San Diego Police get it right. How about in your city?

Frank Lehnerz provided this about a presentation I did last night in San Diego.

Jim Baross, CSI, LCI and long-time member of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition presented some information last night at San Diego County Bicycle Coalition Council of Clubs Meeting. His topic, in particular, was to present issues and solutions between cyclists and law enforcement.
One of the items he handed out to the meeting participants was this brochure from the San Diego Police Department.

A lot of educational materials from LE organizations and other government organizations tend to leave out that bicyclists can use a full traffic lane when the lane is too narrow to share which as many of us know is the case for most traffic lanes in CA. They typically state something such as “must ride as far to the right as possible” (mistaking possible for practicable) or mention that we must ride close to the “right edge,” but no exceptions are listed. San Diego PD released an “alternative vehicles” pamphlet last year that targeted scooter riders, human-powered bicyclists, and e-bike riders and it was riddled with errors. So this is quite an improvement!

We’ve sure come a long way here on multiple fronts. Jim has trained lots of LEOs through the Smart Cycling program and we have fewer problems (bad tickets, stops, etc) than we used to riding on the roads. We still have a ways to go but if Jim’s (and others) keep up the good work full lane use will be further accepted and understood by local law enforcement.

It was also a pleasure to see a two-sided Cycling Savvy brochure and multiple participants of the group had the CVC21202 flow chart either on their phones or printed out as small business cards. Those can be seen here, along with an excellent video put together in partnership with the Orange County Bicycle Coalition. https://cyclingsavvy.org/cvc21202/
They also have an excellent video intended for law enforcement: https://cyclingsavvy.org/cycling-law/
Getting law enforcement “on our side” is very important if we want to continue getting cycling to become a more accepted and normal occurrence on our roadways.

Frank

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About Jim Baross

I bicycled across the USA from East to West in 1976 leading groups of bicyclists for the “Bikecentennial ’76 “event and again in 2007 riding this time from West to East with my two sons. I was first certified as an Effective Cycling Instructor in 1986 by the League of American Bicyclist and have been an active League Cycling Instructor for the League since then. In 2002 I gained acceptance as a Cycling Instructor Trainer and since then have conducted 11 training seminars for certification of League Cycling Instructors held in San Diego, San Jose, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento, Morgan Hill, Fairfax, and Palo Alto. I completed the San Diego Police Bicycle Skills Menu Course in 2003 and I have been an expert witness for bicycling crash incidents. I presently serve on several bicycling advisory committees and advocacy organizations. Chair - Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Working Group for the San Diego regional association of governments since 1995 Vice Chair - California Bicycle Advisory Committee for the State Dept of Transportation, a member since 1992 President - California Association of Bicycling Organizations Board member - California Bicycle Coalition California State Ambassador – League of American Bicyclists Co-Chair California Strategic Highway Safety Plan, Challenge Area 13, Improving Bicycling Safety Conferences, seminars and similar events at which I have attended and presented bicycling safety information and training include the following: Speaker/Presenter, Calif. Office of Traffic Safety, Summit “What to do about all these bicycles in Traffic”, 2009 ProWalk-ProBike Conference, Seattle WA., 2008 Attendee/Speaker, League of American Bicyclists, Bike Education Conference, Wisconsin and New York City, 2002 & 2007 Velo Mondial, Amsterdam. 2000 Speaker/Presenter, Calif. Office of Traffic Safety’s Summit “A Vision for Roads to Traffic Safety”, 2000 Speaker Autovation conference, San Diego 2005 Chair, California Strategic Highway Safety Plan, #13 - Improve Bicycling Safety Presenter, California Strategic Highway Safety Plan Summit, 2008 Anaheim Attendee, League of American Bicyclists, National Bike Summit, Washington, DC, 2006 & 2008 Presenter, Walk/Bike California Conferences, Oakland 2003, Ventura 2005, Davis 2007 Speaker, Making the Connection International Trails and Greenways Conference Presenter, Safety N Kids, Conference, “Children Learn Best by Good Examples From Those They Trust”, 2006 Speaker, ITE Conference 2006 Dana Point, Calif., “Engineering for Bicycling, From a Bicyclists Point of View” Exhibitor/Speaker, Lifesavers, National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities, 2004 References familiar with my bicycling background and experience include: Kathy Keehan, Exec Director San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, Ph: 858-487-6063, Email: execdir@sdcbc.org Stephan Vance, Chair Calif. Bicycle Coalition and SANDAG Senior Planner, Ph: 619-595-5324, Email: sva@sandag.org Ken McGuire, Chief Bicycle Facilities Unit, California Dept of Transportation, Ph: 916-653-2750, Email: ken_mcguire@dot.ca.gov Preston Tyree, Director of Education, League of American Bicyclists, 1612 K St., NW, #800, Washington, DC 20006, Ph: 202-822-1333 x 227, Email: Preston@bikeleague.org