I fought the (rental) law and I won

June 23rd, 2006

Today was new a experience, getting pulled for over riding my bike. I had been riding down West 39th Street near State Line Road, coming home from the Plaza, and had an idiot driver behind me. The asshat was honking, revving his engine, and yelling at me to get on the sidewalk. No big deal, I’ve dealt with lots of asshats in my time. But when he finally went around me I couldn’t resist flipping him the bird.

Apparently there was a rent-a-cop behind the asshole driver, because the next thing I knew I was being pulled over with flashing lights and everything. Said rent-a-cop was a security guard for the W. 39th St. Community Improvement District. After pulling me over he proceeded to give me the riot act about how I was impeding traffic, supposed to be on the sidewalk, etc.

Well, the guard was in for quite a surprise when I turned out to know a lot more about the law than he did. You see, Missouri state law gives bicyclists the right to ride on the street, along with the same rights and responsibilities of automobile drivers. Even more important in this case, bicycles are expressly forbidden from the sidewalks of business districts like 39th St.

In the end, things turned out OK. The guard was amazed that I had a speedometer and was doing 15 m.p.h., which I think is actually pretty fast for a 25 zone full of pedestrians. I accepted blame for flipping off the asshat, and the security guard left with a much better understanding of the law. Finally, the 39th St. merchants association received a nice letter from me in my capacity as a board member of the Missouri Bicycle Federation.

So, take a lesson from me and brush up your state laws for bicyclists and pedestrians. As a cyclist, your place is on the street, not the sidewalk. Don’t let anyone, even authority figures, tell you otherwise.

UPDATE:
Within an hour of emailing the 39th St. CID I received a call from their security company apologizing for the incident and saying that they were distributing the state bike/ped laws to all of their officers.  Not bad for an afternoon’s work.


Posted in Bicycling | Comments (4)

 

4 Responses to “I fought the (rental) law and I won”

  1. Jeff says:
    6/23/2006 at 4:14 pm

    Nice work. Interesting schooling the person who was attempting to enforce the law. Glad they all learned something, but it’s annoying that the impatient driver “got away.” Doubtful he really could have gone much faster in that part of town anyway.

    Good job!

  2. bahua says:
    6/23/2006 at 5:40 pm

    I have seen people going a heck of a lot faster than 25 there, before, and I’m sure the open space on the road in front of Eric was tantalizing that guy.

  3. Dan says:
    6/23/2006 at 10:13 pm

    You are the hero of the week. Great work.

  4. Mark says:
    6/28/2006 at 9:01 pm

    I’m fairly certain there is no ordinance prohibiting you from signaling an asshat that he or she is “number one” so you’re in the clear.