Rules of the Road
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It was always clear to me, starting out as cyclist before becoming a motorist, that Oregon law treats bicycles as cars except when, by their very nature, the law does not apply. For instance, safety belt regulations do not apply to bicycles!
It is a double-edged sword. If bicyclists expect cars to treat them as another vehicle, which by law they should, then bicyclists also have to make full and complete stops at stop signs and use turn signals, which I have rarely seen them do.
In other words, it is not so much the law as respect at play here. If we always see other users of the road following the law, we will tend to do the same thing. If we see other users disobeying the law, then many users throw laws out the window and it becomes "whatever I can get away with doing."
Users of the the roads get all sorts of odd ideas about the law is over years of driving and riding. They create their own "rules" out of experience. I think we could all use refresher courses!
The enforcers, however, have mostly taken a blind eye to all of these violations. For instance, a police officer could easily spend all day issuing tickets by observing a stop sign at a busy intersection: both drivers and cyclists tend NOT to come to a full and complete stop as the law requires. Yet, I don't see the police doing this.
I believe that eminates from the reduced number of police officers from budget cuts over the past decades, but also the reduced ability of the justice system (from budget cuts) to handle offenders. However, even if people could be caught and tried it is not an excuse to create a new government revenue source. Rather than require people to pay fines, more education programs should be used to get people back on track with the law.
It was always clear to me, starting out as cyclist before becoming a motorist, that Oregon law treats bicycles as cars except when, by their very nature, the law does not apply. For instance, safety belt regulations do not apply to bicycles!
It is a double-edged sword. If bicyclists expect cars to treat them as another vehicle, which by law they should, then bicyclists also have to make full and complete stops at stop signs and use turn signals, which I have rarely seen them do.
In other words, it is not so much the law as respect at play here. If we always see other users of the road following the law, we will tend to do the same thing. If we see other users disobeying the law, then many users throw laws out the window and it becomes "whatever I can get away with doing."
Users of the the roads get all sorts of odd ideas about the law is over years of driving and riding. They create their own "rules" out of experience. I think we could all use refresher courses!
The enforcers, however, have mostly taken a blind eye to all of these violations. For instance, a police officer could easily spend all day issuing tickets by observing a stop sign at a busy intersection: both drivers and cyclists tend NOT to come to a full and complete stop as the law requires. Yet, I don't see the police doing this.
I believe that eminates from the reduced number of police officers from budget cuts over the past decades, but also the reduced ability of the justice system (from budget cuts) to handle offenders. However, even if people could be caught and tried it is not an excuse to create a new government revenue source. Rather than require people to pay fines, more education programs should be used to get people back on track with the law.