs. For all the details about shoulders, see that article; the short answer is their use is almost never required, that conclusion stems from the fact that shoulders are not part of the roadway.] Continue reading “Arizona does NOT have a mandatory Bike Lane Law”

Take the Driver’s test

Below is re-printed from the Arizona Republic , the quiz accompanied their article on ADOT’s BSAP):

The Arizona Department of Transportation recommends strengthening state laws and adding more questions about bicycle safety in driver’s license tests. Many people don’t know the existing rules. How well do you?

(note these are suggested questions; not in actual use. Also note they do not follow the standard format of 3 answers)

Continue reading “Take the Driver’s test”

The driver of a vehicle

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This article is very similar to: bicycles-arent-vehicles
—

A bicyclist is considered the driver of a vehicle for the purposes of the transportation code, A.R.S. Title 28.; and at the same time, a bicycle is excluded from the definition of vehicle.

More fully, a bicyclist is “…granted all of the rights and is subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle…” §28-812, which goes on to state specifically which Chapters of Title 28 these rules apply to, 3, 4 and 5 which are the Rules of the road, DUI, and Penalties, respectively. Continue reading “The driver of a vehicle”

AZPOST — Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training

It is important to get all Law Enforcement Officers properly trained on the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles; and how that affects bicyclists. A constant bone of contention is where-to-ride-on-the-road, and I have several types of (mostly general, not state-specfic) training materials linked there.  Continue reading “AZPOST — Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training”

Are Cyclists Required to Carry ID? Are Pedestrians? Updated 2014

[2/23/2019 update: see story about 12 y.o. Hilde Kate Lysiak says Marshal Joseph Patterson stopped her as she was biking in Patagonia, Arizona. Various issues: asked her for identification?. “failure to comply with lawful order”? “illegal to video record”? ID?  ]

[2/17/2015 update: Officer Ferrin of the Ore incident has resigned. ASU released a chief’s letter and an independent investigation commissioned by ASU performed by Investigative Research Inc.  (apparently through public records?) I would describe as scathing, and that corroborates most of what I thought/said below, see the lengthy news story on azcentral — There is no law requiring peds to provide an ID card (in other words his saying “Let me see your ID or you will be arrested for failing to provide ID” is wrong, see  Arizona v Akins, below); there was no ‘jaywalking’, see link below to the actual jaywalking laws; there was probably no probable cause for the arrest; he didn’t “almost run her over”; 5 days earlier the officer had a similar (but non-physical) power-trip incident over a crosswalk. and on and on. The transcript, see below, confirms Officer Ferrin doesn’t understand the (ID) law]

[2015 update to the Ore incident: in an apparent about-face, ASU has moved to terminate Officer Stewart Ferrin over the matter; apparently as the result of an un-released independent review by an “outside agency”. ]

In 1999 Tucson bicyclist Enol Daniel Ortiz Jr. spent the night in jail for not having ID on him. It appears that now (since 2003) cyclists and other non-motorists have no legal obligation to carry identification.

The update in 2014  is due to the unusual case of Ersula Ore, an English professor at ASU. She was apparently “jaywalking” when she got into an altercation with ASU police. From what I can see this on College Ave, somewhere north of University Dr. This is a public street in the city of Tempe (there seems to be some confusion and many erroneous comments about this; this location is not “on campus” or somesuch). Tempe’s codes for pedestrians are here; ASU is NOT in the “central business district”, the more-restrictive “jaywalking” code only applies in the CBD so it leads me to wonder if she was really jaywalking at all. Jaywalking codes, real or imagined, are frequently used to assert superiority by motorists (the police officers were driving cars) over pedestrians.

Continue reading “Are Cyclists Required to Carry ID? Are Pedestrians? Updated 2014”

Arizona Governor’s Bicycle Task Force

Noted here for historical curiosity:

EXECUTIVE ORDER No. 86-4 established the Arizona Governor’s Bicycle Task Force  in 1986 by governor Bruce Babbitt.

It was later repealed by executive order in 1996 by Governor Fife Simington. The stated reason for the repeal was ” in recognition of that fact, the Alternative Transportation Task Force created on June II, 1996 has been authorized to study and implement alternative
transportation systems”. EO 96-11

Here is an image of AGBTF executive orders 86-4 and 96-11 : ArizonaGovernorsBicycleTaskForce (in case the azmemory pages disappear).

You can read that : Establishment of Alternative Transportation System Task Force Executive order No. 96-7. I can’t tell what that task force may or may not be doing currently (or ever?).

Continue reading “Arizona Governor’s Bicycle Task Force”