Dear Representative Gloria,

As a resident of North Park, I feel blessed to live as beautiful of a city as San Diego. The weather is perfect every single day. And as a bicyclist, I couldn't have dreamed of a better place to live in.

By choice, my husband and I use my bicycle as our sole mode of transportation. I am sure you are aware of the multiple benefits of having your constituents on bicycles on a regular basis. Personally, it means that it keeps one less car off the freeway which means less contribution to smog, traffic jams and other related problems. It means that one more person is healthier and as I can strongly attest, happier.

Unfortunately, I am very dismayed to hear of increasing instances where the San Diego Police department has begun ticketing bicyclists for following the law and what is worse, judges upholding that mistaken understanding of the vehicle code. Specifically, California Vehicle Code 21202 which states:

(a) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:

(1) When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.

(2) When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

(3) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions(including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, orsubstandard width lanes) that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge, subject to the provisions of Section 21656. For purposes of this section, a “substandard width lane” is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.

(4) When approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.

(b) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway of a highway, which highway carries traffic in one direction only and has two or more
marked traffic lanes, may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of that roadway as practicable.
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In this year alone, there have been two 21202 citations mistakenly handed out and then upheld in the courts in San Diego. What is worse is that the bicyclists charged with the violations had not violated section 21202.

I strongly urge you, to speak out and urge that the San Diego Police Department educate its officers on what the law actually is when bicyclists are concerned. I also urge you to connect with the judicial members in the San Diego court system to refamiliarize themselves with
what the vehicle code 21202 actually states.

As a bicyclist, I abhor flagrant violations of the law, but I do not want to lose faith in those that are supposedly there to serve and protect me.

Sincerely,
sso
address

William:Another tip: show up to meetings. You'd be suprised what showing up does.

Thanks: I'm going to try to be there for the 8/29 forum. Green jobs should include green transportation. And not just those funky hybrids either.

ray333:The U-T printed my response this morning, heavily edited, to the retired bus driver's letter to the editor. Others also felt he was out of line. There are two more letters defending cyclists and one that also vilifies bus drivers. See section B.

thom:Where is this, BTW?

ray333:This looks like the road from the parking area at the south end of the bridge that leads down to Crissy Field below the Presidio.

Njord Noatun:

billd:I was thinking that sign would make a great jersey.