Please help, this could happen here next
The story: Woman charged again after she rides her bicycle on busy U.S. 27 (and note the picture of her biking, the gravel is clearly seen.)
The appeal for money: Appeal fund by Cherokee Schill
Note: To date she has not received any help from the League of American Bicyclists (LAB), which I find ironic in that they helped get rid of our mandatory shoulder use law. I sort of understand the reluctance in the past not to represent anything less then "the ideal" case. But is that the case here? What cyclist would support:
- Not ever sweeping a shoulder along a route we use frequently
- Rumple Strips along a section of road were we are expected to jump on and off the shoulder?
I will strongly assert it is the state that is guilty of "wanton endangerment". So please help her and maybe an encouraging note to LAB to stand up for our rights.
It could happen here: I don't go to the Towson Bike Party much because I don't like biking Charles. Not that I think any part is unsafe but (for one example) it is the consent bugging me do I use the too narrow three foot shoulder or take the lane? Neither feels exactly right because of the other so I just don't bike there often, but what if I had too? At one point yesterday when using this shoulder I had to come to a near full stop because of some piss poor road patch in the shoulder. If i was taking this every day, you are darn straight I would be taking the lane early to avoid that spot. And if there was a rumble strip preventing my return to the shoulder.., I hope you see my point, a reasonable cyclists is not always on the shoulder, nor is it the law.
And as you may have heard I have been fighting the issue of bikes as slow moving vehicles must ride right. But still there is a position in MDOT that is very similar to the judges in this case
This is disturbing because Kentucky is clearer than Maryland that bikes are not considered "slow-moving" vehicles and like us bikes are not required to use shouldersDistrict Judge Bill Oliver found that Schill had violated ... three counts of a law requiring slow-moving vehicles to move as far to the right "as practicable."
189.810 Definitions.
(1) "Slow-moving vehicle" includes farm machinery, including animal-drawn vehicles, highway construction and maintenance vehicles, and any other type of vehicle except bicycles, capable of a rate of speed no greater than twenty-five (25) miles per hour.
So please help in anyway you can.