A Reminder about Bicycle Safety [by Maryland State Police] [video]

[B' Spokes: Overall very good but 33 minutes is rather long.

A few nitpicks: I wish they got into the whole cyclists impeding traffic thing as we have a on going history of MVA and police getting that wrong. Though they did mention cyclists are excluded from "laws that begins, the driver of a motor vehicle may not do some behavior " - OK that covers (I hope) the misapplying of ยง 21-804 "a person may not willfully drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic." But we do have that we may not ride two abreast if we are impeding traffic. Does that mean anytime we are not going the speed limit (I hope not) or if traffic starts to back up (at least two cars) and cyclists are still riding two abreast? It would have been nice to see some sensible direction on enforcement of this law as it has come up from time to time.

I am very disappointed that there was no mention to get the cyclist' statement after a crash. I hear about officers doing this too often and I encourage that if it happens to you request an amended police report. Though the video did mention to treat crashes involving cyclists just like two car crashes but I'm not sure if that would be enough to get rid of the outrageous behavior of not interviewing the cyclist at all.

I would have loved to see a bit more stress on warning/ticketing drivers parking in bikeways. It seems implied but they never come out and say it. Can we use this to encourage BCPD to do just that? As I said a little wishy washy with the wording.

Summary: Very good background and reasons given for the video. A must watch for that alone.]




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