New Los Angeles law bans harassing bicyclists verbally or physically

[The Straight Story]

New Los Angeles law bans harassing bicyclists


LOS ANGELES—A new Los Angeles law makes it a crime for motorists to harass bicyclists, verbally or physically.

The City Council approved the ordinance on Wednesday. It also allows victims of harassment to file civil lawsuits without waiting for the city to press criminal charges.

League of American Bicyclists president Andy Clarke calls the law groundbreaking, saying no other city in the nation offers bicyclists an equivalent civil recourse Bicycle advocates have complained that motorists throw objects, shout insults and try to run them off the road.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18521114

[MineralMan]

1. Well, I guess I won't yell at the next bicyclist who

forces me to make a panic stop by running a stop sign in front of me, then. I won't honk my horn, either. I wouldn't want to be sued. :sarcasm:

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Be nice if the same were extened to motorcyclists

[frylock]

10. how many times has that happened in your lifetime?

[hifiguy]

14. It happened to me twice in one DAY

in downtown Minneapolis not two weeks ago.

[MineralMan]

16. Yup. The Twin Cities are bicycle cities. Drivers have to always

be alert for stop sign and red light runners. In other places, where there are fewer bicyclists, it may not occur quite as often.

[MineralMan]

15. A few times a year. Almost always on residential streets.

Where there are stop signs on a cross street, bicyclists often just keep going at the speed they were going, head down, and completely unaware. If you're on an intersecting street, where there is no stop sign, you'll have to brake suddenly. Happens far more often than it should.

That's why I assumes that someone may run the stop sign at all such intersections, and am always alert in case I have to stop. It's also why I drive no faster than 25 mph on residential streets, even in my area, where the speed limit is 30 mph.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

26. It happens to me often. Couple times a month.

A couple weeks ago, I had a bike dart out (going wrong way down a one-way) in front of me. I think he assumed I had a stop-sign because a car coming the other way stopped at the corner to pick up a passenger. The bicyclist, of course, had no traffic sign because he was traveling the wrong way. The look on his face went from fear, to anger and then to a wave as if to apologize when he realized I had no stop sign.

After that, I almost had a head-on in front of my house with some jerk traveling the wrong way down my one-way street. I was pulling away from the curb. I shoulder checked before pulling out but didn't see the idiot traveling the wrong way hugging the parked cars because there was a van in front of me.

Three years ago, my partner was broadsided by a speeding bike who blew a stop sign. Driving at night with a barely functioning light and no reflective gear. The accident was completely the biker's fault but guess who had to pay an insurance claim. The guy claimed to be unhurt, apologized profusely and refused medical attention - but called the next day to inform us his family said he "should get checked out". In other words, his family informed him of the bag of money floating around.

[Yavin4]

2. So, If There's A Tea Party Rally in L.A.

And President Obama rides by on a bicycle. Then, he can sue them?

[Broderick]

4. So many laws out there in California it seems

Some seem redundant or unnecessary.

[david_vincent]

5. How about a law banning bicyclists from

spitting at and on drivers? That's what happened to me in Seattle. And no, I didn't cut him off or anything like that -- I was driving a Suburban and the jackass just assumed that it was mine and I was therefore deserving of being spat on. In fact, it was a borrowed vehicle; at the time, I didn't even own a car.

Bicyclists need to take responsibility for their actions, assumptions, and attitudes, too. They think they can spit on people and then just speed away on their bikes -- what a pack of fucking cowards.

[GillesDeleuze]

6. that is exactly like being hit by a car

cool story, bro.

[GillesDeleuze]

7. deleted

[frylock]

11. so ONE cyclist spits on you and you paint ALL cyclists as cowards?

are you fucking serious?!

[a la izquierda]

17. Welp, sorry someone spit on you. IN YOUR CAR.

But I can attest to D batteries, full Big Gulp sodas and other random shit people have in their cars being tossed at my husband and friends. Oh, and that time some jackass in a pickup thought it would be cute to try and run me into parked cars (I'm very obviously a woman). He'd have probably killed me if he succeeded, but got quite a scare from my husband who watched it all unfold. And that time a douchebag checking his texts ran a red and almost took out a pack of bicyclists.
Sorry, but when any of the above happens to you, I'll take your whining seriously.

I hate just as much when idiots on bikes run stops and reds while I'm driving. Those folks threaten me and other serious cyclists, because people react not against them, but against us.

"They think they can spit on people and then just speed away on their bikes -- what a pack of fucking cowards." We can speed away on our bikes? What do you drive, a Big Wheel? Sorry bud, you're a lot faster and much more dangerous.

[waddirum]

19. mighty broad brush you paint with

"...Bicyclists need to take responsibility for their actions, assumptions, and attitudes, too. They think they can spit on people and then just speed away on their bikes -- what a pack of fucking cowards."

Replace the noun "bicyclists" with any other ethnic group. See how that sounds.

[frylock]

22. i wasn't going to go there, but thought the same exact thing

[Iggo]

35. Isn't there already a law against that?

[NeedleCast]

8. Wow, LA is passing all kinds of stupid laws

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. yeah... Education, not more laws

[frazzled]

9. You mean I can't ...

mutter "asshole" when I'm driving and a cyclist decides that red lights don't apply to him and goes cruising through an intersection I am about to enter? I'd be willing to be arrested for that.

[frylock]

12. one just needs to take a look at some of the replies to see what cyclists deal with on a daily basis

[a la izquierda]

18. Yep.

Pretty scary. I've known two people hit by cars, and in the last two years, a bunch of cyclists have been hit and either killed or seriously injured.

[snooper2]

29. Nearly twice as likely to be killed by a horse,

But wait, there's more!

We took the helmet lobby's own numbers for per-capita deaths and injuries, and compared them to other per-capita deaths and injuries:


Death Rate
Injury Rate

from cancer
2,010
N/A

from pneumonia/flu
237
N/A

from poisoning
73.5
1,842

from falling
50.9
27,100

from suffocation
44.0
137

while walking
16.9
280

from drowning
14.8
28.5

while driving
12.9
987

while motorcyclng
9.8
717

on horseback
3.8
127

while bicycling
2.5
453

struck by lightning
2.0
8.0

while skiing
0.2
43



Nearly twice as likely to be killed by a horse, six times more likely to drown, 100 times more likely to die of pneumonia or the flu, than to be killed while riding a bicycle. More than twice as likely to be seriously injured in a car, and four times as likely to be poisoned, than seriously injured on a bicycle. And keep in mind, according to the CDC, only a third of those bicycle injuries are head injuries.

Too many numbers? There are two important points to take away from all this talk of fatality and injury rates:


On a per-mile basis, the odds of being killed or sustaining a serious head injury while riding a bicycle are about the same as the odds of being killed or injured while out for a walk.
On a per-capita basis, the odds of being killed while riding a bicycle are nearly the same as the odds of being killed by a bolt of lightning (this author has, in fact, been struck by lightning -- albeit indirectly -- so he is well aware that "extremely improbable" is not quite the same as "impossible"); the odds of sustaining a serious head injury while riding a bicycle are about half the odds of sustaining a serious injury while out for a walk.
and a side point...


Being drunk really screws up your ability to do anything right.

[a la izquierda]

36. Okay then. Not sure the point of your post.

Being fucked with while on a bike by someone in a 1500 pound truck is okay, because I'm more likely to be killed by the horse in the pasture I'm passing. Mmm-hmm.

I'll be sure to pass on your stats to these folks.
http://www.newson6.com/story/10505050/two-bicyclists-killed-sand-springs-driver-arrested?redirected=true
Oh wait, they're dead.

[MineralMan]

20. I see. So pointing out unsafe habits of some cyclists means

that I'm an evil person who attacks bicyclists?

I'm also a bicyclist. When I'm driving in a four-wheeled vehicle, I'm always on the alert for two-wheeled traffic, whether it's bicycles or motorcycles. The last thing I'd ever want to do would be to get into an accident with either. That does not mean that I'm not annoyed by poor behavior and unsafe riding practices. I don't do them when I'm on a bicycle or motorcycle, and I wish I could expect other people on two-wheeled vehicles to do the same. Sadly, I cannot expect that, so I have to be hyper aware to make sure there are no accidents involving me.

I celebrate the safe riders, and criticize the unsafe ones. I do the same for drivers of other vehicles.

[frylock]

21. i'm sorry, but would you mind pointing out where i called you evil..

and accused you of attacking cyclists? thanks in advance!

[meow mix]

25. yup, ive used both methods of commuting... the cyclist has it worse by about 1000x

people feel extra safe in thier metal box... and behave so much much much worse. of course the haters will not allow themeselves to see this.

im glad to see them getting extra protection because its needed badly.

[Scout]

34. bad behavior aside, they ARE extra safe in their metal box

when compared to a bicycle, for fuck sake.

rude, ignorant cyclists who don't obey the traffic laws might have it worse :eyes:

[Ignis]

33. +1

[hobbit709]

13. If it doesn't apply equally to cyclists then it's discriminatory.

[gratuitous]

23. I'm a pretty careful cyclist

I put in an extra five miles each way on my commute to stay on dedicated bike paths, but I still have to be on the road for a couple of miles morning and evening. I don't blow through stop signs, though at deserted four-way stops I don't come to a full and complete, detach-the-shoe-clip-and-put-it-on-the-pavement stop. I observe very few cars that do, either, so that's kind of a wash. I always obey red lights, though I have been known to sneak through a yellow if I'm going fast enough. I ride in the right lane, as far over as the road conditions will allow, even though state law says that I am entitled to the entire lane.

And even at that . . . Yeah, I've dumped my bike on a couple of occasions when someone has come zooming down the street, oblivious to my presence. I've been swatted on the behind, yelled at, crowded, targeted with thrown objects and been treated to other dramatic moments. Is this law unnecessary? Depends on which side of the windshield you're sitting, I suppose. Is it enforceable? At first, I think it will be very tough to enforce. Will it become enforceable? Yeah, I think so, as suits are filed, verdicts are won, and law enforcement begins treating cyclist/motorist altercations with the same seriousness as motorist/motorist ones.

And who knows? As the price of gas keeps rising, more people who can might decide to adjust their lifestyle away from consumptive automobiles toward sustainable bicycles. In which case, the changes that are being made now might be of far wider benefit to more people in years to come.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

28. If you don't completely stop at the stop sign you HAVE blown through it.

This is not necessarily directed at you if, as you say, you come very close to a full stop. But bicyclists who treat THEIR portion of a four-way stop as a "Yield" sign are asking for trouble. A four-way stop has a built in redundancy that at least ONE of the parties is going to stop. Remove one by treating the sign as yield and you are that much closer to tragedy.

[ThatsMyBarack]

24. I share the road with cyclists....

As long as they don't ride directly in front of me, making me slow my car down to a snail's pace so I end up late for work.

Happens whenever I leave my house even just one minute later than I should...

[Archae]

27. I do see assholes on bicycles.

Usually teenage kids.

But the ratio of assholes is 20-1, when it comes to motorists vs bicycles.

I've totally lost track of the number of times some &%$#@!!! in an SUV has nearly reduced me to a red smear, yakking on their damn cell phones.

[Xithras]

30. As long as I can honk at them and flip them off, I'm fine.

I'm a frequent bicyclist and have the utmost respect for most bikers, but we've got a group of local bikers around here who are on a power trip. They'll cut you off, ride in traffic lanes when bike lanes are present, and otherwise make obnoxious asses of themselves. My wife had one of them bang on the side of her car and tell her to "Move the fuck over next time" when he was doing some lane splitting at a stoplight and decided that the gap between my wifes minivan and the car in the next lane wasn't as wide as he would have liked. There was a big, empty bike lane right on the other side of her car that he could have been using.

The SOB was just lucky that it wasn't my car. She locked her doors...I would have opened mine.

[devilgrrl]

32. Los Angeles needs more bike lanes - there's no excuse not to have them countywide.

Western Europe has bike lanes everywhere and they only get to use them in when there isn't snow on the ground. L.A. is temperate year round - why can't you ride without the fear of getting killed? Such bullshit. :crazy: