Submitted by Terry Parker on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 1:30pm.
The arrogant attitude of bicyclists believing they are above the law, do not have to follow traffic rules and are doing everybody else a favor by riding a bike is kindled by Sam himself. He has built up bicycling to the point that it induces this kind of reckless behavior. His negative vocalizing about driving and anti-car agenda prompt the kind of incident that recently occurred on North Mississippi where a passenger in a car, a bicyclist himself, yelled at another bicyclist to get a helmet so the bicyclist on the bike turned around, followed the car and then keyed it when it was parked in front of a restaurant, which was then followed by a fight. Keying the car was malicious vandalism that instigated the fight, yet the vandal was let off with only a citation. When interviewed, the vandal downplayed the amount of damage done.
There is a precedent to what I am pointing out here. When a follower of a white supremacy group killed a non-white person, the leader of the group was arrested, charged and convicted in court of the crime. The court basically came to the conclusion the killing stemmed and originated from the teachings of the leader, even though he was not personally involved. By being so pro bicyclist and so anti-motorist, the same can be said of Sam with his stacked deck citizen committees, bicycle buddies and loyal pedal pushing followers. Sam’s one-sided bias behavior encourages, stimulates and instigates other bicyclist radicals with the same mindset to take things into their own hands at their own level, and thus Portland has the bicycle mayhem and disorderly conduct by bicyclists, and anger by motorists we read and hear about in the media.
To answer your question, no, it is not up to PDOT to write citations, (and I was making follow up comments to JK’s). However to bring about change, the Portland Police Bureau needs to do much greater job of ticketing bicyclists when they violate traffic laws, carry out an extra ordinary number of bicycle stings, and Mayor elect Adams needs to stop coddling the bicycling community like they are God’s gift to mankind. The latter must also include equally representing the 80 percent or so of people who make trips in motor vehicles (not currently part of Sam’s agenda) and making the bicyclists themselves more financially responsible for the specialized government services they receive by directly taxing bicyclists to pay for bicycle infrastructure instead of poaching the funds from roadway dollars and other taxpayer sources. When the bicyclists must pay for what they use, they will have greater respect for it.
Bicyclist Arrogance Mimics City Hall
The arrogant attitude of bicyclists believing they are above the law, do not have to follow traffic rules and are doing everybody else a favor by riding a bike is kindled by Sam himself. He has built up bicycling to the point that it induces this kind of reckless behavior. His negative vocalizing about driving and anti-car agenda prompt the kind of incident that recently occurred on North Mississippi where a passenger in a car, a bicyclist himself, yelled at another bicyclist to get a helmet so the bicyclist on the bike turned around, followed the car and then keyed it when it was parked in front of a restaurant, which was then followed by a fight. Keying the car was malicious vandalism that instigated the fight, yet the vandal was let off with only a citation. When interviewed, the vandal downplayed the amount of damage done.
There is a precedent to what I am pointing out here. When a follower of a white supremacy group killed a non-white person, the leader of the group was arrested, charged and convicted in court of the crime. The court basically came to the conclusion the killing stemmed and originated from the teachings of the leader, even though he was not personally involved. By being so pro bicyclist and so anti-motorist, the same can be said of Sam with his stacked deck citizen committees, bicycle buddies and loyal pedal pushing followers. Sam’s one-sided bias behavior encourages, stimulates and instigates other bicyclist radicals with the same mindset to take things into their own hands at their own level, and thus Portland has the bicycle mayhem and disorderly conduct by bicyclists, and anger by motorists we read and hear about in the media.
To answer your question, no, it is not up to PDOT to write citations, (and I was making follow up comments to JK’s). However to bring about change, the Portland Police Bureau needs to do much greater job of ticketing bicyclists when they violate traffic laws, carry out an extra ordinary number of bicycle stings, and Mayor elect Adams needs to stop coddling the bicycling community like they are God’s gift to mankind. The latter must also include equally representing the 80 percent or so of people who make trips in motor vehicles (not currently part of Sam’s agenda) and making the bicyclists themselves more financially responsible for the specialized government services they receive by directly taxing bicyclists to pay for bicycle infrastructure instead of poaching the funds from roadway dollars and other taxpayer sources. When the bicyclists must pay for what they use, they will have greater respect for it.