On Sunday morning May 24th 2008, I decided to go for a leisurely bike ride. With me were two young children who rode their bikes following close behind.
The route I chose would take me south on Mt. Washington past the Skyline sports park. As we approached the area near the softball fields, which were located to my right, I noticed a very common sight. However, on this morning what I witnessed was more disturbing than usual. We were forced to move from the bike lane into traffic because there were vehicles parked illegally in the bike lane ahead. Luckily, we were able to stop and navigate this detour without serious incident. We then continued on our way southbound. Some time later, we were returning home in the opposite direction. We also encountered more illegally parked vehicles directly in our path. Once again, we were forced to detour into the traffic lane to avoid these cars. I would estimate that between both southbound and northbound bike lanes, there were approximately 20 vehicles in violation of clearly posted No Parking signs.
My complaint is two-fold. First of all, you don’t have to like or dislike what I choose to do for recreation. However, it is not acceptable for someone else’s behavior to create an unsafe environment for me to enjoy my form of recreation. I highly doubt that parking a large number of vehicles on the softball fields would be allowed. Especially if I were to totally disregard the posted signs stating that it was illegal.
Secondly, my phone calls to the Bend Police Department to make them aware of the problem were essentially a waste of time. This resulted in an officer arriving at the scene who placed a flier on the windshields of the illegally parked cars and then left. I asked the officer if this action was all that he intended to do. He said, “What do you want me to do? Would you like me stand out here all day and give citations to all of these vehicles? What good would that do?” It didn’t take long to realize that the Bend Police have apparently been neutered.
If citations were written, it just might stop the illegal behavior, which, by the way, has been occurring un-checked for many years. I personally have made numerous phone complaints over the last couple of years addressing the problem and yet it continues to be allowed repeatedly.
I confronted an adult female passenger who was in a mini-van full of children. As it drove away from where it had been illegally parked, I questioned their obvious lack of consideration. She yelled back at me to “F**k off.” I thought, ‘What a wonderful role model she is.’
If parking is going to be allowed on the shoulders of Mt. Washington Dr. to provide access to the Sports Fields, then adequate space needs to be created so that illegal and un-safe parking does not continue. If nothing is going to be done to remedy this problem, the Bend Police should enforce the clearly posted No Parking signs that already exist. Maybe they are waiting for a serious injury to occur before they decide to do their job.
Scott Moyer, Bend
This article appears in Jun 5-11, 2008.
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Parking in a bicycle lane is expressly prohibited by state law. I say have the police cite the vehicles.
Oregon Revised Statutes read in part:
811.550 Places where stopping, standing and parking prohibited. This section establishes places where stopping, standing and parking a vehicle are prohibited for purposes of the penalties under ORS 811.555. Except as provided under an exemption in ORS 811.560, a person is in violation of ORS 811.555 if a person parks, stops or leaves standing a vehicle in any of the following places:
(23) On a bicycle lane. Exemptions under ORS 811.560 are applicable to this subsection.
811.555 Illegal stopping, standing or parking; affirmative defense; penalty. (1) A person commits the offense of illegal stopping, standing or parking if:
(a) The person stops, parks or leaves standing a vehicle in a place where such stopping, parking or standing is prohibited under ORS 811.550; or
(b) The person is the owner of an unattended vehicle parked in a place where such parking is prohibited under ORS 811.550.
(5) The offense described by this section, illegal stopping, standing or parking, is a Class D traffic violation. [1983 c.338 รยง668; 1987 c.687 รยง4]
http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/811.html
The Bend PD has always had a reputation for overlooking minor infractions in favor of preserving Bend’s easygoing reputation and keeping it attractive for tourists and new residents. Unfortunately, it looks like an officer’s convenience and the idea of upsetting soccer mom’s trumps the safety of other citizens. Why in the world would an officer pass up the opportunity to rightfully issue citations when the city is short of funds? Unfortunately, someone will have to get seriously injured or killed before people take laws seriously. They’re meant to protect the safety of everyone.
RJ is right. There may also be a city code covering bike lanes but I don’t know for sure. That said:
“Maybe they are waiting for a serious injury to occur before they decide to do their job.”
The absolute whiniest, foot-stomping, ignorant, ranting, empty argument possible.
“It didnรข โขt take long to realize that the Bend Police have apparently been neutered.”
This is just nothing but the “woman-scorned” pissy comment one would expect from someone who has no clue what the police department does. It smacks of “Because they don’t address MY ISSUE RIGHT NOW THE WAY I WANT IT DONE, they are assholes and totally incompetent.” No logic, just subjective, groundless, name-calling bs.
Let’s see if Moyer looks for the PD when he is in a car crash or the victim of identity fraud or there is a prowler in his neighborhood. Will law enforcment be neutered then?
Has Moyer or anyone he knows ever received a warning for violating a law? We’re they happy about not getting a ticket and did they understand what they did was against the law?
“I personally have made numerous phone complaints over the last couple of years addressing the problem and yet it continues to be allowed repeatedly.”
Then it is time to call the cops’ boss and deal with the issue. Maybe there is information Moyer is lacking (shocker).
Better yet, Noyer takes some responsibility (Bend being a village and his very legitimate concern about public safety) and shows up in person to the PD or a city council meeting or public works (they have lots of signs and barriers, Mr. Moyer) and asks how he can help.
Either the officer did a poor job of explaining or Moyer wasn’t listening. Very likely, some combination of each. The officer should have recognized that and dealt with Mr Moyer in a more positive manner.
I applaud Moyer for his attempt to bring a problem to public light. If he can rein in his anger, perhaps he can re-direct the energy and show his kids how to positively interact with the community for change.
Moyer’s complaint is 100% legitimate as an issue of safety at it’s most basic level, and as a matter of enforcing the law–regardless of the unprovoked personal attacks by Whiny Outrage who seems bent on criticizing the person and not the problem. Yes, law enforcement is a tough job, and actually, I think most people do know how tough the job is. The job is often referred to as “public safety” and that’s reasonable to expect.
Could it be that the Bend PD has an anti-cyclist bias?
รข The majority of problems are the bicyclistsรข โข fault,รข ย said Sgt. Kurt Koester with the Bend Police Department in an article in the Bend Bulletin on June 19. hmm…unresponsive or unwilling officer doesn’t want to ticket people who park in bike lanes. Sgt. who is in charge of traffic accident investigation makes blanket statement unsupported by facts. One more incident and I think we get to call it a trend. hooray! I mean, oh no!
If I were Moyer, I would photograph the situation. continue to file complaints with the PD. And when someone gets injured or killed because of their refusal to enforce the law…the city is in for a multi-million dollar lawsuit. It will take someone to get seriously injured or killed before anyone takes safety for cyclists seriously.
And who is to say your and others’ subjective opinion reflects the objective truth? Have you done a count using DMV or crash records to say it’s the car driver’s fault? Perhaps the sergeant is in a better position to know the actual numbers for crashes in Bend. Maybe. Kind of like the “unresponsive or unwilling” bs comment. Apparently the knee-jerk conclusions in these postings fail to take into account statistics and other points of view contrary to their own.
Wouldn’t it be novel if CJ, Ronald P, Mark, and Moyer actually went to the city or to the police or to ODOT and got numbers to back their psotings? Or would their postings then fall like the proverbial deck of cards?
Liberal, Conservative, hippie, yuppie, east side, west side – we could all beneftit from education and a look into the actual details. e.g. the dumbasses who refuse to look at the evidence of global warming.
Really. I would think it is anything but – how often do you see the cops stop the asshole bicyclist who blows the stop sign, yield sign, red light? Love those bicyclists who enjoy the sun shine, ride with the kids and practice good public safety (the big theme here). Hate those who think there above it all. Imagine who gets in the crashes.
Actually ODOT number support that in the latest year numbers (2006) were avaialable 56.5% of crashes were the drivers fault. Not that it makes any difference. the responsibility for following the rules is EQUAL between cyclists and motorists. Yes there are jackass cyclists that blow stop signs, etc…but in the end it’s the other guy on a bike minding his own business that gets run over. We shouldnt lump drivers into one category nor should we lump cyclists in as one group. Many in the cycling community also drive and see the clueleses on bikes too, and absolutely cringe. There are jerks that ruin it for everybody. Let’s get it together, people.