San Francisco cops tell cyclists to "take the lane" for safety.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the San Francisco Police Department worked to create this outstanding police training video on the rights and responsibilities of cyclists in San Francisco. Cyclists are instructed to ride "about four feet away from parked cars when you're riding your bicycle," to report instances of driver intimidation, and report injury accidents. This video is used at the San Francisco Police Academy and at district stations around the city.The men and women in uniform tell cyclists and motorists in this video that cyclists should take the full lane, and motorists can be cited for dooring and driving dangerously around cyclists. This video has useful information for everyone on the road, not just police officers and San Francisco cyclists — take a look and share the link! More information at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition website. Via SF Cyclotouring. Direct link to video on YouTube. Please click the Digg and CycleCluster buttons below if you believe this story is worth sharing.
6 comments:
Yes a step in the right direction. However, rules and enforcement are two different things... let us know when the latter is used to defend and support cyclists' rights. Thanks,
Jack
We need an initiative like that here in Melbourne. There is quite a bit of agro between motorists and cyclists at the moment.
A few criticisms:
1. San Francisco Police Officers - not that good at acting.
2. "I'll catch up to the motorist, you catch up to the guy on the bicycle." simply means "I'm going to stop up here, you go ALL THE WAY down the street to get that guy". He was greedy by taking the easy catch.
3. When the police officer catches up to the guy down the street, if you look further down the street, there is a car parked facing the wrong direction. I know in many cities that is an offense that can be ticketed.
4. "Bet you coffee" is illegal gambling. The police are not setting a good example.
5. At 6:16 remaining, there is obviously a car with it's hazards on in the bike lane.
6. At 4:56 remaining, you can clearly see the same car parked illegally in the street.
7. The cyclist who was intimidated should have kept what was thrown at him. A littering fine would add insult to injury.
8. The girl hit that hit the car is wearing a microphone on her sweatshirt. Seems sketchy, maybe she's working undercover for the SFPD in some type of insurance fraud scheme.
9. When the group exclaims "Bikes Belong In Traffic, Share The Road", they are obviously taking up the entire road. This can create an unsafe environment for all and is probably illegal.
In all seriousness, it's a great training video for SFPD.
A good initiative. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it very much. Let's hope that drivers get a taste of it as well.
Thanks for the post; cool video. It would be nice if they'd include something along those lines in driver's education courses. I've had 3 kids go through driver's ed and none of them have every gotten any information on how to drive around cyclists. I'll try to remember this link for the next 2 kid sessions.
Three CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms:
1) Dooring is NOT the most common bike/car crash. The left-turning car clipping the opposite-direction bike is the MOST common.
2) NOBODY, cops included, is using rear-view mirror.
3) If bikes are allowed the FULL use of traffic lanes, wat up with da bike lanes? Suppose SF just lose 'em!
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