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Columbia bicyclist harassment ordinance passes

Submitted by Brent Hugh on Mon, 06/15/2009 - 4:56pm
The Columbia bicyclist harassment ordinance was passed unanimously by the city council yesterday. The ordinance takes effect immediately.

The ordinance, passed after a 90-minute debate with about 20 Columbia citizens there to voice their opinion on the ordinance, makes it a Class A misdemeanor to throw objects at a bicyclist, or honk or shout for the purpose of frightening, disturbing, or threatening the bicyclist. Details are here.

Some members of the council were very interested in including pedestrians, joggers, wheelchair users, and other vulnerable users and it looks like the ordinance will be modified in a few weeks to include those others users as well--which will only strengthen the effect of the new law.

See coverage in the Columbia Tribune, KOMU web site, the KCStar, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (with just a few reader comments), an editorial in the St. Joseph News-Press, and a long article about the issue (before the city council vote) in the Columbia Missourian.

Congratulations to PedNet, who successfully worked with the Columbia City Council to draft the bill and organized support for it----particularly to Robert Johnson, PedNet's Education Director, who led the charge on this issue--and many thanks to everyone in Columbia who wrote their City Council members, called, or attended the meeting yesterday.

That citizen support ended up making a positive difference this time.
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