Miami Springs PD Needs To Learn Cycling Laws and Rights. Officers Making Our Rides More Dangerous! HELP!!!
Let's take a small departure from my usual ride logs to talk about Miami Spring's Finest. While I'll preface this by saying that the officers have been cordial, they really need to learn the law. We ride in Miami Springs two or three times a week and its a really nice area to ride and traffic in general is pretty light and respectful.
We were stopped once riding down Ludlam, which is a long 2 lane road (one lane in each direction) and traffic is usually pretty light. An officer was on the shoulder ahead and stopped our group for impeding traffic when in reality the impeding was being done by the driver behind us which was scared to pass a group of cyclist when she would have stretches of over a minute with no oncoming traffic and plenty of space to go around us safely. If anyone should have been pulled over, it would be the old lady, not us. This was a couple of months back the first time we rode in the area and haven't been bothered since, until today. Today I'm riding with Alex, just the two of us. We have bright head lights, good tail lights, helmets, etc. We ride single file in single lane streets, and try to slow down traffic as little as possible. We've never been screamed at or anything so i'm guessing we're doing a pretty good job. We turn onto Curtiss Parkway, this is a twin lane road (2 lanes in the same direction) with very light traffic at this time. We're riding side by side in the right lane at 18 mph. No cars behinds us, and a total of 2 cars in the left lane. Like i said, light traffic. We're riding side by side so we can talk while we ride, so we're more visible, and because we have the right to do it. We were actually told by a little kid that he thought we were a car coming because the lights are so bright and we were side by side. I think its obvious having the two tail lights side by side and the two headlights side by side would be more visible than in a single file line. Also while riding single file down Curtiss on the previous ride, an elderly man decided that he would stay in the right lane behind us, and eventually try to pass us in the narrow lane without moving into the left lane at all. I could have reached into his car as he drove by, thats how close he passed by us, and with absolutely no reason so I find it much safer to ride two abreast and avoid this scenario completely with idiot drivers. Ok back to today. Suddenly theres a car behind us, a police car, and its doing the little whooping sound of the siren, i hear it but keep riding. He can't possibly be doing it to us since we're doing nothing wrong. Again it whoops but i keep riding, until we get the full light show and i figure it must be for us so we pull over. Why were we pulled over? For riding two abreast on a Curtiss. This is perfectly legal to do, and done for our safety. I didnt have any documentation on me to prove differently, and arguing with a cop about the law without any proof is a stupid idea. Now that i think about it, i should have corrected him and possibly gotten a ticket. I'd beat the ticket without a doubt and then maybe they would learn the law. For now i'm going to print the florida cycling laws and ride with them in my saddle bag for the next time we get stopped. Alex believes its the same officer that stopped us the first time, but i have no name or badge number to confirm who he is. I ended up cutting the ride short because it really pisses me off to be harassed by an ignorant cop. I have no issue with LEO's, I wouldnt mine being a cop some day and a lot of my good friends are LEO's, but they should know the law if they're going to bother us and put us in harms way. I'm including a screenshot of the florida laws for riding two abreast written in plain english, http://www.floridabicycle.org/rules/bikelaw.html as well as a shot of where we were when the cop stopped us.
I'm not much of an activist, but i would like to put a stop to this and possibly educate the miami springs PD, considering they have a lot of cyclists in the area. If you have a local blog or outlet to other cyclists, please help this get out.
if you want to see the entire ride, here it is http://connect.garmin.com/player/19161340 Thank You,
1 comment
Dec 04, 2009
Roger said...
Absolutely, carry that card with you - laminate it, as well. You may want to check to see if there is a town ordinance that supercedes the state law. Also, be very aware of how you speak to the officer, when you present him with the card showing the law as written. Cops hate smart alecks, and they really hate being shown up.
